Am I Truly a Leader

There will often be times in one's military service or even one's life where one must reflect on his or her actions. My request to all military officers and leaders is that they take the opportunity to perform self-assessments in order to evaluate their leadership skills. They must ask themselves a series of questions to determine if they are doing anything possible to support and inspire the individuals they lead or represent. Furthermore, they should be open to constructive feedback and keep in mind that leadership entails more than just being in charge. This paper presents my personal experience and evaluation of what it means to be a true leader.

Background

In May 2011, I got a permanent change of station (PSC) to Fort Wainwright, AK. The 1-25 Stryker Brigade of over 5000 Soldiers just left for their 12-month deployment to Kandahar (KAF), Afghanistan. At the time of my PCS, I was a Sergeant First Class (SFC) promotable and was not sure of the position to which I would be promoted. In July 2011, I joined my unit at KAF, where I had to decide on whether or not to accept my new appointment as the 25th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) HHC 1SG. Within a few days, I was frocked to 1SG and found myself in charge of a unit with 257 Soldiers, of which 203 Soldiers were pushed to the Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) and Combat Outpost (COP).

Situation

The deployments during that time were 12 months long, and because of the length of the deployment, we were allowed Rest and Relaxation (R&R). All Soldiers in our Brigade had to come through KAF for them to fly out for their R&R, and after the completion of their R&R, they returned to KAF awaiting travel back to their FOBs or COPs. The 25th BSB was the only unit in the Brigade which was on KAF, so we were in charge of receiving and housing all Soldiers in the Brigade both when they arrived to push out on R&R, and when they returned.

All Soldiers who were there for their R&R were housed at “tent city,” an area which had hundreds of tents, and all units on KAF used the tents. At any given time, there could be thousands of Soldiers housed there, which to me could create a disaster. I had not been out to see “tent city” and did not have any intentions of going to visit, even though Soldiers in my company, who returned to KAF for R&R, were also housed there.

Incident

One early morning, about three weeks after assuming the HHC 1SG position, I was awakened by beating on my door. When I answered the door, my Commander, CPT Nelson, was standing there with a look I would never forget. He proceeded to tell me we had to get to the hospital because we had a Soldier who had been rushed there. In my mind, I thought the Soldier was shot by enemy fire, or some explosive device had blown up and injured some Soldiers. I hurried up and got dressed, with my mind preoccupied with fears that we might have lost some Soldiers.

When my Commander and I arrived at the hospital, we met with my Battalion Commander and CSM. They told us the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) contacted them, and told them there was a hospitalized female Soldier, whom we later learned was a Soldier named PFC Victor. She got attacked in her tent after returning from R&R the previous night. My heart dropped, and the fact that it was not soldiers who were shot did not make the shock any less. We were not allowed to see PFC Victor until we got briefed by CID. After waiting for a few hours, we were finally told what happened.

PFC Victor returned from R&R the night before and went to “tent city.” She was then assigned a tent, and while asleep, she heard the door of the tent open. She did not think of anything bad about it, as she thought it was another female soldier entering the tent. All of a sudden, there was a male on top of her trying to rip off her clothes and sexually assaulting her. She screamed and fought back, during the struggle she was able to grab hold of his ID tags hanging from his neck, rip them off and threw them across the tent. When he heard the ID-tags hit the floor, he immediately tried searching around for them on the floor with one hand, while still holding PFC Victor down with the other. She was able to overpower him, pushed him off, and once she was loose, he fled. PFC Victor ran out after him and screamed, attracting the attention of some male soldiers, who were standing outside. They went after him, tackled him, and held him until the MPs arrived.

The attacker got detained, and PFC Victor rushed to the hospital. I had never encountered a sexual assault attempt of a Soldier, especially one of my female Soldiers, and the shock was, therefore, overwhelming. Moments before we were able to visit PFC Victor, CPT Nelson pulled me aside and asked me if I had ever met PFC Victor, and my answer was “no Sir.” I knew CPT Nelson had not either because he was a new Company Commander. We realized this was one of our Soldiers in the hospital and we did not know anything about her or ever seen her. I did not know what the CPT Nelson was thinking, but I was thinking of myself as a horrible leader and got disgusted with myself. Finally, the four of us were led into PFC Victor’s room, where we immediately saw the severity of the situation. The side of PFC Victor’s face was bruised and swollen, about three times the size of her regular face. We sat and talked to her carefully not to ask her anything about the attempted assault. Much to our surprise, PFC Victor was very upbeat and was willing to talk about what happened. One thing that she said, which stuck with me, was “He messed with the wrong girl from New York.” We all laughed, and it was refreshing to see her sense of humor. Besides, she was taking everything surprisingly well under the circumstances.

The change

We immediately banned all females in the Brigade from residing at tent city, and since then, they had to stay in the rooms where the 25th BSB Soldiers were housed. That necessitated a lot of adjustments because all rooms were occupied. The 25th BSB Soldiers, who stayed two Soldiers per room, had to have three Soldiers in the rooms now and those who had a room to themselves had to bunk with a roommate. That allowed for each female in the Brigade, whether stationed on KAF or not, to have a room and be with other females. Also, male soldiers who were in HHC on KAF for R&R were housed in a room. Although such a change came a little bit too late, it eliminated the possibility of another female soldier getting assaulted in the future. Later, I went out to tent city to see the layout for myself, and I entered one of the female tents. There was no code on the door like I had seen in the past, and female tents got marked with female signs. Additionally, the female tents were away from the males’ tents, almost secluded.

Reflection

Immediately after arriving at tent city, I knew that if I had visited there before, I would have been able to bring these issues to the attention of the soldiers. The tent city was not safe at first glance, and truth be told, it was a matter of time before someone got assaulted. I was so disappointed in myself because if I had spent 15 minutes to inspect the tents, cases relating to sexual assault would not have occurred. Additionally, the fact that I had not met every one of my Soldiers was unacceptable, and there was no excuse, especially in the practice of all the soldiers being spread out all over southern Afghanistan. In my mind, I had great ideas and had to do better as a leader for the sake of my Soldiers. After talking to CPT Nelson, I realized he felt the same way, and we shared much blame regarding what happened to PFC Victor.

Since the occurrence of the sexual assault event, CPT Nelson and I were out all over visiting the HHC Soldiers. We took turns so that we were not visiting one place at the same time. He would visit a location, and I would visit another area. Every time we returned, we shared notes on all the Soldiers we met, so even if he interacted Soldiers I had not yet met, I knew something about them. We also made sure everyone in HHC, who came on KAF for whatever reason, had to sign into the company and the Commander or I had to see them physically. With such measures in place, we were able to meet every one of our Soldiers within a matter of months. We continued to do our battlefield patrol until we departed KAF when the time for our redeployment home reached.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, I appeared as an ineffective 1SG at the time of PFC Victor’s attack. However, I accepted that, and I took the assault, and my ineffectiveness as part of the challenges, which encouraged me to do more training since I was determined to become a better leader. I quickly learned that leadership is much more than just being in charge and it did not matter how new I was in a position. I had to take ownership of my new post and do what I knew in my mind was right. It was due to my commitment to learning and delivering better leadership that I eventually succeeded in discharging my responsibilities as required of a true leader.