Tragedy of war teaches leadership lessons

  • Published
  • By Rod Krause
  • 5th Bomb Wing safety office
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (AFPN) --  Every once in a while, life has a way of slinging a curve ball at your chin and waking you up. For me, it happened last summer when the war we all watch and read about materialized right in front of me. It taught me a valuable lesson in life and leadership.

It was supposed to be just another “check ride.” I was flying with a crew handling an emergency aeromedical evacuation mission out of Kandahar, Afghanistan. After several previous flights into Kandahar hauling “beans and bullets,” the missions once filled with trepidation had now become somewhat routine.

That’s where the story starts.

All we knew was that someone had been shot in the face while on patrol. The critical care air transport team traveling with us also had very little information. Upon arrival, the surgeon tending to the patient briefed the medics, then the flight crew.

“John” (not his real name, but nonetheless a very real person) had been leading his unit through a crowd, when out of nowhere someone shot him in the left side of his face with a small caliber weapon. The bullet shattered his lower jaw, traveled through his mouth and exited his right cheek. According to all accounts, he then walked to a vehicle and was driven to a medical care facility.

When I first saw him on the stretcher, his head was completely bandaged, much like a winter cap that only reveals your eyes, nose and mouth. On the five-hour flight, the medical team worked to make him as comfortable as possible. After we landed, a specialist immediately saw him and said he should continue his journey to somewhere with more advanced facilities.

While those arrangements were being made, I stopped to talk to John. Despite the numerous tubes and IV lines, he was in good spirits. I suppose enough morphine has a way of doing that for you. He communicated by writing questions on a note pad. He answered in the same manner. At one point, despite his condition, he had the energy to play an electronic game a nurse was carrying. I found that extraordinary. I can’t reveal any of the personal information he shared, because he is one of the guys you don’t see or hear.

John was one of the many members of the armed forces doing the work the president asked us to complete after Sept. 11, 2001. He did this dangerous task in less-than-desirable conditions under the cloak of anonymity.

Watching and talking to him, I suddenly felt the brutality and reality of war. Another human being with more guts than I will ever have was just doing his job when a nameless, faceless coward took a cheap shot, slithered back into the crowd and changed John’s life forever. These are the kind of people we are fighting -- the same cowards who fly civilian airliners into buildings full of innocent people.

Eventually, I helped carry John’s stretcher to the ambulance. I gave him my squadron patch so when the morphine wore off, he would have a “road map” of those who helped get him to his destination. The nurse put it with his growing collection of unit patches. With a handshake and a “thumbs up” they took him away.

I hope to see him again someday, standing and smiling this time, so I can thank him for the lesson in life I learned that summer’s night.

The experience taught me a lesson in leadership. In 1910, President Teddy Roosevelt gave a speech in France entitled “Citizenship in a Republic.” From it was gleaned his famous “Man in the Arena” comments. If you have never read the speech, I encourage you to do so. It is an excellent example of the men and women currently waging the war on terrorism -- the kind who put it on the line every day knowing the risk they take. They are the kind who are not afraid to try and make the world a better and safer place for everyone. They are the kind who, when the curve ball comes in chin-high, lean out over the plate a little more the next time.

They are true leaders -- the ones who encourage others to keep fighting regardless of the odds against them.

They are the kinds of men and women President Roosevelt would have loved. They are the true heroes. God bless ’em all.