23
July, the Army is expected to publish the next Lieutenant Colonel
promotion list. It has been delayed for a myriad of reasons and has
caused a lot of stress and anxiety for Army majors who are eligible to
be promoted. Because of the draw-down, the Army is not expected to
promote all the majors who would otherwise deserve to be promoted. Many
who have deployed to combat and sacrificed greatly for
our country will not be rewarded for their efforts with promotion or
even be given the opportunity to retire. Statistically speaking, it is
inevitable that many majors I have served with will not be promoted. For
those officers and for the other people out there who have gone through
something similar, I want to share something fairly personal.
I
have seen many deserving NCOs and officers passed over for promotion in
my 25 year career. I never thought less of them when that happened and I
always thought it was evidence that no system is perfect. The folks
passed over for promotion are also the folks who make the Army work.
Many of them have been the steady, quiet professionals who have been the
work horses of their units who have taken on the hardest and most
dangerous missions time after time. More than any one leader who
inspired me, these individuals inspired me. They embody the "selfless
service" ethic that we all try to live up to.
These people taught me
that an individual's value as a person is not based on their job
success. It is a very easy principle to accept academically, but it is a
little tougher to accept when the lack of job success is your own. Last
year, I was passed over for promotion for the first time in my career.
Most people did not know this because I did not discuss it. I knew I
was not "entitled" to a promotion, but I didn't want to stop trying to
earn one either. All the previous success I have had in my career has
been due to fortunate circumstances, good mentorship, and outstanding
individuals around me who allowed me to share in their successes. I did
work hard to be successful, too, but I never believed my efforts were
the sole driver of any success I enjoyed. With that background, I had no
right to be bitter or disappointed when I was passed over for
promotion, but it did give a chance to reflect on who I am and how I
want to define my Army career. I am an officer in the Army who has had
an amazing career that has provided for my family and allowed me to rub
elbows with the amazing men and women who volunteered to serve this
country and for the past thirteen years, to serve this country in a time
of war. I have buddies who were passed over earlier in their careers
who were amazing leaders who spent years away from their families on
deployment. I have had officers and Soldiers who served with me who were
injured or killed at a young age, changing their lives or the lives of
their families forever. I have been truly blessed through out my Army
career, but I am not ready to accept being passed over for promotion as
the end of the story and just wait for retirement. I wanted to show the
Army that no matter what rank I ended up wearing, that I was going to
perform at the next level for the balance of my career. There are
thousands of bodies at rest in Arlington National Cemetery who
voluntarily sacrificed their futures and never got the opportunity to be
considered for the next promotion. Their sacrifice definitely puts my
journey and your journey into perspective.
When I was in high
school, I had a teacher who told me not to waste my parents' money going
to college because I would fail. He gave me that speech because I feel
asleep in his class after waking up at 2 am to go in to work before
school. In large part because I couldn't stand the thought of proving
him right, I worked my tail off to get into college on an academic
scholarship. In college, I continued to work to prove him wrong by
graduating with honors as a distinguished military graduate from ROTC. I
would love to tell you I did that for all the right reasons, but mostly
my academic success was driven by the desire to prove my least favorite
teacher wrong.
I love the Army and definitely don't hold it in the
contempt that I held that teacher in for many years, but I found that
getting passed over for promotion has given me the same level of
motivation, but this time, for all the right reasons.
While he was
my commanding general in Alaska, MG Mike Garrett told his commanders and
CSMs that they need to retire if they couldn't any longer lead from the
front because our Soldiers are the best in the world and they deserve
leaders who can lead from the front. I took that to heart and after
getting passed over for promotion, I resolved that I will give every
ounce of energy I have in all the days I have left in the Army to being
the best leader I am capable of being. I am at peace with whatever that
means for my career progression and I am determined that the Army will
get more than its money's worth from me for the rest of my career. Any
Soldiers that I am blessed with the opportunity to lead will get my full
effort every day. That is all I can control. I can't control
promotions or even the random death that combat and the military life
bring.
Many of you who are reading this are going to face some
setback or disappointment in your personal or professional life that is
much more significant that what I describe above. I want to implore
every one of you to find the motivation to do the right thing for the
right reasons and work like a man (or woman) possessed to make the most
of the opportunity you have without wasting time on lamenting the
opportunity you missed. It is a lesson I am thankful to have learned
and wish that I had learned sooner. It is my sincere wish that somebody
will read this and find their setbacks easier to face because they
realize many have been there before them.
And more important than
that, I hope you remember that God did not make us all to be four-star
generals or sergeants major of the Army, but He still loved each of us
enough to send His Son to die for us. If He loved us enough to pay such
a high price, the least we can do is to fulfill the roles he put us
here for to the best of our ability We know from history that if only
eleven of twelve of us will commit to that, we change the world.
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