Leadership: Combat Leaders and Lessons.

• Author: Handley, John
• Position: Book review

Leadership: Combat Leaders and Lessons

Colonel James L. Abrahamson, USA (Ret.) and Colonel Andrew P. O'Meara, Jr., USA (Ret.) Editors, Leadership: Combat Leaders and Lessons, Bigfork, Montana: Stand Up America, USA, 2008; 184 pages plus 7 pages of biographical information on 15 contributors; ISBN 978-0-615-25574-3; paperback. Fourteen members and one honorary member of the United States Military Academy class of 1959 decided to present the 2009 USMA graduating class, on the fiftieth anniversary of their graduation, a book on leadership that includes 25 vignettes dealing with leadership issues and concerns and their respective "lessons learned."

The first chapter of the book includes five historical accounts of earlier USMA graduates, Generals Lee, Grant, Pershing, MacArthur, and Patton, and leadership challenges they met and overcame. The Lee and Grant examples both involve giving credit to the troops for victories while accepting the responsibility and blame for any defeats.

With Pershing, one sees the combination of nation building with sufficient force to bring about a peaceful settlement of a dispute near the start of the twentieth century in the Philippines. The MacArthur example examines leadership from the front, while the story about Patton focuses on his aggressive ability to rapidly take the war to the enemy and fight when and where he chose to fight.

Chapter two provides three leadership examples from the Vietnam advisory period, pre-1965, and includes the remarkable and inspiring story of Medal of Honor recipient, Captain Humbert "Rocky" Versace.

The third chapter also addresses lessons learned from Vietnam, with ten vignettes from the post-1965 American military campaign period, three of which describe leadership under fire, with others on the role the U.S. Air Force played in saving the lives of American service personnel on the ground; mentoring; loyalty; courage; rebuilding a demoralized unit; facing anti-war protestors; and the importance of a thorough investigation of all the facts before making a decision to relieve an officer of command.

In chapter four, one encounters the post-Vietnam period of the American military experience. The first lesson learned comes from the absolutely intriguing account of Major General Nicholas Krawciw when he served in 1973 as a "frocked" lieutenant colonel (one wears the rank but is paid at a lower rank) in the United Nations Truce Supervision Association (UNTSO) before, during, and after...