Rank Has Its Privilege...The Privilege of Serving those You Lead.

Rank has its privileges. Privilege has a purpose. First it has obligations.

As a young 2d Lieutenant of Infantry, I knew not to eat until my troops had been fed. I did not leave for the day until the unit was released. If a job was botched or incomplete, it was on me. You don't blame your subordinates.

When the soldiers respect a leader, authority is understood. Sometimes, a leader must step up and assert their authority. If they need or feel the need to that regularly it points to weakness in the unit, the leader or both. It goes without saying, flaunting ones rank is the surest way to be despised by your subordinates and peers alike.

Rank has rewards. Almost no one resents their boss's perks if they believe the boss earned them. Entitlements based on rank alone foster ill will by those down line. True in the military. True in life.

When a company commander asks a private to go back to the Tactical Operations Center to retrieve a map case, it is not weakness for the CO to say 'please' .

It is still a direct order. The private and CO both know it.

Weak leaders cling to their rank. They are naked without its imprimatur. Their insecurity is palpable. Those under their command see it and cringe. Soldiers will not be willingly be led into battle by prima donnas or posturing martinets.

When a senior non-com says to his officer, "The troops are squared away, why don't you take off sir?" the non-com is giving respect, not permission. Treasure it. The senior non-com is acknowledging mutual confidence. It also reminds the officer they are dispensable.

" I got this sir. Go do some officer stuff... ". Preferably somewhere else. A leader has to know when they are in the way and slowing operations by their very presence. If you have to be there all the time to watch, you are failing as a leader.

Typically a senior non-com does not say those things directly...unless they are mentoring a freshly minted 2d Lieutenant...or sharing few informal libations off site with the officer.

If you have ever watched the film "An Officer and A Gentleman', you know officers are trained by enlisted non-coms. My sweetest Army memory was getting my first salute from my TAC NCO, SFC Eugene Angstadt, Special Forces after getting my gold bars.

We each gave SFC Eugene Angstadt the customary silver dollar. He saved every one, framed them and put our names underneath. I still get choked up thinking about it. He loved us and wanted us to be the best officers we could be. He worked hard to teach us our trade. Teaching us well mattered. He wanted us to be worthy of the responsibility for his life and that of other enlisted.

As office candidates we longed for his respect. He always had ours. He never let us down

The leader is first in and last out for hardship. When its 15 below with the wind chill he gives his driver his gloves and puts his hands in his pocket. He does not eat the last slice of cake in the chow line. He gives his radio operator his poncho. That's what the bars and infantry crossed rifles mean.

On a training exercise in freezing rain, if the only chow left is a spoonful of cold eggs and half a cup of bitter coffee and the server apologizes, the leader will say, "All good soldier. Great chow. Are you sure everyone else in the company has been fed?

That was what I learned in ROTC at Notre Dame from SFC Angstadt. I learned it again at Infantry Officer Basic at Fort Benning in 1977. Then at Airborne School, Ranger School, the 2d Infantry Division and the 82d Airborne Division. That is the code of the Infantry Officer. It is a code to carry into life.

Officers that did not exemplify that code were shunned. Some were moved into busy work positions. No one missed them.

Rank does have its privilege. Foremost is being entrusted with the mission. Serving the troops who execute it is a close second. Almost equal. The leader's interests come third. Mission first, the men second. Me third.

Anything is possible if a leader is about the team. Leadership is proven when the team succeeds in the leader's absence. To build initiative people need space to learn and make mistakes.

Yes, you may have to swallow hard because your subordinates will make mistakes and it will come back on you. Take the heat on their behalf. That's the deal. Accept it.

Rank conveys authority. Leadership gets the job done. Authority is not leadership. Many battles have been won by the initiative of individuals with little or no authority.

Never without leadership.

A culture that fails to instill virtue and devotion to duty in its leadership class, be it military or civil, does so at is peril. A sign that it is off track too much devotion to celebrity, titles, honorifics, and credentials. Those who can shout me the loudest take charge. In time, they ruin everything. We call that cancer decadence. It is a proud tower. History schools us that hardship is the only cure for a failing civilization. If the cure does not take, a less amicable polity will emerge. Maybe Somalia, maybe a Third Reich.

George Washington stopped a military coup from ending our Republic not by his rank or brash posturing. Confronting the conspirators who aimed to elect him dictator he took to the podium held up his spectacles and said:

"Gentlemen, forgive me. I cannot read my speech. My eyes have grown dim in the service of my country."

Moved by his deep but understated patriotism, the traitors found their shame and the coup plot was over. Grown men are said to have wept .

That is how an insurrection of Americans is stopped in it's track.

Leadership is about love. Love of country. Love of the enterprise. Love of the people you are called to lead.

That is true when you have to administer discipline. Leaders have to sanction wrong behavior. The sanctions should be administered without intruding on a person's dignity. Take their pay, job or liberty but not the person's self respect. Not even if justice demands the wrong doers life.

At the gallows you are still obligated to care about them. Leaders never enjoy punishing. It may be necessary sometimes, but it is always sad.

That's what I learned as a company grade officer 45 years ago. That code resonates with me still. In great measure because on my best days I have never quite lived up to it 100 %. It remains my aiming point.

I am not only a veteran but a Gold Star brother. As a 12 year old boy I witnessed the devastation of my parents at 'The Notification'. After the flag was folded and presented to my mother from a grateful nation, after taps were played I know my mom had this single question in her heart: was the damn thing worth it?

No leader, political, civil, religious, cultural or academic can ever be worthy enough. It should, nonetheless, be their aiming point.