Day 316: Sergeant Fraedrich

Veteran’s day. Every year I hold the tradition that I call my grandfather and thank him for his service. For the years of his life he gave up fighting in WW2. I was looking forward to the day that I would be pinned for SGT. Today was supposed to be a happy day that I could call me grandfather and tell him that I’ve matched him for rank, and that now I’m the veteran seeing him eye to eye.

I would like to blog that today was the joyous occasion I could stand proud as a leader in the United States Army. For a total of twenty minutes it was. I won’t blog about what happened after my first twenty minutes of being a sergeant. Things tend to inadvertently explode over the internet, and right now I just want to finish out this deployment without another incident like tonight.

I have learned a bitter lesson. Leadership is neither good nor bad, black nor white. Leadership is reflection of self. A tool to forge bonds of influence with other human beings. Everyone who interacts with another human being uses leadership just how everyone who writes uses calligraphy. Actively using leadership is the acceptance that I change another human life and will see myself the eyes of those I influence. My worst and greatest features will be reflected back at my and I will be forced to see my faults in the most unsympathetic light possible.

Most of all its people, human beings, placing their trust in my hands and asking not to break them, and it is by my strength of character that I hold that trust sacred and not shatter their lives.