Hello, I see that you are here to view my stand point on the book Black Hearts, the book has a ton of action and excitement throughout. There are many stand points and gut wrenching moments that could only put you on the edge of your chairs, and keep you glued to the book, wondering what the next thing that could possibly happen. The enjoyment throughout not only keeps you interested but it also give you’re the different ways people think and act. And that’s what brings us here today, the assignment was to write about a picked character, that you thought had some leadership failures that lead up to an incident. Well the character that I choose to write about would be none other than LTC Tom Kunk, the book told a story so outrageous that I …show more content…
A day of training was winding down, and as always soldiers lose their awareness and tempo to keeping all eyes on their surroundings, a tragic voice calls up that 19 soldiers were captured and being held hostage. Without talking or informing any of the other leaders, LTC Kunk put out an order to surveillance and recon the enemy forces that were suspected to be housing the 19 captured soldiers. This was one big problem that I felt highlighted leadership failure from the LTC, as a leader you would have to make a final decision on what has happened, but the first thing you would do is consult your other leaders. Get their opinions on the matter, figure out the best plan together, taking away their opinions would only make them go against you in the end. As a leader you have to let the people under you make decisions just as well as you, they have to learn from their mess ups the same way you do. It is way better to get 19 people killed in training than in real life. The second leadership failure that I caught was still in the training environment, the other leadership under LTC Kunk, had realized the craziness of the plan that was thrown at them, and they began to disagree with the original plan, that was put out. Without even second guessing his original plan, LTC Kunk ignored the other company commanders, and followed suit with the mission that was put out. The way that LTC Kunk not even cared to hear the other commanders input on the mission, would be the second
The book Black Hearts by Jim Frederick is an in-depth narrative about the 1st platoon, Bravo Company 1-502nd Infantry 101st Airborne Division deployed to Iraq in 2005. The leadership failures documented in this book range all the way from the general officer level down to the lowest private. LT general Ricardo Sanchez failed to understand the climate his command group was entering as they were deployed into Iraq. From then on the entire leadership failures continued to compound upon each other with improper time to plan. It is customary to have a six month lead time to have a proper battle hand off when preparing to take over an AO from another unit. To compound this problem, the entire time the 502nd was in pre-deployment training, they
The book Black Hearts opened my eyes to how leadership from a single Officer can have a grappling effect on such a wide range of soldiers from the lowest of ranks. One of the best takeaways from Black Hearts is to never do anything: illegal, unethical, or immoral. Although this is a easy statement to repeat, Black Hearts demonstrates the difficulties that lie behind these words. It has also painted a picture of how leadership can topple extremely quickly from a top down view. The Army is portrayed in a bad light throughout the book relentlessly. This is due to the concentration of poor leadership of the 1-502nd Regiment (Referred to as “First Strike”), a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division.
Living in poverty with "slut" painted on her reputation, her children’s future begins to look dim. Hester takes chances with opportunity’s to receive help from Doctor, social services, her children’s fathers and her only friend. The play circles around Hester’s interactions with the other characters ' and their stories (confessions). Each of character has had an involvement with Hester 's struggling predicament and yet each character only ruminates at helping themselves instead of the woman that’s helped them all. The modern-day play In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks exposes the hypocrisy and prejudice of the privileged members of society toward the less privileged. The play shows that the richest and most respected people in society are not always worthy of the status they are accorded.
Perry Smith and Dick Hickock are two remarkably different characters. In the beginning of the novel, they’re known only as the murders of the Clutter family, but Truman Capote tells their life stories in such a way that they become more than that. Even though these two men are basically introduced as murderers, they quickly become relatable and interesting characters. So much is learned about their feelings and lives that one can not help but almost look past their reckless ways. Both of these men have unique character traits that amalgamate in an intriguing way. Throughout In Cold Blood, Capote includes many instances that show how Dick and Perry, when combined, make the perfect murderer.
The critical leadership problem the 4th ABCT faces are consequences of the continued past brigade change of command without an organizational vision to address it, and different Commanders leadership styles that have affected the effectiveness, organizational culture, and climate within the 4th ABCT. This case study paper analyzes the critical leadership problems on the 4th ABCT. The aim of this essay is to explain how the Army leadership attributes; direction, guidance, and organizational vision; and a positive environment are factors that enable
This paper on Leadership will compare the primary differences and characteristics between the tactical leader and the organizational leader. I will provide you with the basics for development, characteristics, and the fundamentals that help guide and influence each leader’s style and how they influence Soldiers to follow them. Leaders at all levels demonstrate their values, knowledge, skills, and abilities in many different means and methods in
Being a leader is always a challenge, and assuming a new command is challenging. There are a lot of expectations to me as a leader. The organization has selected me to a new position, and they believe I fulfill their standards for their leaders. The organization trust and expect me to lead, develop and achieve. My superiors and subordinates have a lot of expectations. They expect me to lead them in the best way to solve our assigned missions. In my new assignment as commander of 4th Armor Brigade Combat Team (ABCT), the main critical leadership problems are the lack of cohesive teams, ethical and work standards and the level of stress. I will through analyze explain and defend my selection of critical leadership problems and apply a model for solving them, including implementing and measuring my vision as the new brigade commander.
Successful leadership on a battlefield can be measured in different ways. It is possible for a good, successful leader to lose a battle. Conversely, it is possible for an ineffective leader to win a battle, given the right circumstances. What distinguishes a successful leader from an unsuccessful one is his/her ability to oversee an operation using effective mission command. In ADP 6-0, mission command as a philosophy is defined as “as the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations” (ADP, 1).
Punished was written by Victor Rios and published in 2011. Rios wrote the book to chronicle the challenges young black and Latino boys faced within their improvised highly criminalized neighborhoods. Rios grew up in Oakland California and lived in what was considered the ghettos mainly a minority poor community; he was also a gang member with his fair share of trouble. Rios began looking for answers to the plights he and his community faced after the murder of his friend while they ran from a rival gang member. A conversation with the police whom Rios claimed told him they wanted the gangs to kill each other off made him seek answers to the prevalence of violence that plagues his community.
The goal of a social worker is to help others in tackling whatever problems they are currently facing and pairing them with the appropriate resources needed so that they can lead a productive and healthy life. A social worker lives by a strong value system that is referred to as social justice. According to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), “Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities,” (2015, para. 2). Paul Loeb, author of the book Soul of a Citizen, writes moving stories of ordinary people who inspire others to want to be better citizens. This paper will be a reflection on how the book made me feel, the affect it has had on my formation as a social worker, any experiences I have had in social justice advocacy and what vision I have of myself as a social justice social worker.
In the book this was a constant and consistent factor and an obvious hint as to what to expect further along in the chapters which was a vicious tailspin out of control. Chapter 8 talked about a series of communication break downs. LTC Tom Kunk, the commander of the 1-502nd infantry regiment, set the standard of how the communication was going to exist within the platoons. The book talked about how he would lose his temper at his soldiers regardless how minor the issue. You could leave your weapon unattended or leave trash on the ground either way he would confront you in the most unprofessional way about it. This made his whole leadership style completely ineffective. I personally understand how much this can influence a soldier especially those who are still trying to figure out their leadership styles. If this is the only leadership style you deal with on a regular bases after a while it will start to become the standard for you. LTC Kunk being the commander of the regiment should be demonstrating better discipline and restraint. Instead this makes him appear to have no self control. He should have been setting the standard in a more positive way on communicating with members of the platoons, and creating a more cohesive environment. There were many other leaders in the platoon who made similar mistakes. This example doesn’t just apply to this particular situation but can also result the same in a family. If your mom and dad are constantly bickering and your always
From the battalion level to the company level the leadership from the top started to makes its way the individual squad members. As 1st platoon continue to have their struggles with the leadership they begin to also have them with the battlefield. The constant stress from the leadership began to build up and continued to build up with the environment they were set in. A lot of the company commanders became passive leader not knowing what to or did not want to do anything that would get on LTC Kunk’s bad side. CPT good did show signs of stress in some of his decision making one in particular cost him the lives of his men. The platoon leader of first platoon LT Britt was an enthusiastic leader who everyone in his platoon respected but later feared for his life before dying to IED. The platoon sergeant seemed to take everything well even with the lack of sleep and supply. The squad leaders
Maj. Gen. “Fighting Joe” Hooker demonstrated an excellent example of failed mission command during the Battle of Chancellorsville in April 1863. He had thought he would defeat General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by maneuver beginning in Chancellorsville as he pushed Lee toward Richmond. His commitment toward his own plan for Lee’s response would overshadow his operational planning and ultimately lead to a mission command failure at Chancellorsville despite outnumbering Lee’s troops 128,000 to 60,000. Through decentralized execution, Hooker could have empowered agile and adaptive leadership to operate under uncertainty, exploit opportunities, and achieve unity of effort. Instead, he failed in exercising at least four principles of mission command. He did not provide a clear commander’s intent, create shared understanding, exercise disciplined initiative, or accept prudent risk.
As they began to clear the routes in the AO the casualties starting occurring. After some time had passed all the platoons had experienced many deaths and were starting to lose a lot of their platoon leadership. The mounting pressure of combat combined with the pressure coming down from LTC Kunk communication between the company and battalion level leadership began to digress. With morale lowering with every day and casualty that went by the men began to run the tactical checkpoints that they had set up ruthlessly. They weren’t treating civilian harshly and would even harass them physically. This gave them a notorious record among the Iraqi civilians. Going into December 2005 the men had begun to relax on their own standard operating procedures along the
Between 1890 and 1906, Black people were rejected from the area of politics, as southern states amended their constitutions to deny Black American citizens their voting rights that had been ratified by the Fifteenth Amendment. The beliefs of racial uplift, was an idea that placed responsibility on educated Black people for the well-being of the majority of their race. This was a reaction to the assault on African American civil and political rights, also known as “the Negro problem (Washington 8).” During this era, there were opportunities for Black people to become leaders of Black communities everywhere. African American leaders combated stereotypes by highlighting class differences among Blacks that believed in the stereotypes themselves. In 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois published the book, The Souls of Black Folk. He criticized "the old attitude of adjustment and submission" that had been expressed by Booker T. Washington in the Atlanta Compromise Address (Hill 734). Washington addressed that Southern Black people should work and submit to White political rule, while Southern White people guaranteed Black people the reception of basic educational and economic opportunities. Du Bois believed that full civil rights and increased political representation, would uplift the Black community during this time. African Americans needed the opportunities for advanced education to develop this sore of leadership, titled the “Talented Tenth”, an African-American intellectual elite