Personal Narrative: My Crucible Experience

When Halstead was given this mission in Iraq, she never anticipated the challenge she would soon face. She had one year to plan her operation, train and certify her units for deployments and after months of painstaking preparation and training, Halstead was confident her soldiers and unit were ready to be certified for deployment. However, certification had to be issued by her superior, a three-star general recently back from Iraq—and the most challenging boss Halstead had ever encountered in all of her years of services.

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.

I have chosen to write about my old Battalion Commander, Brigadier General(BG) Peter Jones. The then Lieutenant Colonel(LTC) Jones oversaw my Infantry Battalion when I deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. He displayed numerous attributes that I model my military career from; he had an unwavering presence and strong intellect. His competence was also the highest that I have ever encountered in my military career; he was a lead from the front type of leader and strove to achieve nothing but success whilst keeping the soldiers in his command in the front of his mind. I have set my standards of leadership off BG Jones and that is why he is my personal leader of influence. I will outline some examples of him throughout this paper.

As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several

Transitioning to command from any other leadership challenge in the military requires that an officer experiences a mental shift in his/her approach to exercising the newly granted authority, responsibility and accountability for the unit. Army doctrine suggests that authority, responsibility, and accountability are inherent attributes of command. These attributes of command coupled with the expectations of the commander, demand a new and holistic approach to commandership, which is defined as exercising the art of command through leadership, management, and command.

As a professional leader, role models are an important source of inspiration and development. The ability to deliberately aim to improve as a leader is equally important. In the Army, the Leadership Requirements Model found in doctrine provides the framework necessary to make those deliberate improvements. This framework presents the opportunity to analyze our leadership role models using the Leadership Requirements Model and assess how that leader has contributed to the Army or the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Corps. Additionally, it is important to apply the same analysis to how that role model has influenced our own leadership. Lastly, with these considerations in mind, leaders can project into the future and determine what kind of legacy they wish to leave. The purpose of this analysis is to explore these opportunities and the relationships between doctrinal leadership, a legacy leader, and my own leadership and legacy. My father, retired Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) Nelson Stydinger, had a significant influence on the profession during his own service. He also represents my most important leadership influence throughout my career and his record informs the type of legacy I would like to leave as an Army leader.

In this paper, I will be explaining what a legacy leader is and the impact one specific leader had on my career and the Army. In December of 2011 I reported to Joint Base Lewis-McCord and was assigned to 1/17 IN BN part of 2nd Striker BDE Combat Team. I had arrived at a unit that was preparing for a hard deployment to Afghanistan after a vigorous training cycle. I had walked in to my office to meet the team I would be leading into a combat zone that had zero experience, except for SSG Frazier that had a “been there done that” attitude. SSG Frazier was not as focused as a leader should be when prepping for a deployment with new Soldiers. The area that our unit would move to was the area that the Taliban was founded by Mullah Omar in Zhari District Southern Afghanistan (RC South). I had to quickly adjust to a high operation temp of a unit getting ready to deploy with little to no experience. After meeting SSG Frazier, I decided to meet the BN Commander and CSM to get a better understanding of the mission and expectation from the leadership. When I

Some leaders have some special gift and skill. They can order and control people to what to do in their favor. They also influence and inspire others in many different ways. There are some leaders who influence me and inspire me so that I can exert my effort to become a better human being, Soldier and a better leader in my life. Especially I’d like to pick a individual whom inspired me most. He name is Command Sergeant Major (CSM) Charles Fitzpatric. In this passage I will explain how he motivated and inspired me with his leadership style. I will also describe how he coached and helped me to have an idea of legacy leader. I will also describe the legacy that I would like to leave as a leader in the US Army.

People say that I’m too young to have problems in my life but they don’t know that even though I’m only sixteen years old, life forced me to become a mature person at a young age. I see things differently than most teenagers, which means that it’s harder for me to fit in. I’m not good at making friends, I’m very selective but I like to help people if they need me. My crucible started since I came to the United States when I was twelve, and after that my life has been so different.

Let’s talk about intimidating, I’m thinking that this guy could kill me with the pen he’s holding, and I hope I don’t ever piss him off. After my welcome to SOJTF-A brief, he, like four others just prior to walking into his office, started to admire the M-16 Fort Benning issued to me prior to the deployment. I was already fed up with him and the other operators making fun of me that it was time to stand my ground. I said, what SGM, don’t be mad that I found and brought you the same M-16 that you used in basic. Now this could have gone one of two ways, either I would have been left alone, or I would have gotten stabbed with the pen he was holding. So after 40 or so pushups he released me with a smile on his face and a wish of good luck. Next stop the Commanding General’s

Though serving in a highly disciplined, well trained, and well equipped force, I faced mental and physical adversity, a numerically superior enemy, and a dynamic battlefield. I served with fellow Noncommissioned Officers and leaders with vast tactical combat experience, but we were operating in highly restrictive terrain behind enemy lines. As we worked to create breathing room for the Battle Space Owner and defeat the insurgents on their own turf, we took several casualties and would be tested in our ability to remain equally dynamic to the battlefield, bring every asset to bare to accomplish the mission, and adapt our common tactics in order to survive.

The stone was cold and I could feel the pain swelling up inside. I took a step towards the edge, I thought to myself, “One more step and the worries would end…” if only it was that easy.

I never thought I would be labeled an outsider, a misfit even. As I trudged my way through the halls of my small town high school, I would endure the gazing pairs of eyes, that belonged to my peers, followed by whispering and often times some laughter. I always used zone out during those repetitive speeches and commercials about the effects of gossiping and rumors; never did I imagine that one day I would be on the receiving end of of the everyday potshot. Growing up I was always the center of attention, the one everyone yearned to be friends with, never was I the antisocial child in the corner with nowhere to turn… not until high school. They say high school changes you. They say high school accounts for some of the greatest years of

I’ve always been an outsider, it’s been hard for me to build friendships and relationships. Not too long ago, there I sat in the corner of the room in the way back, trying to hide from the world, and be myself. I didn’t really want to get involved with anything or anyone. I was afraid to open up, talk to others, maybe because I was afraid to get rejected. Until, I met the best people I could ever meet, my best friends Marisa Mendoza, Jessica Contreras and Deseray Reyes, the ones who up to this day have sticked by my side, at my best, and worst moments. They have all been a big part of my life, I can enjoy every minute I spend with them. For me, they aren’t only my friends they are like my sisters.

This was my first deployment to Iraq and second overall deployment with Bravo Company, 1-501 Parachute Infantry Regiment. I was only in one direct fire engagement during my first deployment. So when we were notified of your company being selected to change areas of operation to one of the hottest spots in all of Iraq I was not sure what to expect. I had only been a Squad Leader for 6 months and I was not exactly sure how my young squad would handle the realities of war. We were stationed in Alaska and the army chose us to attend a Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) rotation in Fort Polk, Louisiana that prepared us for the adverse conditions of Iraq. During JRTC we conducted multiple raids while being paired with a team from 20th Special