You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Three Initial Military Trials and Errors

During my twenty years of military service, I was a Sergeant, a Chief Warrant Officer Two, and finally retired as a Major. I joined the Army as a private without a day of college and proceeded to begin my climb up the rank ladder. By the end of my career, I had held eleven different ranks, an unprecedented number of ranks for a twenty-year time span. Officers and soldiers normally hold seven to nine ranks during their careers.

I reported to basic training in 1987during a hot and humid summer at Fort McClellan, Alabama, with a bad Billy Idol blonde hairdo. On the first day of in-processing a six foot, four inch tall black Drill Sergeant looked around at the 120 privates seated in the auditorium and said, "Hey, we're going to have some fun with you Flock of Seagulls."

I looked around thinking; I'd hate to be that guy. Little did I know this was the first of many misconceptions I would experience over the next year.

Basic training is exactly what the title states; it's basic. Not much leadership development occurs during basic training. The Drill Sergeants taught us how to properly wear a uniform, how to shine our boots, utilize our gear, and accurately shoot a weapon. They worked our butts off to get us into some sort of physical shape.

Among the important things I learned in Basic Training were the fundamentals of being a good soldier and a follower. Early Army training in procedures, techniques, tactics, and communication were all extremely important factors in learning how to effectively perform as part of a small combat team.

Surprisingly, my first encounter with racism was during basic training. I had grown up in the upper mid-west which lacked diversity. White bread America didn't expose me to the many different sub-cultures of the U.S. Most of the people I knew to this point in my life had been white and of European ancestry. In my basic training platoon, cliques among the privates were forming based on race and region. The sameness of shaved heads, uniforms, and shared challenges were not enough to completely overcome this phenomenon.

During the first week of basic, I was having trouble during a marching exercise when a group of black soldiers started calling me a cracker. The snickers were accompanied by the comment, "Crackers have no rhythm." This insult was foreign to me, turning to my bunk buddy from Arkansas I asked, "What the hell is a cracker?"

He laughed, "You've got a lot to learn brother. It's what the slaves called the white slave master because he cracked his whip." He imitated cracking a whip while glaring at the black soldiers, "You know, the noise it makes." The black soldiers returned his glare.

Shock registered on my face. I couldn't answer. I was dumbfounded and speechless.

I soon discovered anytime a white soldier did something a black soldier in my platoon disliked, the insult cracker was freely used. What I found more confusing was the lack of reaction by the basic training leadership when this happened. I assumed this was considered acceptable behavior in the Army, but I still did not know how to reply to this insult without sounding racist.

A soldier from the South once told me that the "Blackies" in our basic training platoon were ticking him off with their uppity attitudes. He then proceeded to tell me that he was a "card-carrying member from South Carolina." In my naivety, I didn't understand what he meant, but I knew it wasn't good, so I quickly excused myself from the conversation. My buddy from Arkansas told me the soldier was a member of the Klu Klux Klan (KKK). I was, once again, completely and utterly shocked. Was it real in 1987 that anyone was still a member of the KKK? Did the KKK still exist? What the hell? Were these the guys who would be carrying loaded automatic weapons next to me in training and possibly in combat? I didn't have a choice in the matter. These were the soldiers in training I needed to bond with to accomplish current and future challenges. Wow, I had a lot to learn about life!