You Can Be a Leader: Leadership Principles to Achieve Excellence

Chapter Seven The Pain of Officer Candidate School and The Leadership Beyond

After a few years of serving as a Warrant Officer helicopter pilot, I was feeling the challenge starting to wane. I had been to Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, completed a second tour in Germany, and at the time was stationed with The 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, New York. I discussed the situation with my wife and told her I either wanted to make a move to the civilian world or attend Officer Candidate School (OCS).

Since I had by then completed my bachelor of science degree in aeronautics and begun work for a master's degree in international relations, I felt qualified to land a well-paid job as a civilian. But I was still having fun in the Army. Another thing that was pulling me to stay in the Army was the fact I had found no replacement for the strong comradery and dedication to duty one finds in the military.

After being selected for OCS, I decided to accept the slot. OCS differed from Warrant Officer Candidate School in many ways, some not so pleasant. To begin with, OCS was four-and-a-half months long instead of six weeks. OCS was also more infantry-centric than WOC School. The curriculum included land navigation, road marches, obstacle courses, confidence courses, small-group infantry leadership, and weapons training, plus a lot of classroom time and physical fitness training.

As in any military course, the first couple of weeks were just pure hazing designed to weed weak cadets out of the course. Since I had been around the block a few times, I knew what to expect and helped my fellow cadets as much as I could. During the initial few weeks I watched a few cadets break down, but for the most part they recovered and stuck with course. One such incident sticks in my mind: One evening, I walked into the latrine and found a very large infantry soldier gripping the sink with both hands while staring forlornly into the mirror. Sensing I was watching him, he turned to me, "Goloversic, I don't think I can take this anymore. I need to drop out."

"Hang in there, dude," I replied. "It's almost over."

"Over? We just started."

"Have you seen our cadre lately?"

He looked confused. "What do you mean?''

I laughed to lighten the mood, "They're all exhausted. Look at the bags under their eyes. Trust me, dude. The hazing is almost over."

A look of comprehension came into his weary eyes.

Sure enough, after the next weekend our schedule significantly lightened and our cadre became more approachable. About two weeks later, the same infantry soldier took me aside and said, "If you ever tell anyone about our little talk in the latrine, I will literally rip your head off."

I graciously took that to mean, "Thank you for the much needed advice in my time of distress." Needless to say, I've left his name out of this book. He is a little bigger than me-and tough as nails.

The lesson learned here is never forget to take the time to look at people. As you learn to read people, one look can be worth a hundred questions and give you that little extra leader's intuition about a situation.

Leadership training was a core part of our training. OCS effectively taught me small group leadership and staff work. I ran a squad, a platoon, and finally served as Cadet First Sergeant for the whole battalion. The course curriculum forced us into decision-making situations that sometimes did not have a right or wrong answer. Indecision can be the worst decision. Sometimes, there is only the best answer at the moment for the given situation. In these situations, you need to make the best decision you can...and run with it. Then, as the situation develops, and more information or resources become available, make the required adjustments. This can be a difficult process to learn. There are two main obstacles to overcome that may require some courage: 1. Making the initial decision. 2. Changing the decision as necessary.