Leadership: Problem Identification

Comment: This is the second post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The deliverable is a vision statement. 

Leadership: Problem Identification

Discussion: Identification of a problem is not as easy as it sounds. Often the issues out in front or on the surface are only symptomatic of a deeper root cause. Moreover, the problems leaders address are different than problems the everyday person deals with. Leadership seeks to improve things by getting at root causes and adjust culture, direction, and other broad sweeping concerns. The problem identified is foundational to the vision formulated. Hence, the deliverable of problem identification is a vision that improves or corrects a problem condition.

There are methods and techniques for getting at the real problem in order to formulate the right vision. Please note the use of ‘real’ and ‘right’ terms. For leaders, a virtuous and realistic focus is an essential method and part of character that infuses into the vision in order to be appreciated by all. Returning to the methods and techniques for getting at the real problem there are several approaches to root cause analysis (RCA).

One must understand the difference between problems and symptoms. Problems originate out of underlying structural relationships among a system’s components. A system can be human, physical, or organizational from which the problems and symptoms emerge. A symptom is the outcome or effect of the problem and can be mistaken for the problem itself. One technique is the ‘Little Boy’ method who asked, ‘but why?’ to every answer. The ‘multiple why’ process can be used to unpeel the onion until the root cause is exposed. This approach is simple and effective for linear relationships that lead to a root cause.

Another RCA approach is to ask the 5W’s; What, Why, When, Where, and Who. This approach unpeels the onion in a different manner by looking for patterns in the causes; human, physical, or organizational. Often multiple interrelated causes are revealed. The recursive nature of these two approaches can be taken to the origin of the universe at the extreme. The leader must ask the ‘so what’ question and stop at a useful or purposeful point using good judgment and a little common sense.

Five Step Root Cause Analysis

The first two approaches were more or less shooting from the hip methods. A more formal approach is Five Step RCA. This approach considers the Customer or end user, Actors, Transformation processes, Worldviews, Owners or stakeholders, and Environmental constraints (CATWOE). More in depth questions are asked at each stage.

The root-cause identification process:

1. Define the surface issue or problem, the starting point. 
2. Collect Data 
3. Identify Possible Causal Factors. Some of the tooling to get at the causal factors includes:
   • Appreciation: Ask the ‘so what’
   • The Why’s: Ask why until you are at the root cause
   • Drill down: Breaking the big picture into manageable components.
   • Cause and effect diagramming: The classic TQM fishbone method.
4. Identify the Root Cause(s) 
5. Recommend and Implement Solutions. The solution is the vision the leader desires to pursue to resolve the identified root cause problem.

Problem identification hands off to vision formulation. A vision is the deliverable of the effort.

Vision Formulation is to Begin with the End in Mind

Vision is to be strategic and focuses diverse constituencies on a big picture. Vision is most often a departure from the status quo and may not even be readily apparent to most people until a leader reveals the vision. Ideally, that is a Ah Ha moment. In formulating vision one cannot easily take the current and extrapolate to the future. The future must be mapped back to the present in order to develop the roadmap forward. As Stephen Covey states this, "Begin with the end in mind."  

Beginning with the end in mind means that once the problem is defined one can generally make a judgment on what the situation should be. Hence, the differenital is the problem. The basic components of vision are:

• Intent: This is a sweeping statement of purpose that usually states the problem that will require some sort of action. For example, to restore market to normalcy.
• Objective: This is the goal or criteria of success usually stated in terms of actionable intent. For example, to achieve market normalcy ensuring diversified control of supply points.
• End State: This is the outcome of the objective and intent. For example, a market operating under fair and competitive market conditions.

A future model is the vision. Future modeling is siginificantly different in that it cannot be achieved most of the time by the natural course of action or current path. Future models require leadership to make the necessary adjustments in order to arrive at the future model. The idea is that leadership not only formulates the vision but also lays out the roadmap to achieve the vision. Often this is called Performance Management.  Moveover, leadership can be positive or it can be not so good in the visions sought. Leadership begins with problem identification then formulates a vision of how the conditions should be.

Comment: This concludes the problem identification post.  The next post will discuss goal setting or developing the roadmap.

The Secret of Socrates

Commentary: This is a continuing series of posts reviewing Dale Carnegie's book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'. This program is attractive in professional relationships due to it's time tested advice for those moving up the ladder of success. I have been introduced to Dale Carnegie training not once but twice. I attended Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School or AOCS during 1988 through which Dale Carnegie principles were first introduced to me, at least in part. Years later during 1999, I attended the Dale Carnegie school and coursework introducing me again to the Dale Carnegie method and principles.  I will be detailing only one principle a week in a shorter post in order to for you to digest the information. This series  may be reviewed at All the Principles in One Post. 

This post is recieving a lot of attention with over 1400 reads. If you have any comments please feel free to email me directly at james.bogden@gmail.com. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts. 

The Secret of Socrates

Socrates was one of the greatest philosophers in humankind. He changed the course of human thought. He never told people they were wrong. Instead, he presented every question to be answered with a yes response, winning one admission after another. After many affirmations, people found themselves supporting or embracing a conclusion they would have bitterly objected to just minutes earlier.

Socrate's secret is simple, begin all conversations on things which you agree. Do not begin by discussing differences.  Emphasize common purposes and keep emphasizing these things.  Keep your opponent saying yes and, if possible, never permit him to say no. No is difficult to overcome. Thus, it is of great importance to get people moving in the affirmation direction soonest.

This is a very simple technique but often overlooked and neglected as if some people get a rush off of self-importance by antagonizing others at the outset. Why antagonize others? Carnegie concludes by citing an ancient Chinese proverb, "He who treads softly goes far."

Principle 14:  Get the other person to say "Yes, Yes", immediately

Comment: This concept of getting people to agree early and incrementally is a method also used in argumentation.  This is particularly used when structuring a prejudical argument which is often used in legal argumentation. Arguments are designed to move people in a specific direction but the conclusion is often unclear because the questions are asked in a disjunctive manner. After the requisite agreements have been met they are assembled in a logical manner with a conclusive delivery showing agreement with something that would not have been accepted earlier in its whole.

References:

Carnegie, D. (1981). How to win friends and influence people. New York: Pocket Books.

The Leadership Process

Comment:  Leadership is a deliberate and methodical process of rallying people to a cause they feel they have a stake in then skillfully achieving the end state. Leadership does not stop with the vision but requires one to become a leaders of leaders as strategy is put to task. The leadership process model is an overaching framework that leaders follow.

The Leadership Process

Many people think of leadership as a passionate charismatic person that others identify with and adoringly  follow sheepishly. They may feel a sense of safety, community, and camaraderie under a leader. However, leadership is much more than a father figure. Leadership results in durable and tangible impacts in the lives of people. Poor leadership damages lives and causes real injury to more than just those who follow them.  Understanding the core leadership processes shown in Figure 1, will aide in understanding how to make the choices and develop positive leadership results. Leadership centers on formulating vision and achieving goals by leading people to the end state.

Figure 1: The Leadership Process

Problem identification is at the root purpose of leadership. Leaders see something that is not correct, not just, or not right. They have an internal calling, moral compass, or moral imperative to take action in order to fix the problem arriving at some vision or end state. One of the challenges is correctly identifying the problem. Often people latch onto a symptom rather than the root cause. Leaders are good at determining root causes.

Once the problem is correctly identified, the leader sets goals or objectives then puts together some sort of strategy to achieve the desired end state. This initiates a strategy-to-task effort. A leader must ensure the top intent becomes bottom action and is thinking about this challenge at this point. The goal setting process is distinct from goals / changes or change management. 

Leaders must have a following. Therefore, they must build a constituency of stakeholders and followers. These people are the advocates or evangelists for the leaders vision. They have a stake in the outcome and believe in the objective. Often stakeholders bring resources to the effort. 

The vision or goal has some sort requirements that draw upon capacities and capabilities that are not  fully or currently available. Identification of the organizational design exposes requirements and determines the resources necessary to advance the vision towards the goals and end state.

Resources are mobilized to procure the shortfalls and build broader base support for the objectives. The outcome of mobilizing the resources creates the conditions and elements for the objective to be realized. Resources include manpower, money, materiels, and means or methods of advancing the goal. 

An assessment is made whether or not the end state has been achieved. If not, then an assessment is made to determine the shortfalls and adjustments that are necessary to move forward. 

Once the assessment shortfalls are determined, then there is a Plan for Updates that adjusts the goals and objectives for another go around until the endstate is achieved. 

The leadership process model applies well to most any vision or actions that a leader chooses to pursue. Vision that struggles to build a constituency usually falls by the way side. It is also possible for the leadership, vision, and constituency to pursue questionable and even unethical or immoral visions. The model degrades or falls apart under these conditions and those visions usually are imposed rather than develop.

Leadership Builds on Democratization

Current leadership models focus on democratization of design and the process. This is commonly thought of as reform in which the leader attracts a constituency because the constituency's have a stake in the outcome. While the leader brings focus, direction, and puts a framework to achieving the vision or end state the constituency mobilizes the resources and skills necessary to effect the vision. Understanding democratization processes and management of the stakeholders and other followers is essential to success. 

In the course of the leadership process, leaders may use Effects Based Outcomes, EBO, to put strategy-to-task ensuring top intent becomes bottom action. They may employ Measurable Organizational Value, MOV, to ensure that the actions they are taking result in measurable effects and contribute value to the organization.  

Overall, leadership is multi-faceted. Many folks fail to realize that there are leaders of followers, leaders of leaders, and leaders who lead leaders of leaders. Most of all, one individual may have to fill all three roles but most often only focuses on only one role. 

Community Leadership

The United States is undergoing a variety of transformations leaving many American citizens feeling helpless as a veil of uncertainty shrouds the future. The United States has been different than the other 200  or so countries around the world. The concept of American Exceptionalism is the belief that the United States does not conform to the rest of the world because the United States is of a fundamentally different character. Exceptionalism is built principally upon the freedom to exercise democratic processes. In practicing Exceptionalism there is a venue for the citizens to participate in planning their future other than reliance on ineffective or disinterested leadership that are classically of tyranny and aristocracies. This venue any citizen can take up and affect change is community leadership.

Community Leadership

One of the challenges with mainstream media, churches, and even  the United States government is an overwhelming volume of demagoguery. Everyone seems to be pointing out one side or the other of an argument by selling a book, making a movie, or through some other media such as seminars, symposiums, podcasts, or online courses. While often there are calls to action, no one is taking action or solving the problem.  Perhaps some are just looking to make a buck, a name, or fame for themselves. The most probable reason is because many people lack the will, training, or skills necessary for mobilizing the cause into action. Community leadership enables the average citizen to take action, address grievances, effect outcomes, and impact the community and lives.  Any one or group can undertake any cause by getting organized the right way. 

A community leader is a person who works with others to develop and sustain the health of the community resting on several key points:

• Leadership is not the end in itself, but the mechanism to something else.
• Community leadership occurs whenever anyone works to develop and sustain a healthy community.
• Community leaders are identified by their works not their position or traits.
• Community members are a sufficient resource pool of leaders.

A healthy community is a place where the citizens economic, social, physical, cultural, and spiritual needs work for the common good and creation of a cooperative future.

In this posting two books will lend support to the notion of community leadership.  A framework is laid out in the Community Leadership Handbook for establishing and leading action. Managing Policy Reform offers the Democratic Reform Process, DRP, model that is reflected in the Leadership Process post. Together these two resources are the basis for a lay person, a citizen, to pull together an action committee, small group, advisory counsel, or community planning team. The purpose is for citizens take action in their community.  It does take work and it does work. 

Who can take action? Anyone can perform this action and have. However, if the effort is governmental, citizens or registered voters should have greater credibility rather than non-voting citizens, illegal aliens, green card holders, felons, and others in the system. Although, some political stakeholders in government accept all folks regardless of their affiliation.

The Core Competencies

In order to lead a cause, there are several competencies required; the ability to frame ideas, build social capital, and mobilize resources.   These undergo a process that result in a deliverable. 

Framing ideas determines what, why, and how action is taken. The process of framing involves analysis, values, motivations, vision, strategy,  and focus.  When developing a compelling vision and setting priorities that frame the action and ideas several practices are involved:

• Identifying community assets
• Analyzing community problems
• Accessing community data
• Doing appreciative inquiry
• Visioning
• Translating vision into actions

Building social capital is a leadership skill of developing and maintaining relationships marked by trust, reciprocity, and durability.  Much of the human capital operates in social networks in which bonding and bridging occur.  The leader can only draw on the social and human capital if a deposit was made. Wise leaders do not take their investments lightly. The tools often employed are:

• Effective communication
• Managing interpersonal conflicts
• Building social capital across cultural boundaries
• Mapping social capital; link analysis

Mobilizing resources is creating critical mass in order to take action and achieve an outcome. This requires strategic thinking and workable plans. This involves moving others to speak and support on behalf of the effort, engaging gatekeepers to networks, drawing large numbers of community support, and sage employment of the change adopters. Some of the practices include:

• Maintaining stakeholder registers
• Building Coalitions
• Building effective community teams
• Recruiting and sustaining volunteers. 

The Leadership Process 

The Democratic Reform Process model discussed in Managing Policy Reform is a good general structure for community leaders to follow. The leaders begin by identifying the problem, setting goals, and then managing the reform or change.  Perhaps the most critical aspect of the leadership process is framing the ideas and building support. Without these two skills the rest of the process is useless.  One tool of value is the workshop. 

The Workshop

 

This tool goes by many names such as neighborhood and district advisory counsels (NACs and DACs), town hall meetings, community planning groups, think tanks, work teams, etc... The function remains the same. Workshops are an effective means to elicit participation from the constituency or supporters.

Leaders must prepare the workshop prior to meeting. This requires a set of activities that loosely structure the sessions and permit dialogue. Each meeting should possess the following traits: 

1. Have objectives or goals set. 
2. Know what seeds plant that build stakeholders’ ownership. 
3. Identify and invite strategic participants; people with access to funding, social networks, and influence. 
4. Realistic meeting durations or time limits. People have other lives and the leader must respect their time. 
5. Set the location. Have a stable and reliable place to meet. Ensure that others can lead if you are not able to attend. 
6. Design the agenda for simplicity, flexibility, and make it actionable.

During the meeting, leaders must keep the tempo and focus. They achieve through a specific framework for the conduct of the workshop. 

1. The agenda is a roadmap and a destination too. Allow for the discussion to naturally flow and keep it on the roadmap. 
2. Emphasize participation. Treat all participants as adults. 
3. Foster combinatory play with operational relevance in order to learn.
4. Use facilitators who are generally stakeholders and supporters who have a unique focus and can manage the areas of expertise. 

Work shops can involve large numbers of people and multiple or tiered workshops can address numerous special interest. In the leadership paradigm there are three tiers of leaders that map acutely to tiered workshops.

• Leaders with followers. This maps to tactical operations and effecting outcomes.
• Leaders of leaders. This maps to operational level activities expanding influence beyond one community. 
• Leaders of leaders of leaders. This maps to strategic level activities expanding the influence regionally, nationally, or even internationally. 

The workshop is an essential tool for a community leader who can expand the influence of the vision across communities and even internationally. 

Getting Started

If you are fed up with the way things are and you know what needs to be done then it makes sense for you to get the ball rolling. Make sure your idea is framed well and you've identified potential sponsors and stakeholders. Begin by writing letters to them as emails get filtered and unknown people and unsolicited emails tend to get deleted. Letters tend to get read or at least scanned. Follow up the letters with a call and seek to schedule a meeting during which you frame your idea in their terms gaining their  support.

Once you have built a base of sponsors and stakeholders. Organize workshops and begin to plan then mobilize resources keeping the sponsors and stakeholders informed.  Refer to the process model and step through each stage. Track progress and make adjustments as necessary until you have achieved the objectives. 

Community leadership is a means for the common citizen to get involved beyond the vote and making real impacts to lives and their communities.  It does not have to be a 1960's student demonstration or an act of civil disobedience. In fact, the need to be on TV or gain attention in those ways is actually rare as most actions can be achieved by meeting with the right people and gaining support. Incremental change adds up over time making a whole new way of living. As a strategy the leader should assess the various changes necessary for a vision then devise a skillful plan to achieve them.  

Other posts of interest:

The Democratic Reform Process Model - General

The Democratic Reform Process Model - In Practice

References:

Brinkerhoff, D.; Crosby, B. (2001). Managing policy reforms: concepts and tools for decision-makers in developing and transitioning countries. Kumarian press: NY

Krile, J.F. (2006) The Community Leadership Handbook: Framing Ideas, Building Relationships, and Mobilizing Resources.  Fieldstone Alliance: USA.

Democratic Reform Process Model - In Practice

Comment: This post is a continuation of the the general post on the DRP model as used in practice. The original works was a topical paper used to brief others on the model basics. I have modified this paper for posting purposes.  The topic originated from the Marshall Plan then through several model revisions and ultimately arriving at the Democratic Reform Process model. This is one in a set of posts on Democracy:

Community Leadership

The Democratic Reform Process Model - In General

The Democratic Reform Process Model - In Practice

The Democratic Reform Process, DRP, Model has an economic backbone in which host nations must willfully build capacity and capabilities to implement the reforms desired. The United States partner's and in some cases organizes coalitions in support of host nations while mentoring the DRP model. the reform process relies on six key steps; policy formalization and legitimatization, constituency building, resource accumulation, organizational design, resource mobilization, and impact monitoring. Overall, the DRP model is a closed loop free back system that undergoes continuous improvement. 

Figure 1: The DRP Model's Cyclic Process

Step 1: Policy formalization and legitimization is a critical first step as the host nation and those who benefit from the reforms must see the policy as vital and necessary. 

Step 2: constituency building is necessary in order to build the required support, establish ownership, and create critical mass. This draws heavily on marketing the reforms to the public and specifically those who are the winners. 

Step 3: Organizational design involves identifying methods and/or processes necessary to implement the reforms then adjust or adapting the organization to deliver those methods and processes. 

Step 4: Resource Accumulation requires identification of shortfalls or gap analysis regarding money, manpower, and /or machinery then developing sufficient resources to implement or drive the reform. 

Step 5: Resource mobilization is the actualization of the reforms that have been on paper up to this point. During this step, the realization of winners and losers becomes evident. The goal is to keep the gap between realizations and expectations as narrow as possible. 

Step 6:  Impact monitoring observes the host nation's transformation by utilizing measures of effectiveness, MOEs, in order to assess progress towards the desired reforms. 

One of the most important aspects of the implementation is to minimize the differential between realizations and expectations. The greater the differential then the greater the possibility of rejecting the reforms and desired policy. Closing this differential is difficult and begins in step 2 during constituency building. The reform outcomes must be attainable and accessible by the effective constituencies. Reforms must not only deliver the expected results but also occur within the attention span of the constituency. Results that occur 'a day late and a dollar short' will most likely be viewed as failures by the constituency. 

A task oriented framework supports the implementation. These tasks help identify short falls, trouble spots, and weak points in planning and implementation. These tasks can be operational and/or strategic in nature and include tools like gap analysis, conflict resolution, workshops, capacity checklists, risk assessments, constituency exercises, benchmarking, MOE's, and strategic reviews. 

The DRP model is comprised of six steps; policy legitimization, building constituencies, structural organization, develop then mobilizing resources, and finally impact monitoring. One of the more difficult challenges is to manage the difference  between expectations and realizations.  Focus constituencies must receive the desired outcomes in a timely and properly proportioned manner. 

References:

Brinkerhoff, D.; Crosby, B. (2001). Managing policy reforms: concepts and tools for decision-makers in developing and transitioning countries. Kumarian press: NY

Democratic Reform Process Model - General

Comment: A common practice on mine is to baseline my understanding on a topic by writing on it.  This increases my knowledge and is a point to which I return and adjust my knowledge as well.  In addition, my objective was to write in a manner in which others could increase their understanding as well.  I have modified this paper for posting purposes.  The topic originated from the Marshall Plan then through several model revisions and ultimately arriving at the Democratic Reform Process model.  This is one in a set of posts on Democracy:

Community Leadership

Democratic Reform Process Model - In Practice

The Democratic Reform Process Model - General Discussion

Figure 1: DRP Model

The United States encourages Representative Democracy or a Republic and capital economies as a means to elevate human dignity and rights around the globe. Democracy has been the view of the United States as the only form of civil government that can best emplace these virtues. Over time as the United States engages increasing numbers of dissimilar and even hostile cultures, numerous approaches of reforms have emerged resulting in an evolutionary model.  

The current approach to implementing democratic reforms centers on a process model that has an economic backbone. Host nations must willfully build the capacity and capabilities to implement the desirable reforms themselves. The United States partners and in some cases organizes coalitions with the host nation in order to mentor the process. The desired end state is a democratic ally who participates in the global community - economically and politically. 

The book 'Managing Policy Reforms', Figure 1, advances the Democratic Reform Process, DRP,  model as a closed loop feed back model that is a strategic management tool. This model considers the reform process from the perspective of the transitioning country's decision maker challenges and measures of effectiveness indicate progress towards the end state. These challenges commonly center of governance, economic, and the organization's ability to implement the reforms. 

Governance: Host nations often have competitive forms of governance with democracy. Democratic reforms often require anti-corruption campaigns, citizen participation, controls, and judicial restructuring. Sometimes restructuring is not sufficient and complete re-constitution of a new governmental framework is necessary. 

Organizational: In order to support democratic reforms, agencies and systems require a systemic overhaul into an organizational framework that is supportive of the desired reforms. Host nations often simply do not possess the skilled work force, organizational framework, and/or operational process sophistication. Identification of these systemic shortfalls is necessary but action is often constrained due to a lack of financial strength to implement. A strong economic tax base is an underpinning of successful implementation.  

Economic:  Many host nations that have been under repressive or inattentive rule simply have never developed the requisite financial strength necessary to implement full reforms. Barriers in local economies such as graft, corruption, and other adverse conduct prevent economic expansion.  Management programs must be in place to reduce the effects and remove the negative influences if possible.  As a nation's economic strength increases then improvements are notable in terms of human living conditions, dignity, personal incomes, quality of life, and healthcare.

As economic strength increases a ready source of internal revenues become available to fund reforms. Taxation must be carefully managed in order to balance the funds redistributed to economic growth.  In part the temptation for graft and corruption may persist and adversely impact the reforms. 

The basic model of implementing democratic and capitalistic reforms centers on a closed loop feedback system. Progress towards the end state are tracked using measures of effectiveness that relate to governance, economic and organizational centers. In order to develop reforms in a focused center constituencies, legitimization, and resources must be championed as well. 

References:

Brinkerhoff, D.; Crosby, B. (2001). Managing policy reforms: concepts and tools for decision-makers in developing and transitioning countries.  Kumarian press: NY. 

Humanitarian Projects Built from a Model

This is a post series expressing my humanitarian side. A friend of mine out of Lake Forest, CA does mission work through his church traveling to China, Rwanda, and Uganda. Recently, he indicated that the projects he had been doing were not progressing as they should and that many of the efforts really did not serve the people well.  He attributed the problem to poor leadership and strategies with little or no focus.  For example, fund raisers several times a year that are more of a social experience in LA, CA than genuinely doing good for the intended people off shore. This got me to thinking. During my military service, I was trained in civil affairs and performed many humanitarian missions of various sorts that ranged from noncombatant evacuation operations (NEOs) to civil affairs missions such as medical operations (MEDOPS) and various reconstruction projects. Often the missions were planned from a standard or template. I thought that the same ideas could serve other efforts by having a purposeful goal and elements efforts to get there.

Humanitarian Projects Built from a Model

Many people and organizations attempt to do good around the world. The US Navy's tagline is a  force for good.  Many people and organizations purchase then gift equipment and facilities to help those less fortunate. The problem is that a short time later the facilities and equipment fall into disrepair or become inoperable due to a lack of a sustainable infrastructure.  Thus, the act of kindness becomes ineffective at resolving the issues it was gifted to overcome and may become a greater burden for the recipient. The challenge is to develop a way to overcome these issues and provide sustainable gifts to these nations and people who require broad based support. After all, Stephen Covey tells us to teach them to fish and feed them for life.

Making a Brief Case

A considerable portion of the worlds population lives in temperate regions without adequate food and potable water. These societies are often isolated from the regional and global communities. Efforts to gift supplies and equipment have not produced the results needed for these societies to maintain a sustainable improvement to the quality of life. A new approach is needed.

Many challenges confront the new approach. We will not consider political and social movements that could be counter to these efforts. Some regions have world views that reject aid from people outside their circles or are counter to the values necessary to sustain the new approach. Operating in these regions requires other methods not discussed here. Nonetheless, this is a base model that can be adjusted to local conditions. 

This new approach should create a sustainable system that introduces the society to the regional and global economies with the goal to integrate the society into the broader and complex economy. Underpinnings of the regional and global economies include components like a functional supply chain infrastructure (seaports, airports, and roads), ample fresh water, and energy distribution networks. These societies cannot be connected to the broader system until they begin the trek towards improvements which is the objective of this effort.  Development of a supply chain cannot begin until energy, water, and food resources are adequately addressed on a fundamental level first. Once renewable food, water, and power resources are available then the injection of external economic influences will enable the people to earn increased wages and further transform their quality of life.

The solution begins by scoping the issue and setting objectives. In this case the people are in need of the basics; food, water, and power. This further breaks down to fertile and irrigated soil, fresh and potable water, as well as renewable energy. The objective is to design solutions that are low tech, easily sustainable, and ecologically friendly. The success of this endeavor centers on a basic economy to sustain the solution. The design should include natural filtration and purification methods as well as make use natural sources of nutrients and energy.

This vision is to develop a local economy poised to introduce the local society to regional and global economies by building the sustainable groundwork for the most basic needs of the community. This is a major undertaking often too large for a single organization or government. Thus, armed with this vision a coalition should be built yielding various aspects of the vision to participants of the project.

The Sustainable Groundwork

Many solutions for the base problems exist with some performing better than others. As part of the project planning performance metrics need to be determined. I have completed some basic research into this matter and the following ideas may have some merit as they have been put to successful use around the world. 

Natural Water Filtration and Potable Water

Natural water filtration uses earthen filtration and gravity. Natural filtration mechanisms vary by topography and generally involve estuaries (wetlands) and riparian (stream side forest) systems. Within these systems soil composition, vegetation, animals, and micro-organisms play very important roles in purification. Engineering low tech natural purification systems can reflect the local ecosystems or an enhanced system can be introduced. Essentially, a three stage system of gravity fed lakes and earthen berms can purify large quantities of fresh water. The source of water can be natural sources such as springs, wells, storm runoff, and general waste wate from the community etc...  The system flows from an estuary lake through an earthen berm composed of aggregates of various sizes (rock, gravel, sand, and clay) into an intermediate lake filled with low oxygen fish.  The intermediate lake is gravity fed into a lower lake through a second earthen berm also composed on various aggregates. Anaerobic microbial and insect  lifeforms also reside in the berms as well as trees line the lakes assisting in the purification process. The middle and lower lakes could be split into upper and lower halves with rapids or waterfalls providing aeration to the water another critical aspect of purification.

The water arrives in the lower lake as purified fresh water but remains non-potable. The water can be used directly in irrigation and watering of animals. In order to achieve potable water an additional level of purification is necessary to remove pathogens and other contaminants. There are natural methods of achieving this objective that usually involve ultraviolet light and methods to raise the water to a pH of about 8.3. Lime, soda ash, and sodium hydroxide usually raise the pH balance.  Solar concentrators can focus the sun's energy to a focal line where a pipe containing the fresh purified water is passed through. The focused solar energy flashes the water to steam which is evacuated then condensed killing pathogens and bacteria while leaving heavier sediments behind. The steam evacuation and fresh water draw can be created using the falling water or windmills that drives blowers and pumps. Venturi's expand the steam causing the cooling necessary for condensation in a plenum chamber. The potable water is then siphon fed into a water tower as currently performed in the US.

Figure 1: Earthen Filtration, gravity fed lakes purify water.

The gravity fed lake system is in current use in San Diego, CA and smaller systems are in Florida. The fresh water is fed into the Pacific Ocean after the detention cycle. However, San Diego is undertaking a project to recycle the water's use by placing the fresh water into a reservior for the detention cycle. While the ideal topography is sloping, the system can be built on mesas, plains, and other level topographies but would require earth moving endeavors stair stepping the detention lakes.  

Fertile Soil

Figure 2:  Composting System

Many areas of the world are inhospitable with the ecology unfit to sustain crops, live stock, or in general human life. In fact, much of the land is undergoing desertification. An operational view of land's ability to sustain human life considers carrying capacity and capability of the land. While a particular stretch of land may have a low carrying capacity, natural methods are available to improve the lands fertility and carrying capacity. Among these methods is composting of waste materials including human waste, Figure 2.  This is a low tech process does not require extensive maintenance. This improves sanitary conditions and makes use of organic waste matter in useful ways.  Tilling composted waste into the soil creates grasslands for grazing animals that begins a cycle of renewal and economic expansion. The compost may also be used with crops for human consumption. When using the waste for this purpose sustained temperatures must be held for several weeks in order to kill pathogens in the waste.  There is a substantial body of works that promotes uses of compost.  Composting Toilet Systems.  A complimentary approach is the use of Holistic Management and Planned Grazing.  In this approach, land is recycled preventing desertification. This approach also provides livestock and crop food sources for the local populations. 

Renewable Energy

The vision is to provide the base energy required, the minimum necessary, to support the environmental systems emplaced.  This includes pumps, motors, and heat for composting and purification.  The sun, waterfalls / rapids, and wind are sources of potential energy to support the base energy requirements. Thus, a system of solar panels and wind or water driven turbines could supply the requisite power to move water around the purification system. Solar concentrators, Image 1, would focus solar energy to sustain heat levels necessary for composting and purification.  The energy production using these methods most likely would exceed the amount necessary for the system to function. The excess energy may be sufficient to provide security lighting during the evening or power cooling fans as additional support to the system.

Image 1: The Solar Concentrator is used to flash water to steam.

Energy is the underpinning of an economy. Without energy logistics and tools that make the economy move would become inanimate. The need for energy to power the full economic engine would be an expanded effort. This requires substantial energy resources. If the society simply does not have access to these resources locally then the connection to a the regional and global community becomes more important. For example, Japan imports nearly it's entire economy as raw materials including energy then performs work in order to export the finished goods. Engineering a energy resource for the entire community is a separate effort than this post's intent to present a solution to stabilize the local community.

Building an Economy to Sustain the System

Water purification, energy production, composting systems, and holistic management require services of various sorts. For example, the compost needs to be collected and redistributed. The solar concentrators and condensation system may require cleaning and replacement of the pipes. There is a need to monitor and adjust the natural filtration system with fish and other filtration elements. These are activities that should become part of a local economy.  By inclusion in a larger regional or global economy, resources ordinarily not available become available as the local economy contributes to the larger system.

Consider one cycle, a businessmen pays a nominal rate to residents for collecting their compost. Then sells at a higher rate the compost to land owners who in turn use it to create grasslands and raise live stock. The landowner also pays for the irrigation services that facilitate the grasslands for the livestock.  The landowner then sells the live stock in market as food. The residents who pay and consume the food produce the waste for composting. The nominal fee they receive for the compost contributes towards the purchase of more food.  These residents also perform other work in which they receive pay from perhaps a manufacturing plant or some other inject from the complex economy originating from the regional or global economy. Other businesses emerge such as fish farms that not only stock the lakes but sell their overstock to the local community as food. The local community provides financial support to the natural purification system by buying the water they consume and paying for fishing rights from the lower lake.  Local people are hired and trained to maintain the system. Thus, a local economy boosted by linkage to a regional or global economy can raise up their lives.

In the end, a basic system could be created to support improvements in food production, potable water, and sanitary conditions that contribute towards an basic economy. This jump starts an economy and begins the movement towards more advanced systems for further improvements to the quality of life. More importantly, the people take ownership of their lives.

These concepts are in successful use around the world. However, they have not been organized into a suscinct model or plan. Moreover, the end state of a society meaningfully poised for injection into a regional or global economy has not been advanced in a meaningful way. 

Tattoo On Your Soul

Commentary: This is a speech that I think has profound thoughts applicable to not only military life but civilian life as well. While General Krulak remarks that the military is about people, the same is true about companies and business. It is all about people.  Industry, business, and companies serve people. Industry would not exist if humans were not present. Companies exist as vehicles to redistribute wealth based on productive work. Through productive work in companies, cash is put into human pockets in order to give levity and dignity to human life. As General Krulak points out we need to rise above the mundane and be eagles.    

General Charles Krulak

October 7, 1993

Abstract: General Krulak, Former Commandant of the Marine Corps, spoke to the Naval Academy Leadership Forum regarding the principles of integrity, moral courage, responsibility, accountability, and loyalty. During his discussion he shares personal viewpoints and experiences that molded him into the officer he had become. He concludes his speech with a call to become eagles and soar above the mundane distractions of everyday life. 

General Krulak: Let me tell you how honored I am to be here this morning. One, to talk to the leader’s forum but equally as important is to talk to the first and second class of the United States Naval Academy and those from other service academies who are sitting up in the audience here of the brigade. What I would like to do this morning is to spend a little bit of time reflecting on two events that probably had the very most to do with making me the officer I am today. And whether that is good or bad you will judge as we go on through this morning’s discussion.

These two events impacted on some fundamental traits of leadership that I think we all need to fully understand and traits I would like to discuss this morning. In order to do this, though, I am going to have to, refer back in time, back in history a little bit, so that you can kind of get in my head, get inside of my body, and understand why they were so significant.

In the early spring of 1966, the 324th Bravo North Vietnamese Army Division was pulled South from its position along the border between North Vietnam and China. As I am sure you all know North Vietnam and China are ancient enemies. This division was pulled South, through North Vietnam and positioned along the demilitarized zone that separated South Vietnam from the North. The 324th Bravo North Vietnamese Army division was the same crack division that had spearheaded the assault against the French at Dien Bien Phu. They had now been pulled South and were poised to lead the first direct invasion of South Vietnam by the North. Their mission was to attack and seize Quay City.

In order to blunt that attack the United States Marine Corps supported by Army, Navy, and Air Force put together an 11 battalion size operation to defeat the enemy in zone. The operation was code named ‘Hastings’. With that as a little history, let me take you back in time.

0630 in the morning, June 3, 1966, First Lieutenant Chuck Krulak Commanding Officer Gulf Company Second Battalion First Marines, had just been landed with his company by helicopters in a small valley surrounded by jungle covered mountains about 2000 meters South of the Demilitarized Zone.

This valley was really nothing more than rice patties, about six football fields in length. I’ll put it in measurements that Admiral Lynch will understand, six football fields in length, two football fields in width. Down the Eastern side was a stream bed, a dried out stream bed, that offered both cover and concealment. No sooner than when we hit the deck, helicopters pull out, we were immediately taken under heavy small arms, automatic weapons, and mortar fire.

Fortunately, the vast majority of my company managed to move off to the side, get into this dried streambed, and we were pretty much safe. But one platoon, found itself landed a little bit further to the West. They could not move. They were pinned down by both the indirect fire weapons and direct fire weapons. And one squad within that platoon found itself directly in the line-of-fire of an enemy 50 caliber machine gun. And within a matter of seconds, I had two marines killed and two more seriously wounded.

It became very obvious to me, as I sat there and watched that this machine gun was going to kill every man in that squad. It was going to shift to the next squad. It would kill all of them. And it would end up killing every Marine in that platoon. There was no question about that.

I got on my radio and talking to my First Platoon Commander, a Second Lieutenant by the name of Oliver North. And told LT North to move his platoon up that tree line, up that creek bed, get on the flank of that gun and the tree line that the gun was in and to be prepared to assault when I gave him the signal. At the same time I had my other platoon putting down a base of fire into this tree line hoping to keep that machine gun somewhat silent.

As I was doing this my radio operator grabbed me by the sleeve and pointed out into the rice patty and he said, “Look at Lance Corporal Grable”.

And I looked out into that rice patty. And a young Lance Corporal squad leader a black Marine from Crump, Tennessee had gotten to his feet. He had locked his rifle into his hip and like something I swear to God right out of a John Wayne movie. This Marine started running back and forth firing his weapon. And for every 20 or 30 yards he ran laterally, he probably went two or three forward.

You could see the enemy machine gun pick right up off the squad and start tracking Grable. You could literally see the bullets kicking up behind him. Tracking him; tracking him; until they hit him. Picked him up like he was a dish rag, threw him through the air backwards.

In the amount of time that, that took, Ollie North move up on the flank, gave me the word he was ready to go, and I popped the green star cluster that signified for him to begin the assault. And as I did that my radio operator grabbed me again and this time he did not say anything. He just pointed out into that rice patty. And this young black Marine had gotten back up to his feet, this time no fancy stuff. Put his weapon into his shoulder, got a good sight picture, a good trigger squeeze. And he walked down the line-of-fire of that enemy 50 caliber machine gun.

About 5 minutes later, I got up to that now silenced, enemy machine gun. There were nine dead North Vietnamese soldiers surrounding it. And as God as my witness, draped over the barrel of the gun itself was Lance Corporal Grable. When we turned him over he had 5 entry holes in him. But you could not, see where they came out because he had no back left. Six months later I stood in the parking lot of the Naval Annex Headquarters Marine Corp. And Lance Corporal Grable’s widow was awarded the Navy Cross medal our nation’s second highest military decoration. And with her was a little baby boy that Lance Corporal Grable had only seen in a Polaroid picture.

So what, So what! What’s that got to do with the leader’s forum? What’s that got to do with the class of 1994 or the class of 1993 at the United States Naval Academy? A great story but that happened a long time ago. And it does not have anything to do with us.

Wrong! Wrong! It’s got to everything to do with you all. It’s got everything to do with me. Everything!

Too often, we forget, that the reality of our existence as a service is found in the willingness of our Lance Corporal Grable’s to walk down the line-of-fire of a 50 caliber machine gun, or in our, the willingness of our Seamen Smiths to go into a flooded compartment in order to stem the rushing water that is coming in as a result of a collision with a mine.

One of the things that worries me about service academies, and I say this as a proud a graduate of this great institution called the Naval Academy, is that we have slowly moved away from a focus on people to a focus on things.

Let me tell you that the profession of arms is not about things. It is about people. If your heart is set on flying an FA-18, leading a platoon of MA-1A tanks, sailing on nuclear submarines or aegis cruisers, then you are in the wrong business. Cause you ought to be focused on people.

If you are not willing to buy in that concept, that people is what the services are all about. Then you need to get out just as soon as you can.

And you say to yourself, holy mackerel, who is this little guy telling me to do that.

I am telling you, you have to think that way for one very good reason because it is people not things that you are going to lead into harms way.

It is people not things that you are going to lead into the valley of the shadow of death. It is the deeds of men and women who have sacrificed for us that have literally made us what we are today.

And when we fail to live up to the standards set for this profession of ours then we fail the Lance Corporal Grable’s and the Seamen Smith’s who have gone before us.

And believe me if you don’t know it, know it now, you are in the profession and it is called the profession of arms. It is as much a profession as the medical or the legal profession. There is one big difference though. We do not have malpractice insurance.

When we fail to serve our clients which are, in fact, the citizens of this great nation of ours, when we fail to serve our clients there is no outside agency that is going to pay the bill. The payment comes directly from the reservoir of faith that our countrymen have in us. A reservoir filled by the sacrifice and the blood of the Lance Corporal Grable’s and the Seamen Smith’s that have gone before us.

Now for those of you that are in the service I’ll tell you right now that we are entering critical times, times that are going to demand stout hearts, keen minds, and the purest of motives. For the Naval Service, times when incidence such as Tail hook have caused our professionalism to be questioned like it has never been questioned before.

At the highest levels, these are times when Congress is asking the services why they need to look like they do. Why do we need a twelve carrier Navy? Why do we need a Marine Corps? Why do we need four air forces? All of these questions flying around at the highest levels.

But to you all here today, the most important thing for you to understand is that these are the times when those fundamentals dear to this profession of arms of ours are rapidly being taken off the shoulders of people like myself and Admiral Lynch and are being placed around your shoulders, your shoulders, as the people who are going to lead, lead us into 21st century.

Let me say that again, these are the times when those fundamentals that are so dear to the Profession of Arms that are being taken away from me, I am an old man, and they are being given to you, they are being entrusted to you, and you are going to lead this nation into the 21st century. And for the next the couple of minutes I just want to talk to you about some these fundamentals that must become so dear to you.

Integrity and moral courage, integrity and moral courage, these fundamentals go hand in hand. Those officers who demonstrate these fundamental traits are the ones the nation will count on in the most difficult times.

All of our services have enjoyed their greatest success when their officer corps has been unafraid to demonstrate the full measure of these two traits.

Integrity that is the most precious possession you own. If it were not that I was afraid that the needles would be dirty, I would ask you to follow me this weekend out to a tattoo parlor and get the term integrity tattooed somewhere on your body. For me it would obviously have to be a little tattoo. For some of you it would be bigger.

But I am afraid of the needles. So what I would like to ask you to do is I would like you to tattoo the term integrity across soul, across your soul.

Your integrity prevents you, prevents you from lying, from cheating, from stealing, from being something less than a true professional. If you ever loose your sense of integrity then you are no good to your service, you are no good to your nation, and you are no good to yourself. You must be ever watchful because your integrity can be lost bit by bit without you even knowing it.

I will tell, though, the men and women that you will lead will know it immediately. Your word is your bond. Your actions must be above reproach. What is so terrible about incidences such as Tailhook is that it calls into question the integrity not only of certain individuals but of our entire officer corps.

Tied closely to integrity is the concept and fundamental trait of moral courage. This is in many ways a difficult trait to really understand. Moral courage in my opinion means the willingness to put your heart and soul into doing the right things vice doing things right. Let me say that again; the willingness and courage to do the right thing instead of worrying about doing things right. There is a very, very big difference between the two.

People in this audience, as well as officers around our services know what I mean. There are officers that are far more interested in looking good than being good, that are interested in show over substance.

Officers who are not willing to stick their necks out for fear that their necks are going to get chopped and their heads will fall, officers who are not willing to be steeple shakers because they believe that steeple shaking is not conducive to promotion.

There is no room for officers like that in our brotherhood. No room for officers like that in our profession. We need officers who have the moral courage to speak out when they see something wrong no matter what the risk. And it is here that the idea loyalty comes into play. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who view loyalty as some kind of blind following of their boss or of a concept. This is not loyalty. I am sure you understand that. Loyalty is the willingness of an officer to tell the emperor that he is not wearing any clothes. That is what loyalty is.

Loyalty is assuring that your boss is protected from making a lousy decision. Additionally, and equally important I might add, loyalty is getting behind your boss once he has weighed your input and the input of other people and has made his decision. Then you get behind him. So long as the decision is a legal one and does not call into question your integrity. If it does then my fellow officers, and you all are officers, you must make a hard decision. If you have understood what I mentioned and talked about in so far about integrity is concerned that decision becomes a lot easier.

Let me talk about another fundamental. It is called accountability and responsibility. I do not mean to insult you or insult your professional knowledge. But as you know we are all responsible and accountable for everything that we do and fail to do, everything that our commands do and fail to do. We are responsible for that and accountable for it. This fundamental has been the bedrock of the services since their inception. But I will tell you from a personal viewpoint this concept has become very fuzzy over the last couple of years.

I am going to give you two incidents that will support in my opinion in that and then I will give you a personal experience, the second experience that I told you I would share with you.

First incident, the Beirut bombing, a terrible, terrible, disaster took place that many apologist blame on a series of external errors. The commitment of forces to begin with, the rules of engagement that failed to change when the political climate changed, the cumbersome and poorly defined chain of command. Yet the bottom line remains a marine commander of a unit in a hostile environment, contrary to his training, his common sense, his tactical ability, did not disperse his troops, but gathered them into a single location where they were vulnerable to their enemies. A terrible tragedy took place and what happened to our principle of accountability? Nothing, nothing, no courts martial. No reliefs, nothing.

On Thursday 01Oct1992 at approximately 2345 the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga launched two Sea Sparrow missiles that slammed into the bridge of a Turkish destroyer. Killing the Captain and four others on the bridge and wounding fifteen. A board of inquiry was held. Approximately two months later the results of that investigation were made public.

The investigating panel of three admirals found that quote deeply rooted problems and structured deficiencies in major training areas contributed to the disastrous launching. And as you all know no one in CDC told the petty officer manning in the target acquisition console that he was participating in an exercise. There was no routine checklist for fire control safety onboard that ship counter to regulations.

The unannounced anti-ship missile exercise was just that, unannounced. Contrary to regulation the ships CO was not informed, the ships XO was not informed. Throughout the incident the investigating panel found that there was little or no, quote, following of standard Navy training procedures. In December, five officers and three enlisted men received either, punitive letters of reprimand, letters of admonition, or letters of non-punitive letters of instruction.

No courts martial. The captain of the ship was not relieved. Rather he took part in a regularly scheduled change of command approximately a week before he went in front of an Admiral for Captain’s mast. Accountability?

In an interview with the ships captain he said, “It was an accident. I am in this because I am the CO and not much more. It’s too bad.”

Let me tell you members of all the services that if our nation ever perceives that we are reluctant to be accountable for our performance then we are going to be in serious, serious trouble. There can be no excuses given to the citizens of this great nation of ours if we foul up. We must be accountable.

Let me bring this home from a personal standpoint. I was a young Captain on my way back to Vietnam for my second tour of duty. My wife drives me up to Norton Airforce base to get on a Flying Tiger Airlines plane and go to Dnang. Wife drops me off and kisses me goodbye. She is not a happy camper I can tell you. She drives back down to San Diego. I walk into the hangar where they got all the individuals that are going on that bird. And I am standing there looking around and I see this little PFC. Not little, a young PFC.

And his is carrying a workout bag and it says, “San Diego, The City In Motion.”

Well I am from San Diego! So I of course sidle over to him and start talking to him. His eyes are a little big cause he is kind of worried. And I asked him he is in fact from San Diego. Yes he is. He tells me his name is PFC Cameron. We have a good dialogue. He in fact lived about three blocks from me.

He was a communicator. Word comes get on the plane. We get on the plane. We are flying over the ocean. I see Cameron maybe two or three times during the flight. I am going up to make a head call. He is going up to make a head call. I am going up to get a drink of water. What have ya! Catch his eye. He looks at me I look at him. We go on back to our seats. The plane lands in Dnang. If you have seen the movie ‘Good Morning Vietnam’, Robins Williams gets off the plane in Dnang and it’s hot, dusty, and noisy. That’s the way it really was.

Got off the that plane and this big burly Master Sergeant says, “Ok everybody going to the First Marine Division and going to stay here in Dnang stand here or all you poor guys going up to the third Marine Division go over and stand behind there, a 130’s going to pick you up to take you up there.”

I trot on over because I am going up the Third Marine Division. Here comes ole Cameron with his bag. His eyes are, I mean to tell you, are this big. I said I better get a hold of this kid. And I get over there and said you know, “Its going be alright. Don’t worry; we are going to take of this.”

We get on the plane. Go up to Dong Ha. We separate.

I am given stewardship of Lima Company, Third Battalion, Third Marines. I go out to the company. I meet my First Sergeant monstrous guy, six Foot Six, 240 pounds. He takes me around the company area. He says here is where we are dug in, here is what it looks like. Two days later the same big First Sergeant comes walking up. He is like a mother hen. He’s got a bunch of chickees behind him, seven or eight new guys, coming into the company. You guessed it, number one in line, this time all you can see is his eyes, PFC Cameron.

I say to myself, “Self for some reason this guy keeps on entering into your life. So I had better, better latch a hold of him.”

And I did. I said to the First Sergeant, “I want Cameron to be my radio operator.”

And for the next nine months this young Marine PFC and I became so close, a closeness that can only come from times of stress and times of danger. And we shared everything. I mean we shared not just our food. We shared letters. We shared dreams and hopes. And he became over that period of time like a son to me.

At the end of the ninth month, I was called to my battalion commander’s hootch and he said that we were going up on Mutters Ridge. And I want your company to go up and form blocking position because we are going to have the rest of the battalion plus another battalion sweep down Mutters Ridge hopefully driving the enemy into you.

I said fine. Mutters Ridge was not a great place to go I will tell you. I mean you will go up there and you always got into a fight so I mean my heart was not exactly doing flips of joy. But I said we are going up there and do it.

Being a recent graduate of the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School and having my act together of course I got all my artillery positions prepped, fires planned, had on air on strip alert, I felt good. Put my company in formation. Two up and one back, my command group in the middle and we startup a finger on this ridge line. And we got about a third of the way up, when we started taking sniper fire. Over, over our heads you could kind of hear the bullets whizin’ by. Got on the hook started callin’ in the artillery. Felt very comfortable. All of a sudden a loud crack, same kind of crack you get when you are out on the rifle range and you are pulling butts and you know the bullet just went over your head.

I kind of ducked to the side because it went right by my ear. I turn around and Cameron was hard down. I mean hard down. And I bent down and ripped open his flack jacket and he had taken a round right through the chest. I mean he was breathing and you all I am sure heard the term sucking chest wound. That is what he had. I mean every breath he’d take you would hear this terrible wheezing sound. And instead of breathing through his mouth he was breathing through his chest. And the blood was coming up and it was bubbling. And I went holy mackerel. I dropped down to my knees. I whipped out my pressure bandage. And I put it on the kid’s chest. And I said hang in there. Hang in there you are going to be alright. And you could see him start to gray, and his eyes start to flutter back and he is going into shock. And I sat down and I pulled him onto my chest. Right up against me and I had his head in my left hand and that pressure bandage is on. And I was just praying and saying you know hang in there. You are going to make it. We are going to get you out of here.

All of a sudden I was hit on the side of my head so hard that I fell to my side and Cameron was dumped onto the ground. And standing above me was that big First Sergeant I had talked to you about. He had his helmet in his hand and he had just beat me across the side of my head.

He said, “What in the hell do you think you are doing. You got a company in contact up there that’s who you are responsible for. What are you doing with this Marine? Get your butt up that hill and fight that company.”

Man! I want to tell you that I went up that hill so fast it was not funny. Got up to the top of the hill. Some unknown reason we had no casualties except for Cameron. I will never forget the feeling I had as we went around and put my men into their defensive positions. And I went back to where my CP (Command Post)) was and the First Sergeant was there.

He says, “Skipper I am sorry I hit you.”

I said, “Don’t be sorry First Sergeant you were exactly right. You did exactly what you should have done. My responsibility was to fight the company. I was accountable for those people. You were exactly right.”

Then he said, “He did not make it.”

I said, “What you mean he did not make it?”

He said, “Cameron he did not make it.”

As he said that he had tears running down his cheeks. This big First Sergeant had tears running down his cheeks. I will tell you that three hour period drove into my soul that concept of responsibility and accountability.

I see my time is running out. I want have some time for questions and answers. So let me bring this home if you will allow me. Let take you back into that rice patty. Let me take you back to the rice patty. Let me remind you that Lance Corporal Grable is laying there hit for the first time.

Question that has been in my mind ever since that happened and reoccurs and enters my mind often is why did he not just lay there. He has been hit by a 50 caliber round. I am telling you he had to be in intense pain and he is laying there. Why didn’t he just stay there? He has a wife. He has children. He had a wound that would get him home. He was on his way home. All he had to do is lay there. But he did not. Why not? He got up and performed an act that he had to know was going to kill him. Why did he do it? In my opinion he did it because flowing through his veins and tattooed across his soul were many of the principles we talked about today; integrity, moral courage, loyalty to his people, responsibility, and accountability.

Now I’ll tell you that he probably did not have them packaged neatly in some list in his mind. I will tell you they were there, they were there, they were there. And if they were there for people like Lance Corporal Grable then they damn well better be there in us. They better be there in us.

For every class that goes through The Basic School, I talk to them about some of the things we just talked about. And I end up by asking them to be something that they probably never thought of being. And that is to be what I call a knight in shining armor in a day and age when people are not interested in knight in shining armor. I asked them to be Joan of Arc in a day when people are not interest in Joan of Arc’s. I ask them to take a page out of the Bible and soar upon the wings of eagles. To be eagles. To not walk around down in the dirt of every day life but to soar above it.

And I get crazy over this and they all they kind of think I am crazy anyhow. They say geeze its General Krulak again giving his eagle talk. One day about a week ago some kid came up to me, some Lieutenant, and he slipped a piece of paper in my hand and I read it. And I said I am going up to the Naval Academy and I am going to read this one little poem that he wrote. Think about this.

There is a great battle that rages inside me,

One side is a soaring eagle,

Everything the eagle stands for is good,

And true,

And Beautiful,

And it soars above the clouds,

Even though it dips down into the valleys,

It lays its eggs on the mountain tops,

The other side of me is the howling wolf,

And that raging howling wolf represents the worst that is in me,

He eats upon my down falls,

He justifies himself by his presence in the pack,

Who wins this great raging battle,

The one I feed,

The one I feed.

Be Eagles. You are about to be great leaders in your services. Be eagles and only feed the eagle. Thank you very much. - General Charles Krulak