10-Minute Leadership Course
From the man who brought Iraq back from the bloody brink.
Gen. David H. Petraeus at Harvard’s 2009 commissioning ceremony for ROTC cadets and midshipmen in Harvard Yard. As twitted by Crit:
Petraeus’ 10-minute ldrshp seminar, delivered @ Harvard’s ROTC commissioning today … “Individuals matter & indvdl leaders really matter.”
Petraeus: “Ldrs r th ones hstry rmmbrs as hving mde th bggr diff, & each of u is abt 2 bcm a ldr of nation’s mst prec resource, sons/dghtrs”
Petraeus: Study and formal educ are great but “you’ll learn the most from getting your hands dirty.”
Petraeus @ Harv: “There is no way you can avoid becoming a leader in the hard test of combat.”
Petraeus @ Harv: “1st, lead by example. If you lean forward in the foxhole, your troopers will too.”
Petraeus @ Harv: “Be humble. Listen and learn.” US soldiers have 8 yrs of been there, done that. “They’ll have a lot to teach you.”
Petraeus @ Harv ROTC commissioning: “Don’t hesitate to make decisions. When the listening is done, you have to make the call.”
Petraeus @ Harvard: “There will be moments when all eyes will turn to you for a decision. Don’t shrink from making one.”
Petraeus @ Harvard: “Don’t take yourself too seriously but take your work very seriously. The tasks we are involved in are deadly serious.”
Old warhorse, vet of bloody combat, re Petraeus @ Harvard ROTC commissioning: “Best short course in combat leadership I ever heard.”
Petraeus was introduced by Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust as ”the ideal of a soldier-scholar” and “a thinker.” He not only failed to be scholarly, but snuck in some friendly digs at the Ivy League with his blunt, soldier-to-soldier advice to “what must be the smartest new officers in our military.” That was after he kicked it off with some self-deprecating jokes, including this one that he noted was ripped off from George Bernard Shaw:
“When they invited me, I asked my designated head thinker, how much time will I have?”
“10 minutes.”
“10 minutes to tell them everything I know?”
“I suggest you speak very slowly.”
Petraeus killed a couple of minutes with yuks instead. It was like he didn’t even need them. In the remaining seven or eight, without wasting any words, Petraeus made a Spartan graduate seminar out of it.
Retired Navy Capt. Darnell Whitt, one of 121 ROTC cadets in Harvard’s Class of 1959, in his own introductory remarks called on both Faust and Petraeus to become “leaders” in the movement to bring ROTC back to Ivy League campuses. This year’s crop of seven Harvard cadets and midshipmen commissioned by Petraeus had to go to MIT for their military science courses. Harvard stopped hosting ROTC in the 1960s, and has only recently resumed commissioning ceremonies.
“I am very sorry that the three ROTC battalions have moved away from Harvard. But I am very pleased that we are having this commissioning ceremony here … thank you, Dr. Faust.”
“You new officers are needed now, and it seems certain others will be needed later. Harvard must do its part.”
Hear hear. A big shout out to 2nd Lt. Joseph M. Kristol, USMC, son of the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol; 2nd Lt. Domenico A. Pellegrini, USMC, of West Roxbury, Mass.; 2nd Lt. Vincent M. Chiappini, U.S. Army, of Bridgewater, Mass.: 2nd Lt. Daniel G. West, USMC, of Spring, Tx; 2nd Lt. Thomas M. Barron, U.S. Army, New York, NY; 2nd Lt. Roxanne E. Bras, U.S. Army, Celebration, Fla.; 2nd Lt. Daniel K. Bilotti, U.S. Army, of Orinda, Calif.; and Cadet Andrei A. Doohovskoy of Concord, Mass., due to graduate and be commissioned as a U.S. Army officer this fall. A nod to Harvard Advocates for ROTC, the alums who are tired of this nonsense and are working to give some of the finest schools in the world the benefit of a closer relationship with the military.
Thanks to Capt. Luke Devlin, 7th Cav, a fellow traveler in the great movement across the desert and into the Euphrates Valley some years back, a friend and MIT ROTC instructor who invited us to yesterday’s ceremony. Regards to my friends Larry, John and John, all Ivy Leaguers with several Purple Hearts and Silver and Bronze Stars between them, having been to very bad places and back, and Luke’s pal Adam, yet another 7th Cav trooper with Iraq time.
Young Ian Crittenden, 13, student of current affairs and military history, was allowed to skip school to attend the commissioning, and got to shake the great man’s hand. He was also allowed to sit at table in the company of the abovementioned great Americans, and join them in the customary toast to those not present. He was then granted a temporary internship and allowed to write the Boston Herald article, and experience the joys of being edited. All theoretically educational experiences. Ian pronounced it a “great day.”
I ended the day with one simple walkaway thought. The talk always seems to be about how eight years of war is saddling us with mentally unhinged, potentially dangerous veterans. Here’s a big shout out to all the men and women, whatever schooling or lack of it they may have had, now studying in Petraeus’ unforgiving school of leadership. Every last one of them became a leader just by stepping forward. How fortunate we are to have them.
(Faust by the way engaged in tit-for-tat book gifting with the cadets. Last year they gave her The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier’s Education by Craig Mullaney. This year she gave them Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations by Michael Walzer. One final note on what turned out to be an unnecessarily political day rather than just an occasion to honor fine young Americans who have chosen to serve their country in time of need: Memo to Harvard, I know it won’t be easy, but next time see if you can find a clergyman who doesn’t look like he’d rather be somewhere else and doesn’t feel like his invocation needs to be about protecting the civil rights of terrorists. A little more righteous smiting, a little less cheek turning, OK? Render unto Caesar, dude. They didn’t join the Peace Corps.)
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:32 am Comments (5) on Thursday, June 4, 2009
5 Responses to “10-Minute Leadership Course”
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June 4th, 2009 at 6:45 am
What a wonderful, uplifting report. Thanks, Jules!
Glad to see that Ian is not letting school get in the way of his education!
June 4th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I am struck by two things about this important event: First, General Petraeus’ message is so important during these difficult times that I wish other members of the media were present to witness and report it. Second, when one is speaking the truth and from the heart, there is no need to hide in excess empty rhetoric to try to make it seem important, because it inherently is. I bet that there was not a teleprompter in sight.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I know the conventional wisdom is that soldiers don’t necessarily make the best presidents, but I honestly think Petraeus would make a good one.
June 4th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Thanks for the terrific article. I have appreciated your Blog spot for some months now. I even share the link with a few others on occasion.
It was rather cool seeing my sons name mentioned in todays article. I read all of your reports from 2003 when you were embedded. I still have all of the actual (March-April 2003) invasion newspapers and your reports were of some comfort to me at the time.
Keep up the great work and Thank You.
June 4th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
My pleasure, and thank you very much for reading. Luke is a great guy, and I really appreciated him taking time to talk with my son and shepherd all of us around at the ceremony.