Veteran Lesson III: Keep Right Perspective (Ten Veteran Lessons for Every Day)

Topic: Leadership

Lesson 3

Keep Right Perspective

            One of my favorite stories from my father dates to my time as a very new Army officer.  I came up for promotion to First Lieutenant in November 2009, while stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.  It is the first promotion a commissioned officer receives, generally within two years of being commissioned.  In today’s Army, and the other branches, the promotion is nearly automatic.  A Second Lieutenant must either be out of fitness regulations or crippled by poor conduct or legal troubles to miss out on the promotion.

            While I was happy to be out of my “butter bar” training wheels and in receipt of a slight pay raise, I tried to play it cool.  Soldiers are cynical people, and deal with the mundane moments of military living by coming up with phrases like “rank among lieutenants is like virtue among whores.”  Phrases like that prevent lieutenants from expressing any sort of delight in getting to the next rank, even though it is nearly automatic.

            When my Dad, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry who served three tours in Vietnam, told me he was going to drive eight hours to Fort Hood from his home in Mississippi to watch the ceremony, I tried to wave him off, citing the insignificance of the promotion as I have described it in the preceding paragraphs.  What he said to me next lives in my memory and will forever: