Black Hearts Essays

The 2nd Brigade of 101st Airborne Division found out in the summer of 2004 that they had to prepare for the war in the Middle East more particularly for Iraq. With Colonel Todd Ebel in Command of the 2nd Division with a year to prepare over 3,400 men and woman he got right to work. Colonel Ebel started by choosing his staff and who he thought was fit to take charge and lead this ever more complicated war. It was a huge religious civil war taking place in Iraq at the time with the Sunnis at war against the Shi’ite and after the capture of Saddam insurgency started uprising immediately. This uprising along with the uprising of Muqtada al-Sadr a key leader that had lots of violent followers that soon grew into a form of a militia called

     Imagine yourself wrongly convicted of a crime. You spent years in jail awaiting your release date. It finally comes, and when they let you out, they slap handcuffs around your wrists and tell you every single action you do. In a nutshell, that’s how the Black Codes worked. The southerners wanted control over the blacks after the Civil War, and states created their own Black Codes.

"Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization" (Mills, 2013). The Army measures its leaders by their attributes and their core leader competencies. Also, a leader must be able to train, coach and mentor their subordinates. Additionally, the Army has three levels of leadership: Direct, Organizational, and Strategic. An effective leader understands and practices these qualities at an operational level.

The Army's definition of leadership is “the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization.” An army leader is anyone who inspires and influences people to accomplish their goals. Leaders motivate people both inside and outside the army to help them pursue their goals, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the better of the army. Leadership can be acquired by anyone as long as they have the self-determination to do so. The main principles of leadership in the army are broken down in to the acronym LDRSHIP (loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage), characteristics the army aims to instilled in each

My leadership philosophy revolves entirely around the Army Values. In every action I take as a leader, I assess whether or not it lines up with the Army Values and the potential impacts. I have had a variety of leadership assignments during my career, all requiring a different leadership approach, spanning from team leader through platoon sergeant. My conflict resolution skills have greatly evolved through my twelve years in the Army, from rudimentary conversations to in depth problem solving. My professional development has had a profound effect on my leadership abilities, from NCOPD’s to mentorship from senior non-commissioned officers (NCO’s).

Arthur Black is a very opinionated man. In his essays about Canada, he has many short pieces about the differences between Canadians and Americans. He states how there is never anything bad said about Canada, and that Canada could even be considered a “wallflower”. In his essay Canadian Passion Not Flagging, Black talks about how the Americans wave their flag and Canadians do not. Americans have their flag everywhere; hanging inside malls, and even at the gas stations. In his essay Canada: Too Polite to Live, it says how the American Declaration of Independence demands life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Canadians have settled for peace, order, and good government. Another difference between Americans and Canadians according to

On March 12, 2006, four 101st Airborne Division Soldiers of First Platoon, Bravo Company, 1-502nd Infantry Regiment committed one of the most heinous, documented crimes that occurred during Operation Iraqi Freedom - the rape, subsequent quadruple murder and burning of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family who lived just minutes away from the unit’s tactical outpost. What conditions could possibly existed for American Soldiers to take such callous actions? What leadership lessons could be learned in the midst of such tragedy? In his most recent novel, Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Decent Into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death, Jim Frederick documents the yearlong deployment of the 502nd Brigade to Baghdad’s “Triangle of Death”. This

The Army’s definition of leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization (Army, 2012). As a young Sergeant in the United States Army, I thought I was being a good leader by being an effective manager. I was determined to lead Soldiers and accomplish my organizations’ mission. As I gained more experience and attained the rank of Staff Sergeant, I realized that I was managing instead of leading. Leadership is not synonymous with management. Leadership goes beyond the allocation of personnel and resources to accomplish the organization’s goals. Leadership involves change, from being an individual performer to being an influencer. An effective leader has the ability to unite personnel behind the organization’s mission by examining individual motivations to promote success. Providing purpose and direction instills ownership in the success of the organization. A leader is also effective in building team culture. Yet, a leader cannot accomplish the above with establishing her/her own leadership philosophy grounded their individual values,

This type of leadership behavior can be seen in some branches of the military where senior officers have to lead both military and civilian personnel, consequently requiring flexibility in their leadership styles. The writer has had the experience to lead both types of personnel at the same time and therefore can relate with the theory’s approach.

Throughout history, leadership has always been one of the cornerstones contributing to the success of the United States military. Whether in a Garrison or a combat environment, the applicability and level of effectiveness of leadership can be rooted to the resources made available to leaders. To form a clear comparison of garrison and combat leadership; mission and responsibilities must be taken in consideration. A common leadership responsibility, in both garrison and combat environments, is improving the efficiency and development of Soldiers. Utilizing the Army’s Leaders Development Model, the three domains of institutional, operational, and self-development can be used to gauge the comparison.

In this paper I have constructed my thoughts and ideas into what my leadership philosophy will consist of. Leadership is a process that continues to evolve, so embrace the change and challenge. We must place a high value on family, and lastly exhibit attributes and competencies of the Army Leadership Model. Today’s leaders forget the importance of families which the most important thing we have supporting our Soldiers. They also forget that they too were once in their shoes.

Get ready to go! Have you ever wondered why Soldier’s are motivated to react to those words? Three elements may seem easy to overcome and provide the foundation for proper leadership in all environments; but not all elements are controlled and have the ability to be controlled at the leader’s level. Combat leadership and Garrison leadership seem far apart by comparison, but share three basic elements that tie them together.

The US Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people and describes organizational level leadership as leadership that indirectly influence hundreds of persons through several levels of subordinates and staffs. Compared to direct leadership organizational level leadership demands a system and process perspective. The Norwegian Army has not a precise definition of its wanted leadership and does not clear distinguish between direct and organizational level leaders. Although, I find the US Army definition of organizational level leadership comparable with my believed expectations to a Norwegian Army leader at battalion and brigade staff level.

All organizations, whether governmental, corporate, or private, have structures with leadership positions at various levels and different leadership philosophies. However, the military is an organization that differs from the rest of them, because of the specific mission and complex scenario. Therefore, military leadership styles and philosophies are very different from all other kinds, and are far more special. There is no leadership position outside of the military that deals with handling hard decisions and the motivation of people for activities that may require them make the ultimate sacrifice for a greater good. Thus, to be a military leader means to have special devotion and dedication for taking care of your followers, while

Many previous studies have addressed the facets affecting the qualities of leadership from different aspects. Furthermore, some theories focused on individual differences and the situation or task variations from each other. This research is based on previous studies and reviews a realistic experience in the military field, to clarify the links between the change in the qualities of the leader and the change in the situation or task. The research found that the leadership qualities are intrinsic to the mission, that each