(Transferred from PL)
I am just completing a tour in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where I had the privilege to deploy as platoon leader of a motivated band of Soldiers and NCOs. Our mission was detention operations. Our charge was to maintain care, custody, and control of America’s enemies that were detained in the maximum-security facility here. In addition to platoon leader, I was dual-hatted as one of the Assistant Officers In-charge (think deputy warden) responsible for the facility’s operations and personnel when the OIC was out. It was one of the most strategically significant missions I have ever been part of; the eyes of the world were on us constantly, and the president was briefed daily on camp operations and the status of our detainees.

Yes, Guantanamo Bay is a beautiful place, with its crystal blue waters and distance from the mortar rounds and sniper fire of Iraq and Afghanistan, but that doesn’t mean the mission was any less stressful or required any less discipline. If anything, the lack of a mortal threat meant that even greater discipline was required to walk the blocks, day in, day out, for twelve hours a shift, doing the right thing at all times. Opportunities to get into trouble, both inside and outside the camp, were everywhere. The ability to drink alcohol; the close quarters; the Joint environment; long hours; training requirements; sometimes toxic leadership; as well as Active, Reserve and Guard units all working and living together; all combined into a UCMJ nightmare that brought down the careers of numerous Soldiers, NCOs, and even a couple of Officers. My platoon emerged with fewer UCMJ actions than any other in the BN, and with all but one Soldier leaving the island with the ranks they came with (or more). That one Soldier who lost rank? It was my decision to push for a reduction as a disciplinary measure, something that turned the Soldier around and made him one of the better PFCs I’ve got.

My NCOs and Soldiers were the biggest factor in our platoon’s success. However there are also some lessons I learned along the way that I think are worth sharing. Here are three.

First lesson: The time and effort involved in setting a foundation of trust and esprit de corps between me (the PL) and my platoon’s NCOs/Soldiers during the pre-mobilization process paid dividends in the long run. As I said above, the environment we’re in here is thick with opportunities to get into trouble. Eyes everywhere are looking to slam Soldiers when they mess up or violate one of the numerous housing or highly restrictive fraternization polices that limit all but the most innocuous off-duty contact between NCOs and Soldiers. However, right from the beginning I pulled my platoon in and made everyone a part of the team, counseling each Soldier and NCO the same way with a written leadership philosophy that was easy to understand. I carried that written philosophy around myself to show them that it applied to me as well; a contract between them and me. It was “us,” “we,” and “our” platoon. Yes, we did develop a little of the “we don’t want to be that OTHER platoon” attitude, since they were getting into trouble from the start, but a lot of it also came down to the attitude that Soldiers and NCOs didn’t want to let each other, or me, down. They saw themselves as part of something bigger, something good, something they were proud of, so they kept their noses clean for the most part, or at a minimum policed themselves.

Second, “Mission Command” has to be more than simply a catch phrase; it has to be something that leaders stick to and live by, even when things get difficult. Without mutual trust across the command—up, down, laterally—there is no chance for an effective, functioning team to form. All around me, I saw the chaos caused by lack of trust—officers turning on NCOs, NCOs turning on Soldiers, and Soldiers turning on everyone. I saw and learned that clear intent is essential in order to ensure there is shared understanding of the purpose/mission, and how important it is that everyone understands what their part is within that purpose. To that end, leaders must counsel and train their Soldiers, not only to ensure they are doing the right thing, but also to make sure they KNOW what the right thing is. Counseling is hard, it takes time, it takes trial and error, but in the end, better Soldiers and NCOs come out of it. Having a base to go off of (initial counseling) was important, so all of my counseling was based off of my leadership philosophy, which then tied everything back to the team. An element of mission command that I began practicing from the beginning was to encourage subordinates to exercise disciplined initiative, allowing them the opportunity to succeed or fail (if the situation allows it), and providing proper guidance when they did something incorrectly. It was hard, and it did earn me some serious conversations with my commander during training, but when it came time to execution, we had nothing but success. With that, I found that orders need to allow for greater flexibility in order to allow subordinates to find solutions to problems and answers to complex situations on their own. Much of this was learned from things I myself encountered and saw taking place around us. Finally, as a leader, I must constantly assess risk and be willing to accept risk, and not simply to write off something as not possible because it is risky. This, I found, is one of the most important things that leaders at many levels fail to do.

Finally, professionalism is essential. It is essential to maintaining trust, maintaining morale, maintaining discipline, and everything else that is required to be successful. Professionalism matters when dealing with peers, superiors, subordinates, even the detainees. From the simple things like saying “please” and “thank you” to your subordinates and peers; to things that were a little more difficult like looking into the eyes of an Al Qaeda commander, someone with American blood on his hands, and addressing his problems and speaking to him in a respectful manner. This place, this mission, and the command climate here revealed many situations where I saw how professionalism—or the lack of it—impacted the smooth functioning of the service. You don’t have to worry about professional Soldiers crossing the fraternization line, harassing or assaulting each other, or doing the wrong thing just because it’s easy.

Again, there were other lessons that I would be happy to discuss with someone tasked with a similar mission. However if nothing else, I hope that you can take something away from the experiences I’ve shared here.

Brock J. Young
Platoon Leader
Assistant Officer In-Charge

“Pride, Honor, Discipline.”

(thanks for this opportunity LTC Kilner)