Had many good and very few bad leaders. I’ll describe LTC Alex Deraney, EN (now retired). What I admired about him was his one of a kind emotional intelligence and unmatched knowledge of all things. In battle he was calming, reassuring. With his young inexperienced commanders (as I started out), he was encouraging, patient. In night court, he was the most just, transparent, even-handed and wisest judge; patience would be an understatement here. We traveled extensively and engaged with many different cultures, and he had all people eating out of the palm of his hand. One time, I was asked to accompany a Colonel to go to a school, then meet a village mayor and when I returned, the BN XO walked out and said – “What did you do, that Colonel called and demanded you to come work for him?” to which I replied – “Nothing special, had fun and just imitated the boss.” Anywhere I used techniques learned from watching him, I met with success: tactically, in UCMJ, cultural engagements and in setting a positive command climate.

Another, CSM Osvaldo Martell (about to retire shortly), was my BN CSM and had an incredibly magnetic, and charming personality as well. In Iraq and Afghanistan, he circulated the battlefield, found his Soldiers sitting on rocks one day, returned with a helicopter full of wood, hammers and nails and built them (with their help) living quarters; in Iraq he built a roadhouse – he liked woodworking needless to say. Wherever the need was great, that’s where you’d find him. I had a high-vis/no-fail mission while deployed and he moved in with me for 1-2 months until the chaos settled and reports of our success were coming in; needless to say I learned a lot from spending that time with him. He never yelled at Soldiers for walking on grass or hands in pockets, but instead made sure all of them were taken care of.