December 2015 – CONUS Battle Drills

Why you should hire a combat veteran

Even giants like McDonald’s need combat veterans on staff, I realized that yesterday.

Before I even begin to recount this story, I want to start by saying this is in no way a bad review of McDonald’s, I fed my tribe of 5 for $21, I’m not going to complain about that. I did, however, notice some things that I think businesses need to take note of.

Yesterday we decided to have lunch at McDonald’s because the kids love it there. They enjoy the french fries and the play area, and I enjoy the cost of the food. We went to the restaurant that many readers of this blog are familiar with, you know, the one on Skibo road near Fort Bragg? I looked down at my receipt of $21 and the MBA in me marveled at how they made money, realizing that their margins must certainly be in the pennies per item. Well, after about five minutes of pondering the profit margins of this fast food behemoth I realized that I was not going to be getting my food very quickly, several people in front of me in line were still waiting, and it wasn’t looking good for them either.

I leaned back to watch intently on the operation, switching from MBA mode where I was thinking about the supply chain, volumes, and margins, to military mode and I began analyzing the leadership in this fast food establishment.

Although there were at least 8 employees on staff, there were only three employees working. One was making the food, one was taking orders inside, and one was taking orders for the drive through. These three were trying diligently to keep up with the demand, but were failing to meet customer expectations. I felt like a lane grader from my ROTC days as I had the thought that any Ranger Instructor would agree with, “If I can’t tell who’s in charge, someone is getting a no-go.”

The prep station was a mess. Someone had started to unload a box but didn’t finish, and now it sat right in the area where they prep trays and bags for customers. That created further disorganization and chaos. The next order came up, and as one of the employees handed it to an older gentleman next to me she commented, “I know it was for here, but we’re out of trays.” I noticed three trays under the box in the prep station, and as I looked to my right, five more by the trash can.

One employee was standing next to the fryer watching something cook…don’t those things have timers? I know i’ve heard that annoying alarm.

Another walked by several times, apparently looking for apple pies; don’t know if she found them.

A guy with a different shirt, maybe the manager? Doesn’t he notice there are four employees standing around doing nothing but staring at screens? Guess not. Where’s he going, there’s 15 people waiting on food?

I looked at my wife, “They’re staffed appropriately, but they’re not using the personnel properly.” She rolled her eyes, as she often does when my mind wanders this way and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek.

It was at that moment that I realized I could walk five miles onto Fort Bragg, grab any guy with Sergeant Stripes and a maroon beret, with absolutely zero training and place him in that McDonald’s and in five minutes he would have that place totally unfucked. Everyone would be doing something…mostly cleaning (the place needs it). No one would be standing around, and everyone would know what everyone else was doing. Most of all, everyone would know who was in charge.

That Airborne E-5 would notice the same things that I did: You, the prep station needs cleaned and someone needs to be stationed there, getting orders ready, nothing else. Two people cooking, not one. You there, stop staring at the fucking fryer, it has a loud ass alarm when the shit is ready, go clean something. What are you doing? Looking for apple pies? Ok, find them, and don’t walk by trash on the ground again, you pick it up and throw it away, slob. You, go pick up all the trays around the restaurant. You, you’re not on break, put out the cigarette and go clean the bathroom, smells like shit in there. That’s seven…he still has two more people to assign tasks to.

McDonald’s, the fast food giant, which clearly knows how to make money, that analyzes every single detail of the business, made one critical error: they didn’t hire a leader. They wasted salaries of unused labor and frustration on the part of customers, which will cost them money as myself and others will certainly be more apprehensive about going there again in the future.

What the combat veteran has is a keen understanding of how to get a team working united towards a common goal. He has trained himself to see the battlefield and through the chaos, identify weaknesses, and move quickly to stop them. He has been under a stress that you simply cannot imagine, and he did it with a smile on his face. He may know nothing about your business, but he knows how to lead, and it’s not the stuff you’re going to learn from reading a John C. Maxwell book, it’s the stuff they make movies out of.

Your people are your most important asset, and they need leadership. The US Military knows how to train leaders. Go ahead and exploit that for your gain, I know plenty of guys that would be willing to work for you.

-LJF

Don’t be an absent Father

Sometimes being a father can be disgusting. The following story is not for the faint of heart…

Afghanistan 2005

During the first Afghan elections, someone had gotten upset that a local Mullah was supporting the elections and placed a bomb under his chair. When he sat down during the full service, the bomb exploded, killing him and injuring people in the full mosque. When we arrived with the EOD team, the chaos had mostly died down, but the elders were very distraught. They were afraid that there might be additional devices and asked us to clear the mosque and see what we could find. It was precarious not just because the mosque could still be booby-trapped, but also because American soldiers were entering a mosque and that was generally considered a faux pas.

Myself, SSG Carroll, SGT Harrell and a couple EOD guys made our way towards the front entrance. I noticed bits of burnt flesh stuck to the window as we checked the door. As soon as we entered the building, I was hit by the smell. Imagine everything inside of your body, blood, bile, piss, shit, even skin and hair all exposed and charred and left for hours. My eyes began to water and I could feel my stomach churning already.

I looked around the mostly empty room and could immediately identify where the bomb went off. The columns on my side were mostly empty, but on the other side were still splattered with blood and small bits of flesh. Little pieces of bone littered the carpet and we moved slowly around the room. None of us spoke, besides the random “fuck” or “shit”, I think because most of us were trying to keep from lurching right then and there.

Once our initial pass was done, I approached the location of the blast and I felt a squish under my feet. I looked down and the carpet was so saturated with blood that it began to pool at the edge of my boot. I could tell by the aftermath that although his body had been blown to bits, a large chunk slammed into the column and blood poured out right where I was standing. Some poor soul had to drag what was left of him out.

I looked up in my disgust as the EOD approached the blast site. “You good?” I managed to utter without vomiting, he looked at me and nodded and I started towards the door to get out. Carroll and I made eye contact and I nodded towards the door as the both of us walked quickly to the exit. As soon as the door opened, Carroll looked at me and said, “That fucking sme…” he couldn’t finish the sentence before dry heaving. I felt my own stomach bubble as I watched him, “not in front of the mosque dude!” We both quickly ran down the steps into the courtyard to catch our breath.

CONUS Present day

The baby had something in his mouth as he sat in the tub. I didn’t notice it when I put him in there, but when I stuck the toothbrush in there, something came out with it and as I looked at his little face, I noticed something odd. “Are you chewing on something Ben?” He looked up at me and smiled while keeping his lips together. It forced his cheeks full…that’s when I knew. He wouldn’t let me in there, so I held his nose and when his mouth opened I went in and began fishing out this white gooey substance. It seemed like it kept coming forever. Jonathan saw me doing it and almost barfed right there in the bathtub. I had a vision of fishing puke out of a tub full of toys, and i’ve already had to do it with a turd, didn’t really want to do it with puke. “Look away Jonathan!” He turned and dry heaved in the corner as I finished clearing his baby brother’s mouth, who was now in full wailing mode. Turns out Mom gave him a baby-bell before bath.

——-

I was walking down the hallway when I felt something under my toe. I looked down and picked it up with my bare hands without even thinking about it. As I held this object I was able to examine it much more closely. It was a dark brown, almost black squishy ball. It was a bit moist, and oozed some juice as I squished it. My wife turned and looked at me as I held it. The concern in her eyes told me that she was having the same thought I was, “Is this shit?” There was only one way to find out for sure. I brought the small ball to my face and gave it a sniff.

…

whew…a cocoa puff.

Look, you can be an absent dad, making your wife take care of everything, but she will begin to resent you, the kids won’t know and trust you, and even though you’ll miss out on things like fishing out a turd from the tub, you’ll also miss out on all the wonderful things that come with being a dad.

There is no greater joy in this world than having one of your kids want to share their lives with you. Unless you make the sacrifices…the sometimes disgusting sacrifices…you’ll miss out on life’s greatest reward.

-LJF

Merry Christmas from the Taliban

Christmas Firefight…

Although I’ve told this story many times, there is an element of it that I’ve kept to myself because I didn’t think it was socially acceptable, but recently i’ve seen enough papers, articles, and posts to realize that I’m not the only one that has felt this, and so, for the first time the whole story:

December 2005 Afghanistan

Captain Teague, our company commander, had apprehensively gone on leave the two weeks prior, and like most of the men of Bravo company, he was eager to return to Afghanistan. We were getting into firefights on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, so leaving for three weeks or more meant that you were likely to miss one, and none of us wanted to miss one. Had we been given the option, i’m sure most of the Bravo men would have deferred on leave to be there with their brothers in combat. Teague got lucky and nothing happened in the three weeks during his absence, and I think it was the day he got back (or the next day) that we got into the largest firefight of the entire deployment.

Camp Tillman was a small base named after the Arizona Cardinals player killed in Afghanistan. It sat less than two kilometers from Pakistan right along a major supply route for enemy fighters. We slept in concrete buildings with one metal door, around 30 guys to a room. I slept right by the door to be easy to find and so I could get up quickly if need be. I was deep in REM sleep when the metal door violently swung open and SGT Harvey Lewis yelled, “The base is getting attacked!” as he shimmied past my cot towards his gear in the back of the room. I stood up and pushed the door open to see for myself. I remember thinking that I didn’t hear the familiar sounds of whooshing rockets or mortars, so his words didn’t make sense. When I pushed the door open I saw, through the bright moon-lit sky, hundreds of tracers and heard the sharp cracks of AK rounds pinging all around the base.

My heart leapt, and this is the part I’ve never told, I was excited for this fight. Enemy fighters within our lines, inside the base, this is the kind of shit they make movies out of! I slipped my feet into my boots, pulled the laces tight and tucked them into the sides. I threw my plate carrier over my head, grabbed my LCE and helmet, snapped my NODs into place and kicked the door open. I was the first one out of the hooch wearing only shorts and a brown t-shirt under my gear and I didn’t look back, I knew my guys were coming. I could hear the distinct sound of an AK firing and I was moving towards it quickly. Those fuckers had breached our wall and I was about to place some controlled pairs center mass to teach all of them a lesson.

My senses were extremely heightened. The cold night air filled my lungs, I could feel the snow crunching beneath my feet…movement on my periphery! I spotted something out of the corner of my right eye (I had a monocular night vision) and spun quickly. The PEQ-2 infared laser stopped right center mass on the target when I noticed it was a friendly and my thumb lightened pressure on the selector switch leaving the weapon on safe. I continued rapidly moving to the edge of the building towards the sound of the AK.

I reached the corner and could hear my soldiers pouring out of the door behind me and the AK firing on the other side of the wall. This was it, I was about to come face-to-face with the invading hoard, the adrenaline was coursing violently through my veins and I let out a sharp breath to steady myself as I spun out around the corner. My thumb pressed tightly against the selector switch and my trigger finger slipped onto the trigger. With my left hand I squeezed the pressure switch on my gangster grip turning the infrared laser onto the target, and that’s when I realized it wasn’t an invading hoard.

A single solitary Afghan soldier with his back against the HESCO wall had his eyes closed, his AK over his head, and was holding the trigger firing full auto into the darkness. That man had no idea how close to death he came at my hands. In a fraction of a second I recognized he wasn’t the enemy and released the pressure on the selector switch once again.

The enemy never did actually breach our perimeter, despite bringing over three hundred men to attack our small outpost of only 120 men. What they didn’t take into account is that Camp Tillman, although small in numbers, every one of us was either a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne or a Green Beret, basically some of the baddest motherfuckers on the planet. We fought them off for several hours, then bombed them with a predator (when it finally showed up), then chased them down and got into another firefight right on the border. The fight started the night of December 22nd and basically ended in the late afternoon of the 23rd. Not one US soldier was killed, and we covered the Afghan mountainside with the blood of our enemies.

I tell this story for two reasons, one, because I just celebrated the 10 year anniversary of that fight, and two, because I want my brothers to know that they are not sociopaths for loving what they did. There were two types of people on September 11th, there were those that were glad they weren’t on the planes, and those that wished they had been on the plane. The former don’t understand the latter, and on that cold December night in Afghanistan, I was surrounded by the latter.

Most of us in shorts and t-shirts laying in the snow, surging with adrenaline and excitement as we dealt a serious ass-whooping to the enemy. It may be difficult for civilians to understand, but I actually enjoyed the firefights. It was fun, it was a challenge, and ten years later, I remember that night and the fight the next day fondly, as do many of my brothers. That’s one of the reasons getting out was so difficult. I now understand why guys like Michael Jordan, or Peyton Manning, or Mike Tyson have such a hard time calling it quits, when you’re doing something you love, it’s hard to walk away.

Veteran Profile: Ed Jasper

In this first installment of Veteran Profiles, listen to Ed talk about his 20 years with the Army and more than 14 years with John Deere.

Military Experience

United States Army – 1981 – 2001 – (MOS 67N/67T/67Z)

In the early years, I was a UH-1H (Huey) Crew Chief, Section Sergeant, Instructor, and Quality Control NCOIC. In the later years, I was a Production Control NCOIC, Squadron S3 NCOIC, and Retired as a 1SG of a UH-60 (Blackhawk) Troop

Current Position and Civilian Work Experience

Manager of Program Management Office, John Deere – Cary, NC

I have worked for John Deere for 14.5 year and had multiple assignments in Factory Operations, Project Management, Quality Engineering, and Program Management

The Big 4 Questions:

Were you financially ready to get out? What steps did you take?

No, I was not financially ready to get out!

I was a 1SG with 3 kids in High School, and one kid was getting ready to start college. I was fortunate that I found a good job with a great company and literally left the Army on Thursday, drove across country and started with John Deere on Monday.

I tried to be as debt free as possible, ensured my credit report was clean and accurate, and bought a house that was below what we were approved for to help control expenses.

Why did you want to get out?

I loved the Army, but it was time.

I loved working with soldiers and spent my entire career in Army Aviation and was still crewing helicopters occasionally as a 1SG. It may sound funny, but I was not interested in becoming a CSM and what that rank would entail at that point in my career. I had been a 1SG for 3 years, and the family was ready to have me home more. In 2001, to become a CSM, I would have had to go to the academy, spend a year at Ft. Bliss, and then be subject to an assignment worldwide. I had three kids in high school, and that level of uncertainty did not seem like the right thing to drag them through. Based on what I thought my next step in the Army was, and the needs of my family, it was time to go.

Did you know where you wanted to live?

I have a funny story about where “we wanted to live”. We had lived all over the world, and our last duty station we were stationed at Ft. Carson, CO which is an awesome assignment. My wife and I were discussing the whole retirement plan, when a commercial for Colonial Williamsburg came on the TV. We had lived in the area previously for a few years when I was stationed at Ft. Eustis. We both thought going back to the Tidewater Area of Virginia would be a good choice if we did not stay in Colorado. The following day, I got a call from a previous commander of mine that said he had someone from John Deere where he was working in Williamsburg, VA that wanted to talk to me about a job! How is that for karma!

Honestly, I was willing to relocate to any location for the right job. I had seen a number of former coworkers in Army make what I thought was a mistake and limit themselves to a geographic region. This really limited the types of jobs they were getting interviews for.

I know moving is tough on families, but after John Deere made me job offer, it was my kids that told me it was ok to change High Schools again, they would adjust and that Mom and I had to do what was right for our long term future. It was tough on them, but they have all made it through college and are working in their chosen career field.

Did you know what you wanted to do?

No, I had no idea what I really wanted to do. I did have plan, I called it the “5 finger plan” and had a resume that matched each of those paths. They ran the gamut from working for a defense contractor in aviation maintenance to working in public education. The other thing I did when I was in was to finish my degree programs – so I earned an Associate’s Degree while I was still a SPC, earned my Bachelor’s Degree by the time I was a SFC, and finished a Masters in Education the year before I retired. The degrees did not make me any smarter, but they do open doors that might not be available without them.

I knew I wanted to have a challenging job, with a firm I could grow with, and that would offer a level of pay that would improve my standard of living. So far, John Deere continues to offer me new opportunities – I have moved 6 times in 14 years and had 7 primary jobs in that time period and number of other special projects. Not everyone has to move to advance, but they have offered interesting jobs that I wanted to pursue, so it has been a good fit so far.

Quick Tips for Transitioning

If you are enlisted – get as much school as you can to include college, certifications and other training applicable to your career path.
Officer, Senior NCO, or Enlisted – Be willing to take an entry level job with the right company – your experience and work ethic will lead to other opportunities for promotion.
Be willing to relocate to take the right job – go where the work is
Contact others you have served with that are already out – they are a great resource
Practice Interviewing and using words and language that civilians understand
Send your resume to people not in the military to get some feedback – Don’t be offended with the feedback
When you get the first job, find a mentor. Most organizations have some former military in the workforce. Find out who they are, and approach them about mentoring you. They will be invaluable to you in helping to connect the dots as you transition.

Listen to the full interview now, or take it with you and listen on the go!

I want it on the go: Veteran_Profile_Jasper

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