One Person can Change the World, Well at Least Changed Mine
Circa 2002 Prior to our First deployment. (Bastards) Josh is lower left kneeling
The problems of the world can be so overwhelming that we may ask ourselves how one person could really make any real difference. I believe that we can make the biggest differences by doing small things over time and doing a lot of them. Let me tell the story of two leaders in my life that changed my world forever and impacted others’ lives as I’ve continued my Army career.
As a young corporal in 2000, I was in a platoon that was known across my organization as one of the worst and had horrible leadership. I was done, I hated the Army,I hated Ranger Regiment, and I was counting the days until my ETS. I didn’t care what I did after the Army as long as it wasn’t that. One day a young SSG from another PLT came to be my new Squad Leader; his name was Joshua Wheeler. I had never met a person like him before. His energy, excitement, and desire to lead literally blew me away. Fast forward 6 months, I was a young SGT that had just reenlisted and could never imagine doing anything else with my life.
This NCO had changed me forever. He taught me what it meant to be a leader, to have fun, and train to destroy the enemies of our country with an excitement I never witnessed before. He continued his service and impacted countless individuals until he died in Iraq fighting ISIS in 2015.
Another story of the power one person can have. While on my second deployment to Iraq as a Platoon Sergeant, we had one of those deployments that was counted by gunfights, helicopter rides, and kicking in doors. While on one mission one of my squads charged into a house to clear it. In the process an insurgent leapt from a stairwell onto the Squad Leader. A struggle ensued, the threat was eliminated, and we continued the mission.
Later that night as we arrived back at the compound, I ran into a NCO from another organization, let’s call him Rick. I had known him for many years and he was someone that I greatly respected. He asked me what happened on the mission and I explained how the situation went down. He paused, after I finished, took a second to think and then proceeded to verbally dress me down in a way that made me feel as if I was a child.
After we conducted a Platoon After Action Review I took my SLs to meet with Rick and his team. What happened after that was one of the most enlightening tactical experiences of my life. They explained to us how our process of blowing in front doors and clearing buildings like worker ants was flawed and would result in assaulters dying. We needed to change our tactics. If the enemy was close enough to jump on us, we were wrong and it was time for change.
As the weeks turned into months, we changed everything; how we approached targets, how we planned, and our methods of assault. After the deployment we took the lessons back to the rest of the battalion, and it changed how the entire organization assaulted. To some degree it changed how the Regiment conducted operations. It was a new idea and one that forever changed the organization. One NCO changed how the largest Special Operations Raid force looked at assaulting. The number of human lives saved because of it could never be truly known.
Rick and Josh never set out to change the world. They just did the right thing and helped one person. So don’t worry about changing the world, worry about changing the small element you work in every day. You might not see the change today, tomorrow, or even a year from now. However, I guarantee over time you will make a difference. If you do enough small things, you’ll have more of an impact then you can ever truly know.
~Mike
