"Aftermath" Chpts 24-26

I really enjoyed reading We Were Soldiers and I thought it related well to our lectures. There were numerous examples of leadership throughout the book, on both sides, which helped me to develop my own definition of a leader. To be effective, a leader must gain the respect of their subordinates and maintain that respect by not only talking the talk, but also walking the walk. The leadership of LTC Moore and Crandall stuck out to me as truly exceptional. Both men went above and beyond and I think that made a difference in the Ia Drang.
Hal Moore is plain-and-simple a good leader. I can think of numerous different examples of why his leadership was exemplary. However, the one that stuck out the most to me is how much he took the Warrior Ethos, especially I will never leave a fallen comrade, to heart. In the movie Moore tells his soldiers that they will all come home and in the book you see that he does everything possible to make this a reality. He searches the battle fields himself and even goes back to Albany to find the final soldiers that were MIA. Not only did Moore impress me with his commitment to his soldiers, but he was also committed to their families. I think by going to Jack’s family he showed how much he cared for his soldiers and that he did not take their sacrifices lightly.
The other leader that really stood out to me was Crandall. The thing that amazed me about him was that he never hesitated; Crandall saw the needs of the soldiers on the ground and just got the job done. Throughout the battle he made sure Moore’s men had the supplies and ammunition they needed. When the medevacs refused to land because the LZ was hot, which seems like the most backwards thing to me, Crandall loaded the wounded onto his own Hueys. Crandall utilized transactional leadership many times throughout the battle. He never forced his men to come along on the extra flights; they did it on their own accord in order to work for the greater good. The actions of Crandall at X-Ray made me realize that leadership has to be a truly unselfish action; he could never have been as effective if he had only been thinking of his own well-being.