‘Did You Have a Friend on the Good Reuben James?’

by Bill Doughty

Woody Guthrie wrote “Sinking of the Reuben James” in 1942, a poetic ode to a mighty destroyer, the first American ship sunk in World War II.  

Guthrie’s song concludes with this verse, showcasing the resolve of the Navy and nation during the war:

Now tonight there are lights in our country so bright
In the farms and in the cities they're telling of the fight.
And now our mighty battleships will steam the bounding main
And remember the name of that good Reuben James.

The refrain: “What were their names, tell me, what were their names?  Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?”

Guthrie’s song, about the sinking of the original USS Reuben James (DD 245) by a German submarine (just weeks before Imperial Japan’s attack of Oahu, Hawaii) was also performed by the Kingston Trio, the Highwaymen and Johnny Horton (of “Battle of New Orleans” and “Sink the Bismark” fame), among other performers.  

With the sinking of the destroyer Reuben James, the Navy lost 115 Sailors, with only 44 survivors.

That original USS Reuben James had been first commissioned in 1919 and served with the Atlantic Fleet.  The ship was decommissioned in 1931 but was recommissioned 13 months later to serve in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean, before being assigned to fateful duty escorting war materials to Britain in WWII.

In song, film and books, USS Reuben James has captured the imagination of artists and the public.

It started with the ship’s namesake.  

James saves Decatur in an engraving by Alonzo Chappel, 1858.

Boatswain's Mate Reuben James was a hero aboard the American frigate Philadelphia in the Barbary Wars against piracy, putting his body in harm’s way to protect Lt. Stephen Decatur.  He served in the War of 1812 and aboard early frigates including USS Constitution and USS Constellation.  Taken prisoner, James was released after the war and went on to serve again with Captain Decatur, aboard the Guerriere.

When Woody Guthrie, who hated fascism in all forms, sang about mighty “battleships” steaming the bounding main, we can imagine not only the surface forces and actual battleships (BBs) but also the American submarines, air power and ground forces and other warfighters that came back with a vengeance to win peace and freedom 70-plus years ago.

“Back with a Vengeance” is the motto of the “world-famous” recently decommissioned guided-missile frigate USS Reuben James (FFG 57).  The latest of three ships to bear the proud name of the boatswain of two centuries ago, the frigate Reuben James made its own mark in the history books. 

Its first mission was Operation Earnest Will, in which the Navy provided protection to Kuwaiti oil tankers threatened by attack during the Iran-Iraq War.  The “Fightin’ 57” had a key role at the end of the Cold War, provided maritime security in the 80s and 90s, and deployed to provide extended support in Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom in the 21st century.  

From its homeport of Pearl Harbor, Reuben James operated forward to build partnerships, trained with international navies including in RIMPAC, provided humanitarian assistance, interdicted drug smugglers, and protected fishing areas alongside the U.S. Coast Guard.

USS Reuben James has been featured in novels (and movies) including Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising” and “Hunt for Red October.”

Nonfiction and fiction writers have included references to the original Reuben James destroyer and now decommissioned frigate in their works.  These include, “Blood on the Sea” by Robert Sinclair Parkin, “Chosin File” by Dale Dye, “The Malacca Conspiracy” by Don Brown, “Battle for the North Atlantic” by John R. Bruning, “The USS Reuben James,” by Harold Charles, “Shepherds of the Sea” by Robert F. Cross, “Ghosts of the USS Yorktown,” by Bruce Orr, “Turning the Tide” by Ed Offley, and “Linebakers of the Sea” by Ray Lubeski.

The older frigates are leaving the Navy as littoral combat ships (LCS) such as USS Freedom (LCS 1) with near shore capabilities, are now operating forward.  

Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class William Shammas, one of the crew members at the decommissioning ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam this past week, said he’s sorry to see the frigates retire from service.

USS Reuben James (FFG 57) CO Cmdr. Dan Valascho speaks at the July 18, 2013 decommissioning.

“The U.S. Navy’s real first ships were frigates,” Shammas said.  “The first one, and the oldest ship in the United States Navy is a frigate -- the USS Constitution,” he observed.

The Reuben James was the first guided-missile frigate homeported in Hawaii, and the last to be retired there, leaving 17 frigates operating in the Navy.  The crew is transferring to other ships on the waterfront; their ship will transfer to the inactive ships list, gone for now.

Perhaps someday another USS Reuben James will be called to sail the world’s oceans and “steam the bounding main” -- "back with a vengeance" to confront new threats from piracy, terrorism or fascism.http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/FFG57/Pages/ourship.aspx#Namesake

Boston Bombing Roots

by Bill Doughty

In thinking about the “why” behind the terrorist attacks by radical Islamic fundamentalists, can at least part of the answer be explained in books?  While the world was focused on the Middle East, the atrocity at the Boston Maraton last April 15 -- Patriots Day -- shifted some of the attention a bit north of Syria, Iraq and Iran to almost forgotten Chechnya and the fringes of the former Soviet Union.

To understand “why Chechnya?” several books provide helpful insight.  All of these were written before Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens with ties to radical Islam, conducted their vicious attack against innocent Americans.

“Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda’s Training Ground and the Next Wave of Terror” by Yossef Bodansky introduces readers immediately to terrorists like Shamil Basayev, AKA Amir Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris, once tied to bin-Laden and al-Zawahiri.

Like author and historian Bernard Lewis, Bodansky attempts to explain the violent reactions of some fundamentalists against western modernization and what their jihad hopes to accomplish.

“The story of the Islamist-Jihadists’ quest to seize the strategic ground of Chechnya and the Caucasus is a unique and critical case study for anyone seeking to understand the means and goals of the worldwide Islamist jihad.  And its failure -- if failure it can be -- contains lessons that may be infrastructure as the secular world confronts continued Islamist-Jihadist surges in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.”

War in Chechnya in 1994 is thought to have claimed 100,000 lives.

Bodansky shows how sharia law, which called for public violence against its citizens, restricted women’s rights, transformed society, destroyed the socioeconomic infrastructure and fomented violence.  He calls it Chechenization.

In the chapter “Why Should We Care?” he writes:

“Chechenization refers to the profound transformation of a predominantly Muslim society from its traditional, largely pre-Islamic structure to one dominated by Islamist-Jihadist elements that historically have been alien to that society.  Chechenization involving not only the Arabization of that society’s value system, social structure, and way of life, but a near-complete abandonment of a society’s own cultural heritage in favor of subservience to pan-Islamic Jihadist causes, even if those causes are detrimental to the self-interest of that society.”

Under sharia law there is no separation of church and state.  In a radical Islamic state there is no tolerance for "disbelievers," nonbelievers or so-called apostates (former Muslims).

Lawrence Scott Sheets describes in “8 Pieces of Empire” how clerics in Chechnya ordered public televised lashings and public executions.  A highlight of his personal reporter’s narrative is the chapter “Three Libertine Women” in which we meet three freedom fighters, “Sabotage Women,” who fought the Russians nearly twenty years ago.

Harassed by morality police and threatened because of their secular attitudes and behavior, the women -- strong and fierce and free -- “fled Chechnya for Europe, where they are today.”

Andrew Meier, in “Chechnya: To the Heart of a Conflict,” describes a land of suicide bombings, assassinations and ongoing act of terrorism, where assassinations in the years since the first Russian onslaught in 1994, the kidnapping industry replaced petroleum crude as the primary contribution to Chechnya’s gross domestic product.”

Meier says he wrote the book as a report to “trace the convulsions” in the region.

A highlight of Meier’s small book is a timeline from the 17th through 19th centuries when “Chechens adopt Sunni Islam, but retain many ancestral customs,” through the impact of Russia, ending with the Sept. 1, 2004 terrorist attack and hostage taking in Beslan, North Ossetia and killing and wounding of hundreds of children.

In Moshe Gammer’s “The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule,” we learn of the history of the turmoil in the Caucasus going back to Catherine the Great in 1771, in the same decade as the birth of the United States, 1776.

The embers of violence continued to glow, flaring around the time of the American Civil War.

“In 1866 ... economic, religious, political and other tensions had gradually been building up, making Chechnya (and Daghestan) a powder keg waiting to explode.  The Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-8 was the match that ignited it.”

Gammer describes another milestone around the time of World War I.

“The Islamic leaders were interested in securing the monopoly of the sharia over life in the mountains.  In the Chechen congress in Groznyi they had already raised the questions of enforcing the sharia and establishing a Terek Muftiate.”

Gammer calls it an “alliance” between religion and nationalism.

In the ashes of the Ottoman experience and in the face of the Stalinist persecution by the Soviet Union, fundamentalist Islam attracted a greater following among the people.

A purge or “deportation” in WWII caused deep-seated resentment that took root for generations despite a “rehabilitation” during the Cold War.

Terrorism and war continued as the people adopted “Wahhabism,” the religious philosophy adopted by al-Zawahiri.

According to Gammer, “The war of 1994-6 strengthened the Islamic dimension of Chechen identity and brought to the fore memories of the Islamic resistance to Russia in the eighteenth and nineteeth centuries ... Furthermore, Islam poured he strongest rallying call inside Chechnya and more effective than secular ideologies in calling for unity and mobilising support among other North Caucasian nationalities...”

So, the history books help us understand the unholy war that has existed in the region.  Other books can also help explain the brainwashing, “divine purpose” and self-righteous attitude that causes such explosive violence.

Still, the more we understand, the more questions we encounter.  Especially as we consider the “why” behind the Tsarnaev attacks in Boston on Patriots Day, a Massachusetts holiday celebrating freedom and independence.  What caused the two jihadists to lash out and cause so much destruction?  Why would they reject the freedom and democracy they had adopted.  Perhaps their uncle Ruslan Tsarni has the reason that goes beyond the history books: “being losers.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being arraigned this week after the formal indictment was issued last month.

When is Independence Day for Iraq? The Gamble

Review by Bill Doughty

While contemplating independence, freedom and democracy on July 4, “The Gamble” by Thomas E. Ricks makes a sobering and insightful read.  That’s especially true this year -- ten years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and two years after our departure -- as we think about our men and women still serving in the Middle East and as we watch events unfold in Afghanistan, Egypt and Syria.

Ricks’s book, an "essential" title on the CNO’s professional reading program under the "warfighting" category, is subtitled, “General David Petraeus and the American Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008.”  Sectarian violence continues to flare in Iraq in the first half of 2013.

Ricks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Fiasco” and "The Generals," researches, analyzes and describes how Petraeus, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno and others took a bad situation and made it better, despite some people’s doubts about counterinsurgency and surge strategies at the time.

Petraeus and his team had a carefully-thought-out “minimalist” approach that differed from the grand vision but “lack of imagination” of those who pushed us into Iraq, wanted to stay indefinitely and advocated confronting Iran.

“For years, the U.S. military had fretted about ‘mission creep.’  Beginning with the Somalia operation in 1992-93, top commanders worried that once U.S. forces were committed to a situation, the tasks assigned them would continually expand, from security to providing a variety of services to standing up a government, until they were mired in what was derogated as ‘nation building.’ Many in the military had listened with relief (when) George W. Bush had denounced this tendency during the 2000 presidential election campaign, saying it was not a proper use of the armed forces. ‘I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation building,’ he said during a debate with Al Gore, the Democratic candidate. ‘I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war.’  Then, of course, he went on to invade Iraq and inadvertently launch perhaps the most ambitious and expensive nation-building effort in the history of the United States.”

Petraeus’s minimalist position, Ricks says, was “a polite way of rejecting the grandiose Bush vision and instead acknowledging that Iraq isn’t going to be a stable, quiet, peace-loving democracy anytime soon.”

Author Tom Ricks

Ricks mourns the “blood, treasure, prestige and credibility” paid in the lack of imagination over the past decade in Iraq.  On this Independence Day we are still recovering from the impact of Iraq, and some service members and families will never fully recover.

In his clipped reporter-on-the-ground tone Ricks carefully outlines events and describes key people and places.  He pulls no punches.  “The Gamble” has an extensive appendix that includes unclassified FOUO documents and plans.  All of this makes this book a key read to help us understand how the United States turned things around after the “fiasco” and how we left Iraq in the best way possible.

Implicit in the pages of this book is the question of whether freedom and democracy can be imposed on a country through war or if it’s best to be homegrown from within through peace, encouragement and cooperation.  Independence or National Day in Iraq, by the way, is celebrated October 3 to commemorate independence from the United Kingdom in 1932.

After quoting Ambassador Ryan Crocker from 2008, Ricks makes it clear that the history of the war in Iraq is still being written as Sunni, Shiite and other Islamic and secular factions wrestle with sharing power.  Throughout the region it’s still an open question whether radical fundamentalism is winning or whether freedom and democracy will prevail over despicable warlords, tribalism and medieval thinking.

Ricks concludes, “In other words, the events from which the Iraq war will be remembered probably have not yet happened.”

Taunt of 'Congo' -- Navy Lt. in Africa

by Bill Doughty

“Congo: The Miserable Expeditions and Dreadful Death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN” by Andrew C. A. Jampoler, soon-to-be released by the Naval Institute Press, is a fascinating safari into the history of Africa and the adventures and “misadventures,” as Craig L. Symonds calls them, of a naval officer more than a century ago, a mere two decades after the Civil War.

Symonds, author of "Battle of Midway" and "Lincoln and His Admirals" writes in his review note, “In 1885 an otherwise undistinguished U.S. Navy lieutenant named Emory Taunt embarked alone on a journey up the Congo River into what was then still called darkest Africa. Soon Taunt was seeking to parlay his presumed expertise into a lucrative contract with businessman Henry Sanford, and when that didn't pan out, to convince President Cleveland that he should be named U.S. consul to the Congo State. This history of Taunt's misadventures is a window into the curious and conflicted U.S. relationship with Africa in the late Victorian era, and especially with the Congo basin."

SECNAV cover letter, 1887.

Jampoler retraces Taunt’s journey down the Congo River to “Banana Point” and the Atlantic Ocean in the book’s epilogue.  In the preceding chapters he ponders the hard life of native porters, the effects of slavery, the influence of business and religion in the 1800s, the dangers of malaria and yellow fever, and Taunt’s and others’ political schemes and dreams. 

The narrative pivots on taunt’s spotty record in the Navy, culminating in a court-martial for unauthorized absence due to intoxication, a case that led to a clemency appeal and involvement by Commander-in-Chief President Grover Ceveland, and one of the most interesting excuses for incapacity due to alcohol.

Taunt contended his UA was due to a previous trip to Africa.  Jampoler recounts what Taunt told The New York Herald: 

“I returned from the Congo broken down with fevers, liver troubles and malaria, and I have not felt myself at all ... I did not mean to disobey orders, and I was not drinking anything stronger than some wine which my doctor ordered for me.  My mind is a blank as to what transpired...”

Map of Taunt's expedition down the Congo, Navy History and Heritage Cmd.

Divorced and resigned from the Navy, Taunt lobbied successfully for an appointment as commercial agent in Boma, Congo with a paltry annual salary of $4,000.  His success brings to mind the so-called Chinese curse, “be careful what you ask for, you may get it.”

Rather than achieve wealth and immortality, Taunt, continued to contract diseases in the Congo, died at the young age of 39.  His adventure did manage to bring attention to Belgian atrocities in Africa.

Jampoler introduces us to some colorful characters in the late 1800s.

Sen. George Edmunds helped establish and fund the position Taunt would fill in Boma.  The senator was best known for his sponsorship of the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, a law prohibiting polygamy and de-incorporating the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, pushing Mormon practitioners, including Mitt Romney’s grandfather, to seek foreign sanctuary in Mexico.

Sen. John Tyler Morgan, “former Confederate general, and emeritus Grand Dragon of the Alabama Realm of the Ku Klux Klan, (who) stood on the front rank of those few American politicians engaged in Congo policy making near the end of the century.” Morgan supported a drive to repatriate American blacks to Africa.

Jampoler writes about legislator and gifted Renaissance man George Washington Williams of Pennsylvania, who “just missed being appointed the American minister to Haiti; the post went to Frederick Douglass instead.” Williams indicted King Leopold directly in strong language for “deceit, fraud, robberies, arson, murder, slave-raiding,” etc. in Congo.

Finally, Emory Taunt is tied with British author and former merchant seaman Joseph Conrad, whom he met in Congo.  Conrad is best known as the author of “Heart of Darkness,” which was first published in 1899.  Jampoler opens “Congo” with an excerpt from “Heart of Darkness”:

“Going up the river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings.  An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest.  The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish.  There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine.  The long stretches of the waterway ran on deserted, into the gloom of overshadowed distances.  On silvery sandbanks hippos and alligators sunned themselves side by side.  The broadening waters flowed through a mob of wooded islands; you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off forever from everything you had known once -- somewhere -- far away -- in another existence perhaps.”

The Congo River is described as having 15 times the runoff of the Nile, providing perspective and scope for the exploration and exploitation that occurred centuries ago.

Andrew C. A. Jampoler

“Congo” flows between bits of history and personality insights and includes links to the War of 1812 and Napoleon and the aftermath of the Civil War and naval history from Peru to Samoa and from the East Coast of the United States to western Africa and King Leopold ll’s documented abuses of native people in Congo.

Jampoler documents how other authors weighed in on Leopold’s crimes.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain, perhaps America’s greatest writer, reported on the atrocities and lobbied for progressive change and reforms to President Theodore Roosevelt.

Naval Institute Press of Annapolis has published another winner in “Congo,” a good summer -- or fall -- read.  NIP offers a list of other reading recommendations this week in its 2013 fall catalog.

Bono on Change: Value, Commitment, Transformation

(Rear Adm. Raquel Cruz Bono served as Command Surgeon J07, U.S. Pacific Command. This summer she was assigned to lead the National Capital Medical Directorate.  She provides a recommended reading list and reviews to Navy Reads this week. -- Bill Doughty)

By Rear Adm. Raquel Cruz Bono

I've always been fascinated by the challenges of adapting to change, making change happen and the responsibilities of leadership to be an effective agent of change.  In each of my jobs, I've observed and studied the various challenges that individuals, leaders and organizations experience as they anticipate, respond to and create change.  Not all change events were successful, but they have all been instructive. While electronic media have globalized the transfer of knowledge and access to information, reading is still required to assimilate novel thoughts, to maintain contemporary understanding of world events, and to develop insight into complex issues.

Rear Adm. Raquel Bono speaks at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Photo by MC3 Diana Quinlan.

The following books have shaped my approach to and appreciation for change.  While change is often anxiety provoking for the ambiguity it often represents and brings, change also offers a wide vista in which to make change happen -- an imperative skill set for today's leadership.  Leadership begins with the ability to influence the behaviors of others so that their collective actions are synchronized to a common objective.  I've found that the most effective leaders don't require a solid or dotted line on an organizational chart to be an effective leader.  Often times, their effectiveness starts with how they value and respect the people with whom they work.

Respecting and valuing the contributions of others is challenging even in communities who share common attributes, but it can be especially daunting when backgrounds, values and upbringing are distinctly unique from each other.  Valuing others' inputs often begins with developing cross-cultural appreciation -- both internationally and within the US.  The following books have been very helpful to deepening my appreciation of the richness and distinctive nuances of the Asia Pacific countries and cultures. 

“In Our Image” (Stanley Karnow) is an historical retrospective of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines through a journalist's observations.  He chronicles the shifting and sometimes inconsistent partnering between the US and the Philippines.  While not always flattering for either country, the Filipinos' fledgling efforts to develop a sense of nationalism was not only challenged by the influences of occupying countries and cultures, but sometimes clashed with the United States' efforts to introduce American ideals and values.

Another very insightful book is “On China” (Henry Kissinger).  This is a lengthy tome, but Mr. Kissinger's writing style makes for a very easy and informative read.  He has deep respect, insight and understanding of the complex and intricate society of the People's Republic of China.  His book serves to emphasize how achieving a successful, working relationship with the PRC demands patience, appreciation and sensitivity.  Both of these books serve to illustrate that relationship-building begins with valuing the unique and distinctive characteristics of a people and their societies.  Tremendous change is often possible when successful leaders demonstrate authentic appreciation for the subtle and diverse attributes among their staffs and within their own organizations.

Opportunities to advance goals and achieve progress abound.  Yet, often these occasions pass with little impact to an end state.  Making change happen begins with the commitment to change.  While the following two books are health-centered, they offer keen examples of how care given to others was elevated when a commitment was made to change the usual provision of care and concentrate on a patient's needs.  

“Rule Number Two” (Heidi Kraft, MD) is a heartrending account of a psychiatrist and the troops she cared for while deployed to a combat hospital in Iraq.  She brings to the forefront the psychological trauma that accompanies the very visible injuries of war while also reminding us that sometimes the greatest trauma is that which we cannot see or bandage or repair.  As our military and society collectively grapple with the repercussions of post-traumatic stress, Dr. Kraft reminds us of the importance of resiliency and caring and appreciating the sacrifices that all have made.

“In Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance” (Atul Gawande, MD) shares a series of vignettes that show how the commitment of the dedicated can have profound and sweeping impact to elevate the health and well-being of a country, as was done by eliminating polio in India.  In each story, there is a goal to make something better, a desire to reach beyond the status quo followed by the single-minded focus that creates the dedication and momentum to make change happen.  While set primarily in the field of medicine where the demand for mistakes are low and the stakes high, there are lessons applicable to any sector that is challenged to produce the very best product despite limited reserves, information or resources.

As change management becomes an imperative with the evolving and rapid challenges of today, the following books articulate helpful reminders and strategies.  

“Leading Change” (John P. Kotter) reminds us of the various challenges that hinder efforts to transform an organization.  At the root of change management is creating a sense of urgency that propels an alteration in behavior -- at the personal and the company levels.  Kotter does a nice job of describing those cultural and institutional habits that tend to get in the way of transformation and create resistance to change.

On the other hand, Malcom Gladwell's book, “The Tipping Point,” describes the birth of a fad or new idea and how it takes hold in our society -- i.e., how it reaches the tipping point and becomes popular.  It starts with the premise that little things can make a difference and by changing the behavior of small groups, a change is set in motion that attracts larger groups of people who now behave differently and are in concert with others.

I like to put the above two books together to understand how to overcome some of the barriers to change by recognizing where the resistance to change is resident, guiding  change to happen in incremental steps first (individual behavior) and then allowing momentum to transform an organization.

However, an important aspect of change is being able to effectively message the need for change and describe what specific changes are required.  “Made to Stick” (Chip Heath & Dan Heath) looks at what makes an idea "stick" and become memorable.  It's an insightful look into what makes communication effective and describes the attributes that make a concept easy to grasp, to assimilate and then to act upon.  There are some helpful suggestions, but a critical aspect of “Made to Stick” is understanding how a receiver's framework for receiving information is a powerful filter that can undo an otherwise compelling transmitter -- i.e., in order to be heard, you have to know how your audience listens.

Two additional books about transformation and change management are written by Daryl R. Conner.  “Managing at the Speed of Change” and “Leading at the Edge of Chaos” describe how change agents need to be rapidly adaptive and creatively resilient as progress and change are happening nearly instantaneously.  

Rapidly evolving global issues require leadership that is agile and anticipatory rather than plodding and reactive.  The themes in these books show that change happens regardless of any effort to prevent it and shaping an organization's response to change is an effective strategy for influencing outcomes while optimizing choices.

Finally, as a parent, one of the most challenging changes to manage are the transformations that happen to your children as they transition from childhood, through teens and into adulthood.  While “Ten Best Gifts for Your Teen” (Patt & Steve Saso) is primarily written for parents of rising teens, I again found application to the challenges of leadership and managing change.  Of the ten gifts that they describe, the most effective ones I've found are respect and reconciliation -- both at home and in the office.

Respect is at the heart of any relationship and begins with accepting another's thoughts and feelings.  Respecting a teen's privacy and emerging social interests is just as important as respecting a colleague's expertise and opinion on a topic.  However, the more challenging gift to give anyone is reconciliation - the ability to apologize and admit to being wrong.  The transformative power of an apology is enormous, and at the heart of effective leadership is maintaining one's humanity through the sustainment of your relationships.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FARAH, Afghanistan (Jan. 18, 2013) Operations Specialist 1st Class Megan Garcia, a tactical operations watchstander for Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Farah, reads a book to her children as part of a United Through Reading Read-a-thon. Participants in the program were encouraged to read to children in their families or to students at Birch Elementary in Idaho, to promote childhood literacy. United Through Reading is a non-profit organization that enables deployed service members to share their love and support with their children by reading books aloud on DVD. PRT Farah's mission is to train, advise, and assist Afghan government leaders at the municipal, district, and provincial levels in Farah province Afghanistan. Their civil military team is comprised of members of the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup/Released)