Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 77

U.S. Government

YOU ARE FIRED

Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall was relieved of command of the U.S.
Army II Corps by Dwight D. Eisenhower due to a lack of confidence
in his leadership. Fredenhall was replaced by George S. Patton.

own name. Loyalty is not easy to give here. Whenever
some back channel feeds our boss information that
we couldn’t possibly know about our troops, he loves
to blindside and embarrass us with snarky gloats that
he knows more about our commands than we do.
It’s his way of chest beating and keeping us on the
back foot. Even though you were loyal to your higher
chain of command and the Army, we cannot remain
loyal to you.
You took command with appointed authority,
but you did not grow it into acquired authority. Early
American militiamen elected the best-known local fighters to be their officers. If the soldiers lost confidence in
any officer later, they shunned him until he went home.
The insurgent leaders’ authority over their followers is
acquired, and some Afghan government officials have
recommended that the Afghan Army soldiers elect their
MILITARY REVIEW  July-August 2014

own officers, too. In your case, your bullying manner
has alienated your officers, and they were united only
by their despair and frustration. It is like the tragedy of
Shakespeare’s Macbeth (act V, scene II)—
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
We commanders lean heavily on our staff to provide
analysis and recommended courses of action. We need
them to protect us from ourselves by speaking truth
to power—you did not let your staff do that for you.
They have to be a team of star performers with a deep
bench within their areas of expertise. The commander
should explain his intent well enough for everyone to
understand it. But you have forced your staff only to
silently cower in mutual fear of your capricious outbursts and hope for your removal. If your soldiers were
militiamen, would they elect you to be their commander? Your leadership is weak, and that screwball video
makes it clear that they have no respect for you.
I already told you that we are held responsible for
so much that is actually beyond our control—and that
my boss plays the “gotcha!” game. We are driven to
micromanage to avoid being caught by surprise. We
can’t really trust our subordinates’ judgment if our own
necks are always on the block. Anyway, military culture
always admires commanders who are in total control.
When the television reporter came, you politely declined a one-on-one interview and directed her to talk
to your public affairs officer. That was the smart way to
handle the press. I can’t think of anyone who has been
fired for not talking to a journalist, but I can remember
several who were fired for what they said to a reporter,
like the Navy commander who said that his job did
not include chasing pirates. We shouldn’t leave a trail
of unguarded statements. You remember the foolish
officer whose naughty emails to his deployment “cruise
romance” were forwarded to the world, last summer.
Your replacement will be able to get the organization back on track because the dysfunction is mostly
confined to the two echelons of people below you. Two
levels of command down is the normal “effective range”
of senior leadership traits. Command policy letters will
affect everyone, but optimism or paranoia is transmitted primarily through direct contact. We senior leaders
are too far removed from the junior enlisted soldiers to
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