Posted on 01/08/2004 6:02:15 AM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
Bulldog recognized for “duty, honor, country”
BAGHDAD, Iraq – “Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be … they build your basic character. They mold you for your future roles as the custodians of the Nation's defense. They make you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid,” said Gen. of the Army Douglas MacArthur in his 1962 Sylvanus Thayer Award acceptance speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
First Armored Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT) deputy operations officer, Capt. Eric Strong, will represent the division as one of U.S. Army Europe’s two officers and one warrant officer nominated for the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award.
The annual award was established in 1987 by the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation and the Department of the Army to recognize company-grade officers and warrant officers who demonstrate the ideals for which MacArthur stood: duty, honor and country.
Applicants must have served in the field Army environment for the calendar year in which they were nominated. “Selecting Capt. Eric Strong to represent the brigade was no easy task,” said 3rd BCT Commander Col. Russ Gold of Fort Riley, Kansas. “As with so many others, Capt. Strong represents all that is good, and he epitomizes the true meaning of what the MacArthur Leadership Award is supposed to symbolize.”
Thirteen awards are given for the Army’s active duty component and seven each for the Army Reserves and National Guard. Winners will receive a bronze bust of MacArthur during a ceremony at the Pentagon. Military leadership was almost instinctive for Strong. Hailing from Syracuse, N.Y., Strong described himself as a typical boy, growing up “playing Army.”
“Making guns out of wood in your dad’s work shed, playing with miniature Army men … running around in the woods, playing hide and go seek, camping; I did all of that outdoor stuff (associated with the military),” Strong said. But it wasn’t until his college years at Notre Dame that Strong revisited his childhood thoughts of the military.
“A friend from college invited me to check out (the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps),” Strong said. “I didn’t grow up wanting to join the Army all of my life.”
His reason for joining: “It just felt right.” Almost every man in Strong’s family served in the military. Though most did not choose to make the military a career, they provided a patriotic environment.
“I was brought up to love the values that America holds dear,” Strong said. “An environment that embraced and had pride and respect (for the military).” Strong attended the basic Airborne course and Air Assault course as a cadet. It was at the air assault course that he received his first -- and possibly most impacting -- leadership experience.
If a student receives an unsatisfactory grade, or “no-go,” on a tested event in the Air Assault course he is allowed to retake the event. Strong was the class leader. He was receiving all “goes” on the tested events during a portion of the course, and then received a “no-go.” At the next test station an instructor asked how he was doing. With a bitter attitude, Strong said not well.
“The instructor pulled me aside and said, ‘if you’re going to be an officer you have to know your job and you have to know your soldiers’ jobs. You can’t afford to show a lack of confidence. You have to portray confidence to guide them,’” Strong said. “That was my first true taste as a leader about what good trainers and leaders do. He took time to talk to me for 15 or 20 minutes.”
After receiving his commission as an armor officer in 1997, Strong attended the Scout Platoon Leaders Course at Fort Knox, Ky., and then he was off to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Carson, Colo. This was a good fist assignment, he said, because he received a lot of field training to practice his skills. Strong served as a tank platoon leader and scout platoon leader at Fort Carson.
After attending the Aviation Captain’s Career Course at Fort Rucker, Ala., in 2001, Strong arrived at Fort Riley to serve as the S-3 (operations) air officer for 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment. In February 2002, Strong took command of Hawk Troop, the brigade reconnaissance troop.
People who know Strong said his personal style and leadership techniques provided the needed direction, motivation and purpose for his unit to thrive in an uncertain and challenging environment.
Because of this, his unit received laudatory comments from numerous general officers for their tactics during a National Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, Calif.
Then, as the heat was rising in Southwest Asia, soldiers across the Army knew deployment was inevitable.
Soon, Strong found his troop in Baghdad, delivering and distributing more than 250,000 cylinders of propane gas – the primary cooking and heating oil in Iraq – to thousands of Iraqis. Strong said deploying to combat is the most important thing he has done in the military.
“You can train and you can prepare for it, but until you do it, you don’t know how you will be, you don’t know how you will do,” he said. “It is an experience of a lifetime and I am thankful for the opportunity.”
It was Strong’s actions with Hawk Troop leading up to combat and in combat that resulted in his recognition and nomination for the MacArthur Leadership Award.
“I have seen Eric perform his duties in peace and in times of war. He has seen the best and worst of humanity, and never wavered in times of hardship,” Gold said. “He always leads from the front and defines the true meaning of selfless service. He is what we want in front of our formations; he is what we want to represent us as soldiers, leaders and Americans.”
“He always leads from the front and defines the true meaning of selfless service. He is what we want in front of our formations; he is what we want to represent us as soldiers, leaders and Americans.”
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1AD's, Capt. Eric Strong, "Duty, honor, country," ping!
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