A Great Soldier

is (then) SFC David Wilson, my last Platoon Sergeant before leaving the infantry and switching over to MP. He used to call me Tackleberry. He was one of two black guys in the Ranger company in Somalia and taught me a lot about leadership. Funny story with him, one night during a force-on-force exercise, we were all waiting for our leader's recon to come back and OPFOR hit our perimeter. Not many people were returning fire, so I ran around telling people to get it on and saw a figure kneeling in the center of the perimeter. I ran up and grabbed him by the LBV and shoved him down at the base of a tree and gave him a sector of fire and then ran back to my position. During the AAR, SFC Wilson asked who the fuck grabbed him and threw him on the ground. I didn't know it was him, but when I raised my hand thinking I was in for a good smoke session, he cracked a big ass grin and said that's why corporals run the army. Coming from a guy who is in the book Blackhawk Down, that was one hell of a compliment. In this pic, he's just getting ready to teach the finer points of humility to one of our shitbags who thought he was something special.

What was that tank shooting at groundhogs?

He broke his back during a jump and the lack of PT caused some shrinking of his uniforms. This is a demolitions range at FT Campbell, and I really don't know why the hell the tank is there. It's inop.

frenchkiss a rattlesnake than to fuck with him!

of my first PSG in the army, "Hurricane Johnny", but he was in Delta before coming to FT Campbell and I don't know if he went back or not. That guy was amazing. He could enter and clear a room at the killhouse by himself faster than a four man fire team and every target would have two holes almost touching, dead center mass. To this day, if you told me he couldn't fly under his own power, I'd have trouble believing you. The guy was a god.

where the ranger is shot in the back and died because he didn't have his plate in was true. SFC Wilson said it was a failure on the part of the Squad Leader to do proper PCIs (Pre-Combat Inspection) and as a result, a soldier died. SFC Wilson took this lesson and threatend Article 15 punishment for any leader who failed proper PCI, even in training. He's just one of many amazing leaders I've had the privilege to learn from in my time in the army. I can really say I've been trained by some of the best, and I can say from experience what a humbling experience it is to be corrected on a seemingly minor thing by guys who have killed our nation's enemies at bad breath distances.

My last deployment I saw an E-8/Master Sgt reduced one stripe for not wearing his plates at a range. They take it very serious now.