Heroes 2011
'I feel your hardship and your sacrifice'
Defense Secretary Robert Gates should have been tired and grumpy after a long, dusty day in airplanes and helicopters crisscrossing Afghanistan’s southern provinces.
But after briefings, photo ops and speeches he stood straight up and smiled proudly to perform the last item on the agenda: pinning valor medals on three soldiers deployed in Kandahar’s very dangerous Arghandab district.
On nearly every visit to Afghanistan and Iraq, Gates has stopped to personally pin on a few medals, usually after a quick town hall speech with troops or lunch with some junior servicemembers.
It takes just a few minutes for the citations to be read aloud, the pin, a handshake, a picture and a memory for a lifetime. It may mean more to the white-haired, former Air Force first lieutenant doing the pinning.
“I think that he enjoys it tremendously,” said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, who has traveled at Gates’ side everywhere for nearly five years. “The opportunity to present someone with a Purple Heart or a Bronze or even a Silver Star is an extraordinary honor for the secretary. And he comes away from it totally inspired and almost rejuvenated.”
He’s equally moved any time he has the opportunity to share a moment with warfighters, Morrell said, whether celebrating valor or recognizing the quiet dedication that moved them to volunteer for a job that means risking their lives.
On his March visit, Gates landed at Bagram Air Base hours after arriving in Kabul from Washington. He visited Craig Joint Theater Hospital where, by chance, three soldiers had arrived that morning. Staff Sgt. Steven Dawson, Spc. Gregory Miller and Spc. Quinn Jensen’s vehicle hit a roadside bomb; broken limbs were freshly wrapped. Gates pinned Purple Hearts on each of them.
“One minute we were clearing the route, then we were hit, transported here and now Secretary Gates is pinning a Purple Heart on my shirt,” Dawson said afterward, his ankle shattered.
Shortly afterward, Gates, in his bomber jacket, hopped on a floodlit stage in a dark, cold warehouse near the flight line to speak to special operations troops. He mentioned the hospital visit and when he spoke about signing their deployment orders and thinking about the safety of each of them, his voice cracked.
It always does.
In Washington, Gates presents himself as a steely eyed assassin of Pentagon bloat, punching back Congress and defense industry giants with billions of dollars at stake. But when it comes to facing the troops, his eyes go misty and his voice softens. The heavy burden of ordering hundreds of thousands of troops to war — some of them to their death — emerges.
Gates flew the next day to meet the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in Sangin along the Helmand River valley, an area he called the most dangerous in the world.
During its time in Afghanistan, the unit had taken more losses than any other. On this day, the Marines stood in formation in Forward Operating Base Sabit Qadam’s rocky courtyard for more than an hour and a half, waiting in the sun for Gates to arrive.
This was also the unit of 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, who was killed in action in December, the son of Gates’ newest senior military assistant, Lt. Gen. John Kelly.
“Every day, I monitor how you’re doing. And every day you return to your FOB without a loss, I say a little prayer,” Gates said, the elder Kelly standing just feet away. “And I say a prayer on the other days as well.”
“I’m the one that signed the orders that sent you all here,” he said. “I visit your wounded brothers at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center]. I write the condolence letters to the families of your fallen. And so I feel a tremendous personal sense of responsibility for each and every one of you. And I will, for as long as I’m secretary of defense. I feel your hardship and your sacrifice and those of your families more than you can possibly imagine.”
Gates, mindful the men and women have more important things to do than wait for an old Washington bureaucrat, quickly starts the receiving line.
“I don’t think it’s something he seeks out as much as it is commanders taking advantage of this unique opportunity to honor their troops by having these awards bestowed by the secretary of defense,” Morrell said.
“He hopes the troops would remember him as someone who had their back, who was willing to do anything, spend anything, to get them what they need to succeed. ... They provide him with much of his sense of purpose, so when he interacts with them personally, it brings it home in a really acute way.”
At the end of the day, after touring an Afghan village, Gates has awards for three members of 2nd “Strike” Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He pinned an Army Commendation Medal with “V” on Capt. Jeffrey Mackinnon, who repelled a Taliban attack on his platoon outside Senjaray. Gates pinned another one on Spc. Lorenzo Leon, who “moved under heavy enemy small arms and RPG fire to find and provide aid” to a soldier hit by a roadside bomb outside of Babur, according to his citation.
Spc. Calvin Gilkey assumed control of his squad after their leader was killed, and then led the squad during a Taliban attack on Combat Outpost Stout, July 30 to Aug. 2, 2010, his citation reads, “through four days of near-constant engagement with the enemy.”
Gates pinned him with a Bronze Star with “V,” posed for a photo and moved on to the next soldier. Still standing at attention, Gilkey’s lips released a tiny smile.
baronk@stripes.osd.mil
Twitter: @StripesBaron
