Servant-Leader Honored

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. [SNIP]

The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer , is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?”

--Robert Greenleaf, Servant as Leader

When I was more cynical, I used to wonder at the fact that when those who are considered heroes get their accolades, there are always people available to say what a great person they are/were. Then it dawned on me (duh) that the type of person that would do what the latest Congressional Medal of Honor (CMH) recipient did, would often have other traits that would cause others to label him/her ‘great:’ the whole complement of virtues.

Here is part of the CMH citation for the late Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith. (President Bush presented the medal to SFC Smith's widow and his two children on April 4, 2005, the two-year anniversary of the sergeant's heroic sacrifice.)

As the fight developed, Sergeant First Class Smith braved hostile enemy fire to personally engage the enemy with hand grenades and anti-tank weapons, and organized the evacuation of three wounded soldiers from an armored personnel carrier struck by a rocket propelled grenade and a 60mm mortar round. Fearing the enemy would overrun their defenses, Sergeant First Class Smith moved under withering enemy fire to man a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on a damaged armored personnel carrier. In total disregard for his own life, he maintained his exposed position in order to engage the attacking enemy force. During this action, he was mortally wounded. His courageous actions helped defeat the enemy attack, and resulted in as many as 50 enemy soldiers killed, while allowing the safe withdrawal of numerous wounded soldiers.