The Army has taken me on a path a long way from Gardnerville. The foundations for leadership were built back in Nevada, in places like my schools, church, and scout troop.
While a student at the University of Nevada, the military science program focused on developing small unit leaders - tasks like operating a radio for medical evacuation or leading a squad on a reconnaissance. Over the years I've seen glimpses of the world that have exposed a calling for a much more complex set of skills in order to be a leader.
"Leading" in any large organization has challenges. My first duty in peaceful 1995 was leading an infantry platoon of 32 soldiers. As I advanced over the years, so did my responsibilities.
I eventually became a company commander leading increasingly larger organizations. I spent a year as a staff officer in Egypt with the Multi-National Force and observers coordinating delivery of supplies through Israel.
I served 23 months in Iraq and directed the mission scheduling of thousands of trucks in nightly convoys. For each of these steps, the Army provided training and opportunities to find mentoring from experienced leaders. I also had to mentor soldiers and develop future leaders. I noted a Marine general recently saying "we're the good guys, not the perfect guys."
My path has certainly not been boring. The Army has been asked over the last decade to do a lot - such things as hunting terrorists, building schools, training police forces, teaching farmers to manage insecticide on date palms, securing elections, and, unfortunately, we also had to retrain some of our own on how to treat prisoners of war.
While the Army's fundamental mission is to deliver lethality in defending the nation, those thousand other tasks can strain a leader to losing the edge. Every experience from being a Boy Scout in the Sierra to directing a battalion in combat in a foreign land have shaped my leadership and my character.
The Army is made from a slice of America with soldiers from all classes, races, and backgrounds. I was just a kid from Gardnerville, although I'm not quite the same as when I left.
Thanks to instant global communications and YouTube footage of warfare almost as entertainment, it's easy for the average citizen to "watch more and experience less."
On those rare opportunities when I can get back home to see my family in Nevada, I'm proud of the support that I see from the people where I was born and raised.
Our nation calls on us in different ways, some to serve in the military, most to vote and pay taxes, and a host of other ways-and those paths can start anywhere. Please join me this Memorial Day in thanks for those that have given their time, talents, and lives in service to our nation.
Maj. Christopher Abbott is serving with the U.S. Army Logistics Corps, in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He is a 1990 graduate of Douglas High School and 1994 graduate of University of Nevada, Reno.
