Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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The Quiet Courage of True Leadership

Rich Galen

Monday December 13, 2004

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The big news out of Iraq over the weekend was the business of the soldier from the 278th Regimental Combat Team, a National Guard unit largely out of Tennessee, asking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about armored vehicles.

According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, this is the first rotation into Iraq for many of the Tennessee soldiers which, having heard the reaction of the soldiers to the question, did not surprise me.

They reacted the way they did because they are frightened and nervous.

The most frightened I was during the entirety of my six-month Iraq adventure, was the few days I spent in Kuwait waiting to get onto a transport for the flight up into Baghdad.

Once in Iraq, the 278th will perform with the same courage and professionalism as the quarter of a million soldiers who have preceded them. Of that I have no doubt.

But that's not what I want to tell you about. What I want to tell you about are two other soldiers - one a regular army Lt. Col. and one Army Reserve First Sergeant.

Lt. Col. Mike Ceroli is the battalion commander of the Psychological Operations battalion which operates in Iraq. I have told you about him before. He is one of the best young officers I met in Iraq. Or anywhere.

Tom Bercher, a reservist from Arkansas, is one of the best senior NCOs I met in Iraq. Or anywhere. He was the First Sergeant of the PsyOp unit stationed in Tikrit - Saddam's hometown.

According to Joint Chiefs of Staff Publication 3-53:

Psychological operations (PSYOP) are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.

Shorthand? Win the hearts and minds. With pamphlets, radio stations, face-to-face contact; whatever it takes.

There are two reasons the insurgents have not gained strength within Iraq: First, our troops have killed them in such numbers that young Iraqi men understand this is not a path to a long and healthy life.

Second, the PsyOp units have helped convince Iraqis that their future lies with the peaceful management of their country by leaders they will elect. So the insurgents have to import terrorists. No small accomplishment on the part of the PsyOp units.

I had lost track of Tom Bercher, after he rotated back home to Arkansas, so I asked Lt. Col. Ceroli if he could track him down. He could and did.

I e-mailed Bercher, told him Ceroli had helped me, but suggested he might not remember a middle-aged civilian whose life had been in his hands a number of times.

From 1SGT Bercher:

Rich: Of course I remember you. COL Ceroli knows what leadership means. We need more like him. He is a good man.
Well, Rich we trained a bunch of the Psyop soldiers for the last rotation and they are running out of good ones. Our Battalion has the next rotation and there were not but a couple of NCO's, so I volunteered.
When I did that all of my soldiers that were in the 362nd stepped up so they gave our company the mission. I must be crazy, but if we can make it work in these countries . . . anyway you know.
We should be leaving in late spring, as always subject to change.

It should not surprise us that this superior officer, Mike Ceroli, and this superior NCO, Tom Bercher have provided such a powerful level of leadership that their subordinates (all of whom are reservists) are volunteering - VOLUNTEERING - to follow them back into battle.

No network coverage. No talking heads on cable news channels. No blizzard of editorials. No statements from the Office Secretary of Defense.

Just another example of the quiet courage of true leadership.

Just another example of American soldiers being American soldiers.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: a link to the Joint Chiefs of Staff document on Psychological Operations; a Mullfoto of a gingerbread house on our block, an Iraq Flashback, "The Reporters and the Donkey"; and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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