By Kyle Chouinard
Las Vegas Sun
Jan. 16—Retired Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee remembers the Taliban firing at his base in east Afghanistan in the weeks leading up to the camp’s planned decommissioning.
Each time, American, Polish and Afghan soldiers took cover by diving into bunkers, he said.
What they didn’t know was that the Taliban had people inside the camp taking notes on the process. On Aug. 28, 2013, an explosion blew a hole in one of the base’s outer walls.
While one U.S. and one Polish soldier were killed, Plumlee is credited with saving much of the base. He, sometimes alone, rushed to engage the Taliban, was in a vehicle as it purposely got between gunfire and helped move another soldier to safety before they died.
With his Medal of Honor around his neck, Plumlee told his story Tuesday to the Henderson Fire Department ahead of a leadership training session with the National Medal of Honor Center for Leadership.
“By sharing their stories, they inspire a lot of our participants to begin to see that these Medal of Honor values aren’t just for those on the battlefield,” said Justin Habash, chief learning officer with the Center for Leadership.
The Henderson Fire Department also heard from Leroy Petry, who earned his Medal of Honor in 2011.
Three years earlier during a raid in Afghanistan, he was shot in both legs before a grenade landed near him and two other Rangers, according to the U.S. Army. He threw it back, potentially saving all three men but losing his hand in the process.
“I know it takes a lot to take time on your professional days. I think it’s going to be incredibly worth it,” Henderson Fire Chief Scott Vivier told his staff before Plumlee spoke. To “our two Medal of Honor recipients, we are beyond honored to have you with us.”
Habash, who led the program, said the pilot program goes over the “five dysfunctions of a team": lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.
But the Center for Leadership puts a spin on the commonly used list, associating each with a character “skill” that can be developed to combat dysfunction. A fear of conflict can be eased by developing courage, for example.
“Like anything else that has to do with character and these kinds of skills, habit is the key,” Habash said. “There’s a number of exercises that we do and that I suggest to our learners that they can engage in to build a habit of acting courageously, starting with something that is small and manageable (and) causes them some distress.”
For the program, Habash married his work at Johns Hopkins teaching “ethical leadership” and military background with the six character traits associated with the Medal of Honor: courage, sacrifice, patriotism, citizenship, integrity and commitment.
He doesn’t believe those traits are innate.
“These can be developed. They’re not just character traits that we possess, or we don’t,” Habash said. “And so I was fascinated by this idea of the Medal of Honor as a truly inspirational North Star .”
After finishing the morning session, Habash was impressed with the Henderson Fire Department’s familiarity with what he was teaching. That wasn’t too surprising, however, as the department has already developed a culture of leadership development, he said.
“From my experience building these programs and teaching at different universities — teaching ethics and leadership — the program they do is top notch,” Habash said. “This is a place where we want to kick things off.”
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