A basic tenet of being an officer in the US Army is never order one of your NCOs to do something you don’t know how to do. You will probably not know how to do whatever it is as well as your NCOs – but you should know the basics. This is hammered into you from day one and a lesson you should not ever forget at your peril.

Fast forward 20 years. Now in command of a Combat Engineer Battalion tasked to provide route clearance and counter-IED in Area of Operations (AO) Rogue, consisting of most of Baghdad, Iraq not including the Green Zone or Camp Victory. We have been in-country a little over six months. Which means we had a little less than six months until we could go home.

Did a ride along with Bravo Company, which was clearing a route in front of a supply convoy heading up MSR Tampa. Rode in a Buffalo along side my Command Sergeant Major (CSM) – the senior NCO in the battalion. This was the first time both of us had been outside the wire at the same time. I didn’t really know him all that well, as he had joined the battalion a week ago after my last CSM was medevac’d back to the states after suffering a stroke while running PT a couple of weeks before. He would be fine, no loss of reasoning, motion or speech, but would end up medically retiring later that year.

The new CSM was a no-nonsense, recent Sergeant Major Academy graduate and walked and talked like a recruiting poster. Blond hair, Blue eyes, about 6 foot, 3 inches tall and a lean, mean fighting machine. Quite the contrast to my short, squat, heavy-set, troll-like exterior. As my go-to-guy in all enlisted and NCO matters, we were spending a lot of time together, building critical rapport and trust as we moved around the five Engineer companies and one detachment assigned to the battalion.

We spent part of the previous day with that detachment at their offices inside the wire. A K-9 unit. Doggies and their handlers. Doggies that could smell out almost any type of explosives. Doggies that couldn’t take the heat for long and had to spend most of the day in airconditioned comfort. After making sure that the detachment had beans, bullets, water and kibble, they were getting their mail and had no problems they couldn’t handle themselves, we left. The CSM and I started to click.

We then went over to our consolidated motor pool to check on vehicle maintenance. As a Combat Engineer outfit – we had an enormous number of vehicles and equipment to maintain. The Battalion Motor Office (BMO) and the Maintenance sergeant met us outside the 40-foot CONEX that doubled as their office and the tool locker.

The CSM took the lead after we reached our vehicles. He had me and the BMO crawling in, under, around bull-dozers, road graders, dump trucks, MRAPs, HEMMTs, flat-beds, low-boys and fuel tankers and Petroleum, Oil and Lubrication (POL) trucks making sure I didn’t have to circle-X (which gives my OK to using dead-lined equipment) anything for most of the afternoon. The CSM got the Maintenance sergeant to bring out some fly-halfs, camo-netting and poles to set up some shade for the guys and gals pulling maintenance. I was really impressed with his knowledge and demeanor.

We left them to their duties and headed back to the Battalion S3 shop for our daily afternoon briefing with the company commanders and battalion staff. Which was anything but brief. Had to send a runner over to the Consolidated Dining Facility for some chow as another picked-over MRE meal was not appealing to either of us. CSM and I shared some MERMITE coffee. Felt better. I thought we were going to get along just fine.

Signed up for the ride-along for the next morning. The Bravo Company Commander tried to steer us to taking up space in a couple of Cougars – me and him and the EWO (Electronic Warfare Officer) in one, the CSM, his first sergeant and the medic in another. Told him that we would be in the Buffalo as it had the most space and was high enough up so I could see the ground and familiarize the CSM with our standard operating procedures and action drills as we rolled along.

Brought along a case of bottled water, Camp Victory’s finest, and a case of unopened MREs case type B, the one with the hamburger macaroni and tabasco. Good stuff. Took our seats and settled in.

Charged our weapons as we left the wire. Everything looked good and tight. Good vehicle spacing and speed between the five Cougars and Buffalo. We were way in front of the supply convoy like we were supposed to be.

As we went down the MSR as part of the route clearance mission, the CSM and I talked a little about our SOPs, and then spent the remainder on the important stuff: Guns, Cars, Women and Sports. We agreed on most everything. He like Halle Berry and I preferred Uma Thurman, but they were both in our top five. I liked C3 years Chevy Corvettes, he liked customized Ford Mustangs, but we wouldn’t not drive either one if someone gave one to us. I preferred Winchester Model 70’s and he used Ruger Mini-14’s exclusively. That’s a wash. He liked the Giants ... Hold on. May take liking him back a notch. The New York Football Giants, that played in New-freaking-Jersey? Give me the Boys’ any day. How ‘bout them Cowboys!

About 2 hours into the mission, we had blown-in-place three IEDs so far with the counter-IED robot. It got a workout. We switched out the battery pack twice so far. The heat just played havoc on those things.

Rolled past Checkpoint 3. The Lead cougar’s Vehicle Commander saw some dirt and gravel in the median. We got to check it out with the camera on the end of the articulating arm. Looked suspicious. It was time to show the young bulls the old bulls still got it. We established a perimeter using the cougars, automatic weapons pointing out and all around. Time to get the robot out.