One of the Army values is respect. It’s important. I’m careful to avoid allowing my column to disparage someone’s military service. Everyone who has served deserves some measure of respect. But even among soldiers, some perform better than others, or serve at peak levels at different times. I need to tell you about one Army Sergeant First Class who had a fine career, but one that perhaps should have been wrapped up by the time he served with my fellow soldiers and me in the Afghanistan war.This staff sergeant looked exactly like then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. We’ll call him SFC Feldsrum. In 2005, he served with Civil Affairs on our remote Afghanistan outpost. He was the only Vietnam veteran I ever encountered in the service. He had been enlisted forever, and he’d even been a weapons adviser on several Hollywood movies.SFC Feldsrum was a good guy. I was grateful for his sincere dedication to the important CA mission to help good Afghans rebuild their country. In one mission brief, he described how he and other CA soldiers would meet with the elders in a certain village, and after they were done, my fellow soldiers and I, covering security, could distribute toys and candy to the Afghan children.
Keeping calm and carrying on in Afghanistan
One Army Sergeant First Class had a fine career, but perhaps it should have been wrapped up by the time he served with me in Afghanistan.







