Fort Hood, with 340 square miles and 53,000 soldiers (though one-third usually are deployed) is considered the largest military installation in the country.
This is a story of what makes a true leader - not only in the military, but in life.
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, August 16, 2009
"General focuses on well-being of soldiers, families"
Post commander cuts work hours, institutes programs to reduce stress, suicides and wrecks.
KILLEEN, TX - The general's 15-hour days of high-velocity work always begin in anguish.
At 5:30 a.m., Army Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch shuts his office door at Fort Hood and walks to his desk. He opens a frayed Bible with verses highlighted in yellow and underlined in blue ink.
He is alone in a crowd.
Staring at him are the faces of 153 fallen soldiers. Each soldier died in Iraq under Lynch's command in 2007-08 before he got the top job at Fort Hood. Now, each soldier is immortalized in a color mug shot on a 51\/4-inch-by-31\/8-inch white plastic card.
The deck of lives lost is more than 3 inches thick.
Lynch lifts the laminated cards that he had specially made and cradles them in his heavily freckled hands.
"All those youngsters thought they had a future," he tells himself. "They had aspirations. They had goals. But they died in a place on the battlefield where I placed them. And I gotta live with that the rest of my life."
He is alone in a crowd.
Staring at him are the faces of 153 fallen soldiers. Each soldier died in Iraq under Lynch's command in 2007-08 before he got the top job at Fort Hood. Now, each soldier is immortalized in a color mug shot on a 51\/4-inch-by-31\/8-inch white plastic card.
The deck of lives lost is more than 3 inches thick.
Lynch lifts the laminated cards that he had specially made and cradles them in his heavily freckled hands.
"All those youngsters thought they had a future," he tells himself. "They had aspirations. They had goals. But they died in a place on the battlefield where I placed them. And I gotta live with that the rest of my life."
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