Beowulf:
I'll try to answer the questions you asked that I'm competent to answer.
In terms of good and bad leaders, every young lieutenant worries about doing well. It's natural and good that you should be concerned. But like anything in life, it takes time and there is a learning curve. Nobody expects you to be an expert immediately.
The best officers are the ones who knew their jobs inside and out, radiated confidence, never asked anything of their guys that they didn't do themselves, cared about the mission and their men, were not careerist pricks, and stood up for their people (even against other COs.) There is also an indescribable element of charisma, but that's hard to learn.
Don't worry about all that right now. Focus on the job at hand. Take care of one day, one week, one month, and things will fall into place. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
These "leadership traits and principles" are the best checklist I can really think of. Nobody has really improved on this:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc...ership.pdf
As for combat stuff, I was never in combat. I was in deployed environments all over the place, served overseas, and received hostile fire pay for being in Bosnia, but I was not in combat.
So I can't speak about that subject with first-hand knowledge, and would never attempt to.
.
I'll try to answer the questions you asked that I'm competent to answer.
In terms of good and bad leaders, every young lieutenant worries about doing well. It's natural and good that you should be concerned. But like anything in life, it takes time and there is a learning curve. Nobody expects you to be an expert immediately.
The best officers are the ones who knew their jobs inside and out, radiated confidence, never asked anything of their guys that they didn't do themselves, cared about the mission and their men, were not careerist pricks, and stood up for their people (even against other COs.) There is also an indescribable element of charisma, but that's hard to learn.
Don't worry about all that right now. Focus on the job at hand. Take care of one day, one week, one month, and things will fall into place. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
These "leadership traits and principles" are the best checklist I can really think of. Nobody has really improved on this:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc...ership.pdf
As for combat stuff, I was never in combat. I was in deployed environments all over the place, served overseas, and received hostile fire pay for being in Bosnia, but I was not in combat.
So I can't speak about that subject with first-hand knowledge, and would never attempt to.
.