By Shayne Harrell
In December of 1946, my grandfather, Private First Class Peyton E. Harrell, received a letter of appreciation from Colonel Percy E. LeStourgeon, commander of the 349th Infantry Regiment. The letter recounts the outcome of the 88th Division Football Championship. On a field in Allied occupied Italy, my grandfather and the rest of the 349th football squad battled the division artillery, losing by a slim margin. Despite the loss, Colonel LeStourgeon conveyed esteem for the football squad who displayed the “inner strength to play best in adversity combined with a highly developed spirit of sportsmanship.” He described a team made up of “brain and brawn, alert and aggressive, welded into a fine unit of teamwork.”
Today, the US Army still desires to create teams to the standard Colonel LeStourgeon describes, but we rarely employ sports to accomplish this goal. While many units have brigade competitions once a year during their “division week,” few soldiers participate in the activities. Organizations often limit regular sports PT to an officer and senior enlisted morale event. Throughout the training calendar, it seems leaders often discourage companies, platoons, and squads from playing sports regularly due to risk of injury and the perception that playing a sport for PT is merely fun and not “getting after it.” Superiors may express reservations towards implementing sports regularly into a PT plan and suggest battle rhythm squad competitions instead.
While these activities have their place, I would refer skeptics to the letter written to my grandfather. Athletics, sports, and games are more than just fun. They are powerful and proven tools that make teams more effective. The elevation of sports PT to a battle rhythm event can enhance the squad, platoon and company you lead or will lead. Playing sports for PT supports mission command within a formation and can give a sense of pride to a unit that transcends time.
Mission Command
Mission command is the US Army’s “approach to command and control that empowers subordinate decision making and decentralized execution.” Like any military operation, a game has an objective, a problem set, and elements of decentralized command and control. The team plans to achieve the objective, executes, and adjusts the plan, often amid chaotic conditions. Sports’ relationship to mission command is more than allegorical–team sports allow a leader to foster principles of mission command that will prove paramount to future challenges.
Disciplined Initiative
ADP 6-0: Mission Command defines disciplined initiative as a subordinate’s ability to “adhere to the plan until they realize their orders and the plan are no longer suitable for the situation.” Once the plan is unsuitable, the subordinate may take initiative within the commander’s intent.
Moments like this are commonplace in sports. In ultimate frisbee, when a soldier receives the disc, they exercise disciplined initiative. They must make the analysis based on the rules, strategy, and events of the game as to where and how to pass the frisbee. When things go awry and there is no one to pass to, a soldier must make a creative decision within the intent of the game. Some soldiers have more athletic experience than others. Rather than evaluating soldiers based on recreational performance, leaders should view sports as a tool to foster disciplined initiative through repetition of prudent and rapid decision making for every member of the team.
These games induce a great deal of stimuli where every decision is met with immediate feedback for success or failure. However simple, the sheer amount of rapid choices a player makes in a sporting activity ensures every member of the formation has made at least one decision in pursuit of better cognitive performance. The rest of their day may be filled with layouts or weapons maintenance and classes, but for that half hour soldiers are making decisions to solve a problem in a rapidly changing field of play. Ultimately, sports put soldiers in numerous scenarios requiring real-time decisions. A leader can use these scenarios to help increase the chances a subordinate “makes the right pass” when the success of future missions depends upon it.
Mutual Trust
Sports also provide an opportunity for a leader to establish mutual trust within their organization. A vital principle of mission command, mutual trust is the shared confidence between leaders and subordinates. During sports PT, leaders with great athletic ability easily win credibility and trust. However, for those of us with a more recreational background, soldiers respect self-confidence, even in the face of humiliation. Trust is given to the leader who can comfortably strike out during slow pitch softball, deflect a barrage of jokes and leave with their head held high. Trust is taken from the leader who blames the loss on the assistant gunner playing cornerback who blew coverage on the final play. If a leader blames their subordinates on the field, they will assuredly blame them when their career is on the line. If a leader can make a fool of themselves playing sports and still maintain their demeanor, they are usually a leader that will make decisions with humility and not pride. Sports PT offers a unique opportunity for leaders to display a degree of vulnerability that, if dealt with gracefully, can result in enhanced trust in the organization.
Shared Understanding
Molding a diverse group of soldiers into a cohesive team is a mainstay of the profession of arms. While creating such unity is essential to mission success, the different attitudes, personalities, and opinions within the team often present great challenges to team cohesion. Sports offer a common language that many know from childhood. Sports PT offers the foundation for shared understanding within an organization by encouraging collaboration. ADP 6-0 states that collaboration is the preferred approach to problem solving in mission command. When playing sports for PT, I recommend flattening the organization once the game begins. Rank exists but position does not. Encourage your subordinates to call plays on the football field. Let them decide when to go on the attack in soccer and when to park the bus. Allow all opinions to be heard when discussing who should play infield and outfield. It is these collaborative moments that form the basis for overcoming future obstacles during field exercises, combat training center rotations, and beyond. These challenges will be complex and chaotic, requiring the input of everyone from the longest serving noncommissioned officer to a newly appointed assistant gunner.
A Team to Remember
In the end, the teams we lead are taken from us. Positions change, key members move on with their career, and the culture of the organization may morph into something different–for better or worse. However, being a leader is not a Sisyphean task. Sports ensure that every member of the team goes home with important lessons and memories, especially in a garrison environment.
Moments of pride and hardship provide the backdrop for the military’s greatest lessons. The regular implementation of sports into an organization’s culture ensures that no matter the operational tempo of a unit, moments of triumph and adversity are commonplace. Members of a company, platoon, or squad that has played its fair share of sports understand how to be functioning members in an organization and can take those lessons to future teams. I will remember 3rd PLT, C Co, 1-12 Infantry’s playoff run in flag football as vividly as I will remember our clearance of buildings in Razish at the National Training Center, because both presented me with important lessons and filled me with a sense of pride.
I imagine my grandfather’s regimental commander did not mince words when he described the values the 349th football squad displayed in Italy, 1946. Just over a year before that game, the 349th was displaying those same qualities on the battlefield during the Po Valley Campaign. Colonel LeStourgeon ends his letter telling PFC Harrell that he “may well be proud to serve in such a squad.” With the implementation of sports into a unit’s development, we can all be a little prouder to serve in a team.
Shayne Harrell is a Captain stationed at Fort Liberty, North Carolina. He previously served in 2nd Stryker Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado. He enjoys sports of all kinds and has definitely never struck out in slow pitch softball.
