Five Wars: A Soldier's Journey to Peace

FRED JOHNSON

In his book Soft Skills in Hard Places, retired Army Colonel Fred Johnson makes the bold claim that soft skills, not technical abilities, were the most important factor in the success of both Union and Confederate leaders at the Battle of Perryville in 1862, the bloodiest clash in Kentucky during the Civil War. Johnson marches with the reader alongside the soldiers who fought for the Open Knob and Starkweather’s Hill and those that assaulted into the Valley of Death. The fate of Kentucky and the nation rested in the hands of Union General Don Carlos Buell and Confederate General Braxton Bragg, commanders who were technically and tactically competent, but lack the soft skills to be effective leaders. However, men like George Maney and John Starkweather, who did not have the benefit of the technical training afforded at the U.S. Military Academy, demonstrated aptitudes like thinking outside the box, initiative, and empathy. They were the leaders that provided the greatest opportunities of victory for their armies. Colonel Johnson also weaves in soft skill lessons from current wars and his own personal experience to show the enduring relevance of emotional intelligence in combat leadership. Having served with General David H. Petraeus, Johnson shows how, arguably the greatest General since WWII, expertly employed soft skills to great success. Johnson not only demonstrates the significance of soft skills on the battlefield, he provides a methodology to teach them to civilian business executives and their staffs so they can excel in the boardroom. Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long-term job success depended on people skills and only 25% on technical skills. Nonetheless, soft skills are difficult to teach and they are even more challenging to instill in people. The Perryville Battlefield Leadership Experience, as described within the book, offers corporations and anyone interested in being a better leader a solution to learning soft skills.

Five Wars: A Soldier’s Journey to Peace is a memoir and compilation of short stories that connects the experiences of a 29 year Army veteran of two tours in Iraq, and one each in Afghanistan and Bosnia with his most dangerous war of coming home.

The stories weave events over a lifetime from a basketball player growing up in Southern Illinois to the leader of soldiers in combat, advisor to the most senior officer in the Afghan National Army and then as a husband and father who fails to recognize that war changed him until it was almost too late.

It is the perspective of a soldier who never intended to remain in the Army past his initial tour. However, the pursuit of honor, sense of duty, and the brother and sisterhood of those with whom he served alongside kept him in for nearly three decades. It also offers a glimpse into the evolution of warfare from the "shock and awe" of Desert Storm, to "peace enforcement" in Bosnia, and finally America's longest war of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, it is a cautionary tale to all Americans of the cost of war and our obligation to participate in a dialogue with our national leaders in the decision of "if and when" to go to war.

Five Wars is a personal account of the psychological impact of combat, moral injury, and the struggle with PTSD. It describes one soldier's journey from the grand adventure of war to coming home where he finds himself on the brink of self destruction. However, family, friends and mental health professionals enable the healing process where he discovers his place as a healthy member of the community and learns that service to one's nation does not end when the uniform is taken off for the final time.

"Fred Johnson is one of the best and most inspirational leaders with whom I have served."

General David H. Petraeus (USA, RET)

SHAKESPEARE WITH VETERANS