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.

ABOUT FRED JOHNSON

Colonel Fred Johnson (USA, Retired) has told the story of his journey through five wars on the stage during the Wofford College TEDx, Louisville Moth GrandSlam, with the Louisville Storytellers Project, on the Moth Radio Hour Podcast and in Reader's Digest and Kentucky Living. Fred is an Airborne and Ranger qualified infantryman who served 29 years in the United States Army. He first went to war in 1991 during Desert Storm and participated in the liberation of Kuwait. In 1996, he participated in Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia, which helped end Serbian genocide of Bosnian Muslims. In 2006-2007, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and at the height of the Surge, Fred received the Bronze Star for Valor during Operation Arrowhead Ripper and the liberation of Baqubah from Al Qaeda. In his last combat deployment, Fred was the advisor to the most senior military officer in the Afghan National Army. Since retiring from the Army, Fred continues his service as a community advocate for positive change in Louisville, Kentucky as a volunteer with Restorative Justice Louisville. Fred is the co-founder of "Shakespeare with Veterans," a program dedicated to helping veterans address challenges with transitioning from military service and overcoming combat trauma, moral injury and PTSD. He is the founder of the Perryville Battlefield Leadership Experience, a leadership workshop held on the historic site of Kentucky's bloodiest Civil War battle. In addition to publishing Five Wars: A Soldier's Journey to Peace, Fred is the author of Soft Skills in Hards Places: The Perryville Battlefield Leadership Experience. Currently, Colonel Johnson is a sixth grade social studies teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. Fred is from Centralia, Illinois and graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In addition to Bachelor Degrees in Government and Sociology, he has two Masters Degrees. Fred is married to Dr. Laura Johnson, PhD, also an Army veteran, and they have a daughter Madelyn.