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become. They had all invested in me, and this was a very, very powerful motivator that kept me going.
Chicken Heart?
“West Point was hard, physically, emotionally and academically,” Halstead recalled. “We were constantly being tested to see if we had what it takes.” During her second summer there, Halstead and her classmates were sent for RECONDO (RECONnaissance and CommanDO) training. One goal of the training was to learn to survive in an unfamiliar and possibly hostile environment. The training took place at Camp Buckner, an isolated camp on the outskirts of the Academy. Cadets were assigned to squads and told to line up single-file. Special Forces leaders distributed a few scant supplies and provisions that each squad would have to live on for several days. One item was a live chicken.
I was the only female cadet in my squad and the last one in line. One of the Special Forces leaders stood at the front of the line holding the live chicken by its neck. The cadet that was handed the chicken was responsible for killing, cleaning and cooking it. The Special Forces leader feigned handing it off to a few of the cadets who were before me in line, but waited until I reached the front of the line and then thrust the live bird into my face. There is no doubt in my mind that I was singled out in this case because I was a woman. Our squad was a team and judged as such. I could read the concerned looks on my squad mates’ faces as they worried that I may not have what it takes to kill, skin and cook the bird. What they didn’t know was growing up in the country I was exposed to this and wasn’t scared at all.
As our squad sat around the fire eating the chicken, the Special Forces leader came over to the site. He grabbed our garbage bag and pulled out the chicken’s heart and liver that I had discarded while cleaning the bird. He marched over to me and, holding out the heart in one palm and the liver in the other, barked at me, “These are edible. You do not throw out anything that your squad can eat! Do you understand? You have a choice: to eat one now. And, oh, by the way, you can eat these raw.” I knew I had to eat one. Otherwise another member of the squad would be singled out, and I would lose any possible chance to earn their trust and respect and would fatally fracture the team. I made a quick assessment and decided I could probably swallow the heart whole, but not the liver. So I took the heart from his outstretched palm, put it in my mouth and swallowed hard. I went way up with my male peers after this.
Halstead and her classmates were promoted to the rank of second lieutenant upon graduation from West Point in 1981.
You’re Ruining It Because You’re Single
Halstead married shortly after graduating from West Point, but the marriage was short-lived, and she has to date not remarried.
I’ve actually had women say to me, “You’re ruining it out here because you’re single. You’ve had, like, this rocket success in the Army, and you just can’t do that if you’re married.” So it appears that you can only do that if you’re single? And I’d think: you’re absolutely crazy! It’s difficult either way. It’s very difficult being single, because you have to do it all yourself: there is nobody paying the bills and mowing the lawn and getting the groceries. Now, being single has its advantages, in that at eight o’clock at night if I’m in my office, I’m not trying to explain to my husband or my kids why I’m going to be late tonight.
For the exclusive use of J. Zhou, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Jing Zhou in Leadership-1-1 taught by Chenwei Li, San Francisco State University from January 2018 to July 2018.
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So I kind of think the answer is they’re both really tough, and we shouldn’t judge one way or the other. Instead I think we ought to recognize that if you have someone who’s working for you that’s single, there are probably a set of challenges they have because of it. At least that’s the way I did. I’m single, so I would be very emphatic with people that were married: “Look, do you see my light on in my office at 10 o’clock at night? That doesn’t mean that I expect you to still be there. But I do expect you to still do your job.” So if you’re married, that may mean then you come at 4:30 in order to get your job done because your spouse won’t care if you’re here at 4:30 in the morning. But she probably does care if you’re there at 7:30 at night for dinner and to help put the kids to bed and stay with them.
I think there ought to be more respect with the fact that both have challenges in order to make the work/life balance be successful. Neither one is a cakewalk. In both cases, to be successful, you’re sacrificing something personally.
As a commander, Halstead has always taken into account the individual personal life choices of her Soldiers.2 According to Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Whitson, who served as a company commander under Halstead in 1997:
She was able to go deeper than just the Soldier; she also went down to the family, and really got to know the Soldiers’ families, where the kids went to school, what grade they were in, what colleges they went to. She took stock in getting to know her Soldiers, and that really was something that I took in. And it inspired me to try to do the same.
Right Arm Night
Shortly after being promoted to captain in December 1984, Halstead completed a four-month advanced course for ordnance officers at the U.S. Army Ordnance Missile and Munitions Center and School at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, in May 1985 (See Exhibit 2 for Halstead’s military biography). Ordnance officers are responsible for ensuring that weapons systems, vehicles, and equipment are ready and in superb working order at all times. Ordnance officers also manage the development, testing, fielding, handling, storage, and disposal of munitions.
Halstead chose to serve in Ordnance from the then 13 branches of the Army (there are now 17)3 and chose to serve her entire career in the Army in Ordnance. Said Halstead:
I chose to serve in Ordnance for several reasons. One, I loved math and science. As a kid, I loved to spend time with my Dad, who was an engineer, while he worked with numbers. Also because Ordnance is generally the largest or second largest branch of the Army and integral to all other branches–Ordnance plays a strategic role helping all other branches to accomplish their missions–I thought it would provide a great diversity of opportunity. In Ordnance you are always helping others to achieve their goals and are part of the bigger accomplishment, the greater good, and I thought this would be both personally and professionally rewarding.
Two months later, Halstead was given her first command position, as commander of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 80th Ordnance Battalion,4 at Fort Lewis, Washington.
2 The Army has moved away from the use of troops and now prefers to use Soldiers (with a capital ‘S”) when referring to the men and women who serve in its ranks.
3 Visit http://www.us-army-info.com/pages/branches.html if you would like to see a complete listing of the current branches.
For the exclusive use of J. Zhou, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Jing Zhou in Leadership-1-1 taught by Chenwei Li, San Francisco State University from January 2018 to July 2018.
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At Fort Lewis Halstead was introduced to Right Arm Night, a longstanding military tradition intended to build camaraderie and cohesiveness. Officers invite their non-commissioned officers—the “right-arm men” or, occasionally, women—who help them perform their day-to-day duties. In 1985 women were still relative newcomers to the Officer’s Club and such rituals. Halstead recollected evenings spent at the Fort Lewis Officer’s Club with the five other company commanders in her battalion, two of whom were also women:
There was a lot of drinking and entertainment, usually in the form of female dancers. I had no desire to go to the Club and drink beer with a bunch of men and watch women half-dressed dance. But how else did you fit in? And we were expected to attend by our battalion commander; we were absolutely expected to go. And it was very, very uncomfortable; it was very lonely. How would all of the men have felt if we went to a club with male dancers? My fellow female officers and I would sit with our backs to the stage so as not to face the dancers. I was present, but not participating. And inevitably, somebody always drank too much and caused an incident. There would be a fight, or someone would get a driving-under-the- influence citation on his way home. And I remember thinking: there are much better ways to create camaraderie.
Halstead commented at the time in one of her notebooks: “What I am not going to be/do when I grow up and educate others about different points of view!” (See Exhibit 3 for an illustration of how Halstead uses notebooks as an organizing-and-documentation tool.)
Recently, she reflected further: “Our culture is still so very stereotypical that it’s going to take a long time to change. And I think the way we have to change it is to be courageous enough—without starting with our defenses, or whining or complaining—to say, ‘Let me present this to you this way.’” She shared an example:
As a colonel more than 10 years after my first Right Arm Night, I was at a meeting with 100 or so other commanders and we were waiting for a general. Besides myself, there was only one other woman in the room, but I was the only female commander. There was a major standing at the door, and his job was to announce the general. So we’re all in the room talking, carrying on, and all of a sudden the major said, “Gentlemen, stand by.” The general came in and we all stood at attention. I was pretty obvious in the room because I was in the front row, and I was just so irritated that this major didn’t even see me–because he said “gentlemen,” right? I am not a gentleman. But what I had to do was rationalize with myself: OK, don’t be mad. This is just a bad habit; it wasn’t like he saw me and was trying to be disrespectful. But part of me wanted to remain standing when he said, “Gentlemen, take your seats,” because I’m not a gentleman. But then everybody would have looked at me and asked “Why are you standing?”
So part of me wanted to be really in their face about it. But I realized that if I did that, I was just going to be the one with the problem, not them. So I sat down and thought about it and afterwards I went over to the major and said, “Could I talk to you for a second? Do you remember what you said when the general was coming? What you said was, ‘Gentlemen, stand by. Gentlemen, take your seats.’” He said, “Yeah?” and was still pretty clueless. I said, “I would like to present something to you. Let’s put me at the door as the major in your place,
4 A company consists of three to five platoons, a total of 62–190 Soldiers, commanded by a captain. A battalion consists of four to six companies, or 300–1,000 Soldiers, normally commanded by a lieutenant colonel; a battalion is capable of independent operations of limited duration and scope. A brigade consists of two to five combat battalions, or 3,000–5,000 Soldiers, normally commanded by a colonel; brigades undertake independent or semi-independent operations. A division consists of three brigade-size components, or 10,000–15,000 Soldiers, normally commanded by a major general (2 stars); a division performs major tactical operations.
For the exclusive use of J. Zhou, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Jing Zhou in Leadership-1-1 taught by Chenwei Li, San Francisco State University from January 2018 to July 2018.
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and you be in my place in the front, and I yell, ‘Ladies, stand by!’” And he looked at me really funny and said, “Oh, ma’am, I’m so sorry. I should have said . . . .” I said, “Yes, you should have.” But I said to him, “Let’s take it a step further here. If I had said, ‘Ladies, stand by,’ you can be sure that 50 of those men would have jumped all over me, like, ‘What is your problem?’” They would have been offended and it would have been my problem, not theirs.
So either way it’s always going to be my problem as a female. But what we need to do is, just one person at a time, we’ve got to change this culture. I didn’t yell. I tried to give an analogy of what it felt like. So a big part of this culture change is to figure out new ways to present the problem, and a solution, so that you don’t automatically put a defensive wall between people. We have to be all about building bridges and not walls.
The 63d Ordnance Company
Early in 1986 Halstead learned that the command position for the 63d Ordnance Company in her battalion was becoming available. This was a tactical5 mission, an intense ammunitions command, and she wanted it. It was also known throughout the battalion that the 63d Ordnance Company was riddled with challenges: low morale, as well as discipline and drug problems. Halstead asked her boss, Colonel Dewitt “T” Irby, for the position. It was a tough command; he tried to talk her out of it. She insisted that she was ready for the command and could turn things around. Throughout her career, Halstead has sought tough assignments:
I think I was seeking the turnaround units, because I’ve always had this mentality that every day my goal is to make a difference in someone else’s life. Typically what I have found is that people who are messing up, whether it’s doing drugs or poor performance, they don’t necessarily wake up in the morning deciding to be the worst person they can be. It’s just that their life isn’t quite right. So if any influence I can have on them helps make them a better person, helps make the team a better team, helps make the organization more effective, then in my mind that’s tremendous. And it’s a tremendous personal reward too. And whether I get promoted for it or not, I really don’t care. It’s just that I like that feeling of putting my head on the pillow at night being able to think: today I at least made a difference in one other person’s life. And if you can do that, then you end up making a bigger difference for the team too.
Colonel Irby agreed to think about it. Then Halstead had to take a brief medical leave for surgery. Worried that her leave could derail her already slim chances, Halstead called Irby to say, “Don’t count me out.” He agreed to wait and see how her recovery progressed before making a decision. When Halstead had recovered enough to begin exercising, she chose the field in front of Irby’s house for her workouts. One day she spotted someone sitting in the bleachers watching her run. It was Irby.
Not only did he give her the command; this incident also marked the beginning of a lifelong leader-mentor-friend relationship—part of what Halstead calls a “Leadership Triad” (See Exhibit 4). It was Irby who promoted Halstead to major, colonel and general and a friendship developed over the years that remains strong to this day.
5 The Army distinguishes between strategic, operational and tactical levels of engagement. According to the United States Army Field manual FM 100-5 (1993) the tactical level focuses “on the ordered arrangement and maneuver of combat elements in relation to one another and to the enemy to achieve combat objectives directed by the operational commander. Tactics is the art and science of employing available means to win battles and engagements. Tactics is battlefield problem-solving—usually rapid and dynamic in nature.
For the exclusive use of J. Zhou, 2018.
This document is authorized for use only by Jing Zhou in Leadership-1-1 taught by Chenwei Li, San Francisco State University from January 2018 to July 2018.
