SFC Juan Fontanez’s legacy was the impact he left on his Soldiers. He has been one of the most influential leaders in my military career. SFC Fontanez was my Platoon Sergeant during my third deployment to Iraq. During this deployment, I filled the role of Squad Leader in a Combat Engineer Platoon, performing route clearance operations in and out of Sadr City. SFC Fontanez taught me the importance of leading from the front, setting the example, and establishing a high level of trust within your unit. According to Field Manual 6-22, “Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization” (United States, 2006 p. 2). SFC Fontanez always
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One example was his ability to personally set and enforce physical fitness standards within the Platoon. He organized a physical fitness plan that raised our Platoon APFT average to 296; the highest Platoon APFT average in the brigade. He did this by taking ownership of the plan and putting in the time and effort to ensure everyone in the Platoon was making progress. This was no small task, considering we were conducting daily missions in and out of Sadr City. If SFC Fontanez had not personally set forth and enforced these high standards, we would not have been nearly as …show more content…
He trusted his Squad and Team Leaders, and empowered them to lead Soldiers. He groomed me as a leader and trusted my judgment. By doing this, he made the junior NCOs in the platoon strive for excellence. He made the mission ours and allowed us to create new tactics, techniques and procedures to combat the enemy. SFC Fontanez truly taught me how to be a NCO and how to lead Soldiers. As a result, I understand what trust brings to a unit, and I will work to emulate that in my future leadership positions.
I would like to leave a legacy that influences my future Soldiers to be great. I want my future Soldiers to know that I will never ask them to do something that I myself would not do. I want to set high standards and challenge the Soldiers in my unit to surpass those standards. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to have a high level of trust within my organization. I want to groom the junior leaders and allow them to lead from the front. I hope to inspire the Soldiers under my leadership to become truly great
One example was his ability to personally set and enforce physical fitness standards within the Platoon. He organized a physical fitness plan that raised our Platoon APFT average to 296; the highest Platoon APFT average in the brigade. He did this by taking ownership of the plan and putting in the time and effort to ensure everyone in the Platoon was making progress. This was no small task, considering we were conducting daily missions in and out of Sadr City. If SFC Fontanez had not personally set forth and enforced these high standards, we would not have been nearly as …show more content…
He trusted his Squad and Team Leaders, and empowered them to lead Soldiers. He groomed me as a leader and trusted my judgment. By doing this, he made the junior NCOs in the platoon strive for excellence. He made the mission ours and allowed us to create new tactics, techniques and procedures to combat the enemy. SFC Fontanez truly taught me how to be a NCO and how to lead Soldiers. As a result, I understand what trust brings to a unit, and I will work to emulate that in my future leadership positions.
I would like to leave a legacy that influences my future Soldiers to be great. I want my future Soldiers to know that I will never ask them to do something that I myself would not do. I want to set high standards and challenge the Soldiers in my unit to surpass those standards. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to have a high level of trust within my organization. I want to groom the junior leaders and allow them to lead from the front. I hope to inspire the Soldiers under my leadership to become truly great