David Philipps

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

~John Quincy Adams

Last night I attended an event where the author of Lethal Warriors, David Phillips talked about his book, his process, and PTSD. PTSD stands for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder which in his book, affected a majority of the soldiers in Fort Carson who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book explores the backgrounds of various soldiers, their experiences in the war zone and their actions back in the US. Since it is dealing with psychological problems affecting soldiers the book is widely controversial. 

What stood out to me was not the subject of the book but rather the actions the author took to write the book. Philipps was a reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette but he did not report on Fort Carson, or the crime in the city. Instead he was  a feature writer, writing things about skiing and the occasional restaurant review. When crimes started dramatically increasing, especially those committed by returned veterans from a certain platoon, Philipps noticed the trend. Even after the editor denied his request to be put on the assignment, he took his own time and energy and pursued the story. Eventually he turned in a 1500 story that was published, later he added more and turned it into the book Lethal Warriors.

In class we learned that leadership involves positive change. This occurs when something causes the situation to unfreeze and an issue is addressed. By writing Lethal Warriors Phillips was causing positive change by bringing to light the issue that PTSD was being ignored or when diagnosed, ineffectively treated. His book sparked many conversations with those throughout the military community, the medical community and in the government. Learning from his example I've noticed that sometimes it is necessary to tell a difficult truth in order to cause positive change.