Gregory D. Lee

I wrote two columns about my son, U.S. Army Infantry Captain Christopher B. Lee, about his going to war in Afghanistan and then coming home. Thank God!

Now it’s my turn. As an army reserve Chief Warrant Officer Five going on 39 years of service, I volunteered to go on active duty to support the Special Operations Command – Europe and be the

Afghanistan, here I come.

Officer in Charge (OIC) of a combating terrorism intelligence analytical team for one year. I report on November 1, 2010. The duty station will be in Stuttgart, Germany; however, my team will rotate into Afghanistan for a four-month period to support and conduct joint special operations in the theater.

As a fitting conclusion to my army career, I’m looking forward to giving Al-Qaeda and the Taliban many headaches. After being passed over for combat deployments to Vietnam, Granada, Panama, Persian Gulf, Kosovo and Iraq, this will mark my one and only “combat” tour. This does not mean that I didn’t do anything during those conflicts. I was activated during the Persian Gulf War twice, and this marks my third activation since 9/11. At least now I have an opportunity to experience a combat theater of operation, and hopefully I can contribute to the cause.

In case you don’t know what a Chief Warrant Officer Five is, let me explain. Unlike lieutenants, captains and colonels who are generalists, warrant officers are also officers but they are specialists in a particular field. They perform the same job, but at different supervisory and management levels, through their entire career. Half of all army warrant officers are aviators and fly the army’s inventory of helicopters, fixed wing and executive jets. The other half are experts in fields such as signal, engineering, transportation, nuclear weapons and intelligence, just to name a few. I am a criminal investigator, and have been one since 1975, three years after enlisting as a Military Policeman in 1972 when my draft lottery number for that year was number one. I never would have guessed I would be a “lifer” which was the popular term at the time for an army careerist, but I don’t regret a minute of it. It’s been a great ride. There are no Chief Warrant Officer Sixes, so I am on the top of my game and have been so since 2001.

At 57 years old, some view me as a dinosaur, and I must reluctantly agree when you compare me to all the dedicated, young, fresh faces I see when I am on active duty. My age peer group is three and four star general officers, and they have always shown me respect. They know I don’t have a hidden agenda; I’m not looking for a promotion, and am among the most senior Chief Warrant Officers in the army. They know I tell them the way it is. They may not always like hearing the way it is, but it doesn’t change the way it is. They require a realistic analysis of a given situation in order to make an informed decision on how to act. That’s my job.

[simple AdPlacement] It may seem strange that the army would send a grandfather like me to war, but I am certainly not the first. Many senior reserve and National Guard officers, enlisted men and women from all branches of the military have served and died in defense of their country. These patriots demonstrated their dedication by remaining in the reserve and National Guard despite being able to retire from military service decades earlier. God bless them all.

There are many First Amendment restrictions on active duty personnel. If I can write a puff piece on something that doesn’t violate Department of Defense directives I will.

In any event, I appreciate the opportunity to express myself in these columns, and the reader support (or criticisms) I have received. I want to thank my editor-in-chief, Dan Calabrese, of North Star National and Family Security Matters President Carol Taber, for having the bravery to publish my columns. Many other websites, newspapers and weekly publications have bought or borrowed my material for their own use. I hope they also continue to publish my columns.

Hoooah!

Gregory D. Lee’s opinions are his own and not necessary those of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, or the Army Criminal Investigation Command. Reach him through his website: www.gregorydlee.com.

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