Opportunity

I feel as though I’ve abandoned some new-found friends here at Skirt!  But, I haven’t.

I’ve been pretending to be 19 again and going and going just like that big pink bunny.  I have to confess though that I’ve written several blog entries over and over again in my mind, but they haven’t reached paper until now. 

Procrastinating, as it usually does, has made my task monumental.  With many adventures to share, I’ll start with a work story.

Few people with my rank have the opportunity to witness sharing collaborating, and communicating at the top levels.  I had the opportunity last Wednesday in a meeting that seemed to melt one into another.

The first meeting in Dr. Casscells office concerned helping a group of military folks in Texas.  A group of Veterans had seriously fallen through the cracks. 

Command Sgt. Maj. (RET) Larry Holland who is an unending advocate of military Veterans, was interested in not only helping local Texas Veterans, but he wanted to work toward assisting all Veterans in the process. The back and forth passionate, yet calm, exchange of ideas and information illustrated to me that top-level executives and military, both active and retired, are pushing solutions to address care problems.  There seems to be so many sides to every problem and “one size fits all policies” don’t work.

Not thirty seconds after some solutions were proposed and that meeting ended, another began.  I couldn’t escape the office in time so I turned to Dr. Casscells and plainly asked, “Do I add value to this meeting?” Heavens, I didn’t want to sound like a school kid and ask, “Should I leave now?”

The response was, “Sergeant Gillespie, I invite you to stay.” 

I know it sounds like I had no choice, but that didn’t matter.  Less than a minute into this meeting I was happy to be a part of it –if only a fly on the wall.  One of my favorite speakers reported to Dr. Casscells about the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE).

Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, M.D. who always speaks with a huge amount of energy, whether it’s one-on-one or to a large group updated Dr. Casscells on the progress made in establishing this new organization that is totally focused on Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  TBI and PTSD have been the two types of injuries that have gathered a huge amount of attention in the last six or seven years from world-wide media and the Military Health System.

Brig. Gen. Sutton expressive way of communicating illustrated her genuine concern for the individuals who will be served when the DCoE opens.  Her style made linear organization, timelines and finance reporting seem as though she was reading from a well-written novel.

After leaving the set of meetings, my walk through the halls of the Pentagon was in a cloud of amazement.  As I waited outside of the five-sided fortress for a bus to take me back to my office, I tried to figure out how I could express what I had just experienced.   As I toyed with the idea of writing Dr. Casscells a thank you note, Maj. Gen. Elder Granger waked by with another gentleman and called out my name. I gave him a two-sentence summary of what I experienced.  He had my answer before I could ask the question. 

“Did you take pictures?” he said.  “No sir I didn’t,” I replied. 

Before I could think of what to say next he shot out. “Write about it in your blog.”