I have had my opinion of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shaken somewhat in the last week or so as Major General John R.S. Batiste retired and then came out publicly that Rumsfeld should be replaced as SECDEF. The reason my opinion has changed is because I served under Batiste's command during the planning phase and then the execution of Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. I have the utmost respect for MG Batiste.
The first time I saw then Colonel Batiste was in Germany during a deployment in Grafenwoehr, Germany where he was in command of the 2nd Brigade(Iron Brigade)of the 1st Armored Division. The Iron Brigade was normally stationed in Baumholder, Germany but we were in the field of "Graf" to plan and train for our coming deployment to Bosnia. I was part of the planning cell with MG Batiste and spent many hours and days in close proximity to Batiste who would usually curl up on a cot put right into the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) to get a few minutes of shut eye at a time. In the first few days of the Graf operation we in the TOC heard a big crashing sound outside and ran out into the dark to find that Batiste's non-armored HMMWV (humvee) had been hit by an M113 armored personel carrier. Now the M113 has a weight of about 25,000 pounds so it vastly outweighed Batiste's command vehicle. I remember seeing Batiste standing up on top of the vehicles, calmly asking if everyone was ok (which they were) and saying that it was alright and just to clean it up. This was remarkable compared to some of the tirades I have seen from other senior officers.
Once in Bosnia as Batiste led a convoy into his base, a group of several hundred militant and some armed Serbs were blocking Batiste's entrance to the American base. Batiste calmly exited his now up-armored HMMWV and without drawing his weapon walked in front of the convoy and "parted the sea" of the angry mob to enter the base. This was during an unpublished period of extremely high tensions between U.S. Forces and the Bosnian Serbs when any spark could have set the whole region ablaze again.
I mention the previous observations to underline how much respect I have for John R.S. Batiste. When MG Batiste says that SECDEF Rumsfeld should go I had to rethink the image of the fiesty leader of the Defense Department that I had come to really like.
Another former U.S. Army officer for whom I have tremendous respect is Ralph Peters. After reading Peter's article in the New York Post my opinion of Rumsfeld was shaken further. Ralph Peters is a retired lieutenant colonel who served as a military intelligence officer. Peters is absolutely correct when he says that Batiste has a reputation of the utmost integrity. Batiste's command style was tough but fair and always calm and confident. I enjoyed serving with him and hope if he does remember me, that he thought I did a good job for him and his brigade.
I am thinking that now that there probably should be a change of Secretary of Defense.
Richard Disney served as a captain in the U.S. Army.
Update: I was remiss in not including Major General John R.S. Batiste's original article in the Washington Post. Click here to see the article.
Here is the video interview of MG Batiste on the Today Show. Click here for video.
