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PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan (9/7/2012) – It's a simple story
built on a simple adage: “lead from the front.” Sometimes that means
leading from the side. In this case, it's leading from the side of
an aircraft.
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Brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Larry Farmer, 82nd Combat Aviation
Brigade, smiles at his crew members during the early morning hours
of pre-flight inspections on Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, Sept. 2,
2012. Camaraderie and unit cohesion are regular traits for the 82nd
CAB. Photo by Army Staff Sgt. Anna Rutherford
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A door gunner dismounts from the side of a UH-60 Black Hawk
helicopter and calmly touches the shoulder of a boarding passenger
to yell instructions. From inside the aircraft, his words are
inaudible over the slap of rotor blades. Between the lack of sight
from the dust of the soccer field-turned landing zone and the
inability to hear over the din of the aircraft, there is no way to
ascertain what he is saying.
The passenger nods his head and acknowledges as he begins to move
quickly toward the aircraft. He does a double take as he glimpses
the mass of chevrons and rothguards surrounding a star enveloped in
a wreath – 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Larry
Farmer calmly utters some
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information over the headset to his pilots aboard the Black Hawk
and awaits the next passengers.
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This story begins with a man rising before the sun and
coolly puffing a cigar as he sips on his coffee from the
second story outdoor deck just outside his office. The scene
is nothing new for him. He's put on the uniform for more
than 29 years. Why does he serve? The response is simple.
“The soldiers,” states Farmer, the San Diego native.
“Enjoying the job and coaching, teaching and mentoring young
men and women. It's been a great career.”
Like so
many young men and women, he joined because he was “tired of
living how [he] was living.” His pre-Army life, wasn't the
life he wanted.
“I got tired of just existing, not
living,” said Farmer. “I was 20 years old, no job, no money
– got to know the McDonald's restaurant pretty well,
cleaning. I figured I'd try something else.”
Although
his mannerisms could put any newcomer at ease, Farmer is far
from simple. Among his regular sergeant major activities, he
finds time to fulfill duties as a crew-member on rotory wing
aircraft, fly to the many bases his paratroopers are
stationed, and conduct professional development training. To
keep his sanity on deployments, he also conducts a strenuous
physical training regimen to beat soldiers half his age not
only on their two-mile run time, but also at the occasional
pick-up game of basketball.
Farmer, a father of two
and a husband to his wife for 26 years, keeps unique hobbies
such as officiating professional in-line speed skating and
high school basketball.
“Growing up in the Army, I
got into quad-speed-skating,” explained Farmer. “They've
since gone to in-line skating and as they moved into in-line
I got out of the competition and now I'm a national
official. That keeps me pretty busy.”
When asked if
he brought skates to Afghanistan, he chuckled, “You know, I
saw a guy skating a couple of weeks ago around the block and
I told the boss I should have brought mine, but no I didn't
bring them. I'm too busy to go out and skate right now.”
Serving as a door-gunner isn't just a once-a-month
activity for him to pass the time. He fulfills these duties
three times a week.
“Door-gunning isn't about me,”
he said. “I've got young soldiers who are flying about 120
hours a month. When we get to that level I gotta sit them
[the soldiers] down for awhile and then they don't have
anybody to fly. In fact, just about all my sergeants major
door-gun to help in the mission sets.”
Between the
heavy mission sets, Farmer and 82nd CAB Commander Col. Terry
Jamison, conduct three-day battlefield circulations each
week to one of the brigade's task forces across Regional
Command-East. While Jamison flies with officers, Farmer
door-guns.
As he gets up from his seat on the deck,
Farmer finds time to pick up the flight crew's gear, load
the weapons and begin cleaning the windows on the aircraft.
His movements are deliberate and deft, and it quickly
becomes apparent that he is no stranger to the pre-flight
preparations for an aircraft – or for that matter, hard
work. Farmer's hard work and leadership is apparent in his
soldiers throughout the brigade.
“I haven't been
working with Command Sgt. Maj. Farmer for long,” said Spc.
Minhaj Mohammed, a regular crew member for the 82nd CAB. “I
like him; I think most everyone does.”
The crew loads
up and as the aircraft conducts its regular pre-flight prep,
Farmer converses with his crew chief and pilots. They are
synched together in perfect rhythm and the chatter on the
headsets is almost another language. For an outsider, the
aircraft looks to be just an extension of the team, but this
is the first time Farmer has flown with this crew.
The aircraft takes off, and during flight, Farmer can feel
each banking movement of the aircraft and spots for the
pilots, calling in visibility over the headset at each
slight lean.
It wasn't always this way, though. It
would be foolish to believe that this one man was always the
leader he is today. His pivotal moment came when he was
still a young soldier.
“Well...as all young
specialists do, you get into some kind of trouble and [my]
platoon sergeant sat me down and asked me why I joined the
Army,” Farmer recalled. “I told him it was to change my
life, and he asked me if I was doing that. I realized I
wasn't – I was still doing the same things I was doing
before I came into the Army - I started to turn my military
career around and I think I can affect change if I stay with
it.”
For Farmer, the platoon sergeant was an
eye-opener he will never forget.
Farmer will soon
retire, marking more than 30 years in the Army. Later in the
evening, Farmer is back in the deck chair– comfortably
puffing on a cigar as the Afghan sun begins to sink below
the horizon. When the sun finally sets on this leader's
career, his legacy will still live on.
“It's not what
you do, it's who you affect,” Farmer points out. “My legacy
is not what I did, it's who I affected.”
By Army Staff Sgt. Anna Rutherford
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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