Finding Waypoints with Col. Greg Gadson (Ret.) and Terese Schlachter

Colonel Greg Gadson's life changed forever when an IED explosion in Iraq claimed both his legs in 2007. What followed wasn't just a story of physical recovery but a profound spiritual transformation that led him to discover a new purpose through extreme adversity.

"Finding Waypoints: A Warrior's Journey Towards Peace and Purpose," written by Emmy Award-winning producer Terese Schlachter, chronicles this remarkable journey with raw authenticity.

• Click HERE to order a copy of Finding Waypoints
• Click HERE to learn about Vail Veterans
• Click HERE to learn about Face of America
• Click HERE to learn about the Gary Sinise Foundation

HERE ARE MORE RESOURCES FROM REAL GOOD VENTURES:

Never miss a good opportunity to learn from a bad boss...

Click HERE to get your very own Reference Profile.  We use The Predictive Index as our analytics platform so you know it's validated and reliable.  Your Reference Profile informs you of your needs, behaviors, and the nuances of what we call your Behavioral DNA.  It also explains your work style, your strengths, and even the common traps in which you may find yourself.  It's a great tool to share with friends, family, and co-workers.

Follow us on Instagram HERE and make sure to share with your network!

Follow us on Twitter HERE and make sure to share with your network!

Provide your feedback HERE, please!  We love to hear from our listeners and welcome your thoughts and ideas about how to improve the podcast and even suggest topics and ideas for future episodes.

Visit us at www.realgoodventures.com.  We are a Talent Optimization consultancy specializing in people and business execution analytics.  Real Good Ventures was founded by Sara Best and John Broer who are both Certified Talent Optimization Consultants with over 50 years of combined consulting and organizational performance experience.  Sara is also certified in EQi 2.0.  RGV is also a Certified Partner of Line-of-Sight, a powerful organizational health and execution platform.  RGV is known for its work in leadership development, executive coaching, and what we call organizational rebuild where we bring all our tools together to diagnose an organization's present state and how to grow toward a stronger future state. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Colonel Greg Gadson
• 5:15 First Meeting at Walter Reed
• 10:32 Finding Waypoints After Tragedy
• 17:05 Faith and Total Acceptance
• 22:14 The Book Writing Journey
• 27:24 Learning to Fail and Accept Help
• 29:20 Leadership Lessons: Trust and Empowerment
• 34:09 The Battalion Reunion and Legacy Impact

Transcript

Sara Best: 0:05

Hello everyone in The Bossh ole Transformation Nation, this is Sara Best, your co-host. Really eager to bring forward today's episode, which is chock full of leadership and life inspiration and lessons. Have you ever heard the word waypoints? It's military jargon. It refers to guideposts on a map, and soldiers use these guideposts to direct themselves in and out of locations, find rendezvous points.

Sara Best: 0:34

Our story today features Colonel Greg Gatson, retired Colonel Greg Gadson, a battalion commander and former West Point football player who lost both legs as a result of an IED attack in Iraq in 2007. At this point, his waypoints were to change dramatically, and the book we feature today is "Finding Waypoints: A Warrior's Journey Towards Peace and Purpose. The book talks about how Colonel Gadsden endured his long, painful recovery and emerged not only as a spiritual guide, but an actor, an assistant coach to the New York Giants. You may remember the 2008 Super Bowl win by the New York Giants. They credit Colonel Gadson for his spiritual leadership and coaching through that 2007 season that took them from last place to the championship in 2008. And shortly after that, Colonel Gadsden appeared in the motion picture called Battleship and has spent his time ever since being a motivational speaker since he's retired from the Army, and sharing his deeply personal story of transformation, which, by the way, is captured by a pretty accomplished and amazing writer named Terese Schlachter.

Sara Best: 1:49

Terese is an author, video producer, writing coach, instructor and chief storyteller at Ridgeback Communications. She began her career in Northwest Ohio as a reporter and hopped around to many stations before finding her spot behind the camera as a producer. She is a three-time Emmy Award-winning producer. She's worked for MSNBC, NBC News in Washington, where she covered politics and other natural disasters, and when she moved from Capitol Hill to the Pentagon and she worked for the Pentagon Channel. This is where she spent many days at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. This is where she met Colonel Gadsden, and the story of their friendship and her ability to capture these amazing things that have happened both for and to Colonel Gadson make for a really awesome interview and a powerful read in finding waypoints. For now let's dig in.

John Broer: 2:48

The Bossh ole Chronicles are brought to you by Real Good Ventures, the talent optimization firm, helping organizations diagnose their most critical people and execution issues with world-class analytics. Make sure to check out all the resources in the show notes and be sure to follow us and share your feedback. Enjoy today's episode.

Sara Best: 3:12

A very big welcome to our guests today, Terese Schlachter and Colonel Gregory Gadson, and thank you for joining us today on the Bossh ole Chronicles.

Terese Schlachter: 3:21

Sara and John.

Sara Best: 3:23

So good to have you, and it goes without saying that this is going to be a rich dialogue we're going to have here, because maybe people aren't going to experience, Colonel Gadsdon, what you have, but there's so much we can take away from how you faced what came your way. So that's the focus of our discussion today on the Bossh ole Chronicles. But we couldn't start without saying how did the two of you meet? And, as I understand it, the story goes, Colonel Gadsdon, that you literally fell into Terese's life following this horrific IED incident that you endured in Afghanistan. Let's start there, if we could.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 4:02

Yeah, that is well said, probably the best that I've ever heard, Sara, but I'll let Terese start out, because she really remembers it the best.

Terese Schlachter: 4:11

So I was working as a producer for what was then known as the Pentagon Channel and I was covering Walter Reed Army Medical Center that's what it was called at the time and Greg was- they were opening a new rehab wing of the hospital and so I was there covering the opening of that wing and they had soldiers, not just soldiers Marine and Navy posted all over the place demonstrating the new equipment. So I was sitting next to this track and Greg was demonstrating and he was also learning to use his new prosthetic legs, and so he came down the track toward me and he was on a pulley system and the pulley was attached to the ceiling and then attached by a carabiner to a harness on his back, so in case, so that you know if he fell he wouldn't face plant. So as he was coming by me, he did lose his balance and he wiped out, but he didn't go down, he just was kind of hanging there like Pinocchio off of this camera. I was with a photographer, of course.

Terese Schlachter: 5:14

So you know, click, click, the camera started and Greg looks up out of the corner of his eye and he's like are you going to use that? I said, well, yeah, and he goes and he gets himself back together and he goes, "Well, I guess I better do it again. And he went around the track and came by again and I said you know, isn't that the whole point, where people see you fall but then they see you get back up and continue?

Sara Best: 5:43

And that's so powerful, so powerful, and it's the beginning of the whole story. You formed a friendship and a bond. You tracked along with Greg as you endured. I can't even imagine the kind of pain and challenge you encountered in your long recovery. But together you kind of walked this journey and there was a story to be told. And I know, Colonel Gadsdon, you were not big on sharing the story initially because you're a humble guy and I'm sure it was emotionally challenging. In fact, when I was doing my research I saw that it was about 13 years before you actually gave a thumbs up, and that was with the encouragement of a good friend to say, hey, let's share this story. But how did you come to the place where it became important to share the story for you?

Col. Gregory Gadson: 6:31

Thanks, Sara. First, you're right, it was tough and you know, in hindsight I have to share that. I hope that I would have, but I'm not sure I would have if I knew I was going to be sharing it, if I would have been so open. You know, the fact is is that I never imagined sharing it and so I gave Terese everything. I mean, I was just, I didn't have a filter. At least I didn't and I didn't have a filter that I was evaluating or sharing things from or through.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 7:02

So, with that said, you know my best friend, Chuck Schretzman, who was an outside linebacker with me I mean, we went to prep school together before we went to West Point and really have had parallel lives in many different ways we retired a month apart, after 26 years of service, and six months after he retired he was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. You know his words really alone were you know, Greg, this is something that you need to share, you should share, and that was, you know, what got me to unhook my anchor and move forward. You know, one of the things that I shared with Therese, even after the fact it was still very tough, even after I agreed to do it, you know there was a lot of I wasn't comfortable. I wasn't comfortable with, I suppose, that sort of access to me or that in that form and that way that you know, someone could just pick up a book and read about me, and that even took a while to get used to, even after it was out.

Sara Best: 8:13

I can only imagine to me that's our first leadership lesson today is the power of vulnerability your willingness to be vulnerable and completely honest and candid and open in the telling of this story and what that makes available to other people. We could spend days talking about the impact of this amazing story written in the book "Finding Waypoints". Therese, you want to add anything to that?

Terese Schlachter: 8:46

Greg and I worked, and you're right, it was about 13 years. All the time and all the conversations we had, I just assumed he knew it was going to book, be a book that I wanted to publish. So when we got right down to actually publishing it, yeah, it was a little bit of uh, we had some head bumping, yeah, and then I got a publisher, and so that was, you know, a cause for me to celebrate and a cause for Greg to get very nervous.

Terese Schlachter: 9:11

And I remember when they picked the cover even which you know we've come. I think it's a beautiful cover. He had given me that photo that's a self portrait and he had given it to me a long time ago and I had just sent a whole bunch of different photos that I thought might work for the cover to the publisher and and I was really surprised when he picked that one and he showed me you know what the cover will would look like and it's a picture of Greg without a shirt on and and he is very exposed and very neat. He says it looks like I'm in my underwear on the cover of the book.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 9:46

It looks like she said. It actually looks like I'm nude, but you kind of do.

Sara Best: 9:52

I'm looking at the cover right now. I think I understand what it represents and it is striking, it's powerful, it's almost breathtaking when you really look at it, but it fits. And maybe then this is the segue to our next question is the "Finding Waypoints. So the title of the book is "Finding Waypoints A Warrior's Journey Toward Peace and Purpose. But the Finding Waypoints you know the waypoints, a very commonly known military term. Some people may not know what that means. Colonel Gadsden, would you share with us? You know your take on that and how in the book we understand what happens to the waypoints.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 10:39

Right, we had some discussions even about the title and I honestly don't remember what made me think of the term "waypoints, but it obviously has a professional connection. And first, it's really about that. We never go anywhere straight in life, or rarely do we go in a straight line. We have intersections of whether we have to get gas or we have to get food or whether you have to stop for the night.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 10:58

Those are waypoints and for me, it really is about understanding that our lives are really not about a final destination, but it's really about the journey and being present in that journey and living that journey and connecting. And so, whether it's with your family, whether it's at work and leadership, are you able to be where you're at? Are you able to connect, are you able to be authentic? You mentioned vulnerability, are you able to expose yourself? And I say be authentic. You know it's a military term, but aviators and seafarers use it as well, and I think to me it's really about sort of the process of really kind of understanding how you live your life.

Sara Best: 11:45

That's leadership, lesson number two that the waypoints are the guide to be here and now and to remind us not to just focus or only focus on the destination, but to be here, to be present. That's powerful.

John Broer: 12:00

For those that are not familiar with the story or the book, you were actually on your way back from a memorial service. Is that not correct?

Col. Gregory Gadson: 12:13

Yes, sir, I was First Lieutenant Ryan Jones and Specialist Armando Sunson. They had been killed on the 2nd of May. They were in a sister battalion from my brigade from Fort Riley. And as I mentioned their names, I mean that I still get chills down my spine because I remember, just, I was really struggling. Like are we making progress? It just, it shook me from the standpoint of will we make it a difference? Is all this sacrifice that's happening over here? Are we moving the ball?

Col. Gregory Gadson: 12:42

You know, at the time we were one of the forces that the president directed there as Operation Comedy, known as the Surge, and it really felt like every single day there was a US service member getting killed and you couldn't see an end, you could not see the destination and you just had to stay focused. I remember my heart. I was in an emotional place. Where I was, I mean, I was heading back to my headquarters, but I was still thinking about these young men and their families and what they were going through, and then, wham that's when I'm freaking hitting. So it, just...

John Broer: 13:20

t=That is the part that seems so. I mean you are trained and are men and women in uniform. I mean you are trained and you were in country. I mean you were in an active military zone and you are trained to be alert ready. And this was a moment and that's what I was wondering about. You were probably reflecting, feeling you know, thinking about your fellow soldiers, and then it happens and not that you let your guard down, but it's like I'm just trying to get a moment to reflect on my friends and fellow servicemen and this happens.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 13:54

Absolutely. There was this tremendous anger and, just like you know, good God, this is never stopping. And I knew what it was and it didn't take me long to figure out that I was hurt and this was not very good out, that I was hurt and this was not very good.

John Broer: 14:11

I mean, thank you for just again. I wanted to think about that moment because that is a waypoint, as you're saying. What it makes me think of Colonel is sometimes God gives us the answer before we know the question. This has happened and now I have to figure out what is the purpose, what is the meaning and what is the direction. And really that's your message, is you did not let it stop you there.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 14:34

I will say this, as I was kind of laying there and I could not move, I could not get up. You know, I didn't physically know what was wrong with me. I say my last thought, my last prayer, it wasn't even about my family, it was. I simply said God, I do not want to die in this country, you know, for me as a Christian, people ask me all the time about how strong was your faith and I'm like I don't know, how do you measure your faith? But I can say in that moment that I called on my God to save me. I called on my God to save me and I can't imagine not knowing and not having a faith strong enough to make that call, to make that prayer. So you know what a way to find out where your faith is. But I'm glad mine was there.

John Broer: 15:24

And he answered yes, yeah, yes.

Sara Best: 15:27

Yeah, that's amazing, Colonel Gadsdon. I have to ask it was written about you back in November. Yes, yes, not even beginning to understand the grueling nature of your emotional recovery from what you endured. Does the faith correspond with and have anything to do with what is described as complete acceptance and total gratitude?

Col. Gregory Gadson: 16:01

Absolutely, Sara, and the book does a great job of documenting what I physically went through. And many people will say to me you know, that's a miracle, and it is. It's a miracle, you know 129 pints of blood going into a rest six different times that evening. It was a miracle that the doctors operating on me were West Point grads that recognized me. I mean, I'm convinced that's why they gave me so much blood. But to me my greatest miracle was really getting out of the ICU and being on Ward 57. My legs are gone. I don't know which way is up. You can imagine.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 16:47

Every emotion under the sun is going back and forth through me, but the one that was totally absent was anger. I literally had no anger. And so, to be quickly, I say, god not only saved me, but he healed me. I still had a long way to go, but I had accepted there was no anger. I truly accepted what had happened to me and I think in so many ways ready to move forward. We say this as cliches. God said that we can handle anything, but that's through his word, that's through our belief, through our faith. And I had to take that walk. I had to walk by faith, not by sight. I had no idea what to expect, what was coming, but I trusted that I was going to get through, because that's what he's promised us, and I had to do that.

Sara Best: 17:37

So that makes me think about what I'll call. Are we on leadership, lesson four now? Have there been three already? We're on four.

John Broer: 17:44

I think these are life lessons, more than leadership lessons, but, thank you, well, absolutely, they are life lessons.

Sara Best: 17:49

It was when you were co-coaching and being a spiritual guide to the giants in 2007, leading into 2008, where you taught them to believe that believing is better than knowing. Believing it's going to be okay and it can happen is better than knowing. So I see that connection there. Has that always been a part of you? I think?

Col. Gregory Gadson: 18:13

So I go back to growing up and my dad never he taught me. My parents taught me, but my dad would you know, whenever I had any doubts he would engage me on a faith level to get through. And I appreciate your question because you know a lot of. What is this runway for me and this journey for me has been about? You know, starts with my parents, born in the mid-40s in the Jim Crow South, who lived a life that only I could imagine, laid the groundwork for understanding that I could persevere and overcome through any circumstances, and not only that, but learning not to carry hate but to be above it, to rise above it, was the greatest gift and example that they gave me.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 19:06

And you know, the irony of this little irony is that you know my parents are. Our first home was literally adjacent, an apartment adjacent to Walter Reed. My parents were college students at Howard University, who was old, by the way, founded by a West Point grad who lost his arm in the Civil War. I mean, and then I would go on to West Point. I mean just the amazing connectivity that our lives is amazing.

Sara Best: 19:37

Yeah, and as I stand back and I can share this with our listeners, Terese Schlachter is my beloved cousin and I know, and I have known for a long time, what a gifted writer, producer, now writing coach has, a great media company. I've known of her gift for a long time but now I can kind of in my mind see how these trajectories you know your life paths, hers and yours came together in such a powerful, on purpose, not a coincidence kind of way. Terese, maybe let's talk about you for a minute. Three- time Emmy Award winner, an amazing person who- what's so great about your influence in the book is that there is a piece of you in this story too.

Terese Schlachter: 20:25

What's weave so beautifully, you weave your experience of Greg and the story right into it, and we learn so much, not just about Greg's journey and his turmoil and his triumph, but about you as well didn't know was that I wanted to be a writer and I always wanted to write a book and I was a television news producer and I was in that role for so many years and you know, I had to pay the bills and so I kept doing that and I always wanted to break away and write something but nothing came along. And then, you know, Greg goes and helps the Giants win the Superbowl. So I'm like, oh, that seems like a pretty good story. So I thought maybe, you know, I'd write that down. And so I worked with him, you know, over many years to do that. So that is, you know, that was kind of one of my waypoints. I guess that changed my trajectory. I really haven't done a video in probably a year. I've focused more on my writing and I continue to do that.

Sara Best: 21:31

Yeah, can you say a little bit about the Wounded Warrior Project and how you came to be at Walter Reed as it was that day? I mean you had been involved in that and chronicling journeys. You'd been doing that for quite a while.

Terese Schlachter: 21:44

Yeah well, the Wounded Warrior Project wasn't really part of it. I worked for the Pentagon Channel and we did encounter Wounded Warrior Project on a number of my stories and it's a great organization. How I came to be at the Pentagon Channel? So I worked for NBC and MSNBC and I needed just to leave there for a number of reasons. There wasn't anywhere else for me to move ahead there. So I wound up at the Pentagon and, honestly, I was kind of kicking and screaming. I was like I don't want to go work at the Pentagon. Why would I want to go work for the Pentagon? And it was one of those things where, you know, I wound up there for eight years and met Greg and was able to write this book.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 22:22

So yeah, Sara, one of the things that I'd like to add is so we worked on this book and we got it to him, we were done, and most of the time in the book process, I guess, you get hired, you find a publisher and then you kind of write it. Well, we kind of, you know, put the cart before the horse and so we had a complete book and then we're trying to find somebody to publish it. And Therese did all of that legwork. I had no way of really helping her. I didn't.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 22:53

Over a couple of years, you know, Terese got really frustrated and she's like I just want to publish this thing. It's just, and I guess maybe in a little bit of way, I surprised myself because I was like no, no, no, no, this is a. You know, it was a good book. I hadn't even read it for up to 13 years. It wasn't until COVID, when we were all locked down and not going anywhere, that Terese literally had to read the book to me because it was just so emotional for me and I'm like you know, we're going to, we're going to find a publisher, we're going to, we're not going to, just I go. You know, anybody can publish a book now? So no, we're not. I was pretty insistent that that wasn't what we were going to do, just to check the block.

Terese Schlachter: 23:36

We had talked about self-publishing and I really had. I felt like I had tried everything. I had gone, you know, queried every agent and university presses and small presses and just wasn't getting anywhere. And it wound up that I was at AWP with the Association of Writing Programs it's the biggest writing conference in the country and I had met a couple of years ago a guy named Ron Capps who runs the Veterans Writing Program and he was running it out of Walter Reed a while ago. But he had a book out and he said you know, I think, and he knew of Greg, and he said you know, I think my, my publisher might be interested in it. And that's how we found Tim Schaffner. And that was such a stroke of of good luck. And you know, I'll always be grateful to Ron, of course, to Tim too, for taking us on.

Sara Best: 24:28

Clearly meant to be. And another life lesson slash leadership lesson is you know, don't give up. Don't give up. And how things are so interconnected, as you indicated, colonel Gadsden, you know the stories they weave so in and out our lives do like that. So, meeting a person and making that connection, would we say yes to it? A person and making that connection, would we say yes to it? Would we stay open to it?

Sara Best: 24:57

I think that's one of the things I loved in the story in the book. It's advice that you give Colonel Gregg that says you know, don't say yes to opportunities you don't know. If you say no, you don't know what you're not going to have access to. And I think about okay. So you recover. Only months after the explosion and the loss of your legs, there you are in the locker room with the New York Giants and they're dependent on you and they credit you for their 2008 win in the Super Bowl. And then there was a movie. You got a tap on the shoulder to be an actor in a movie. Tell us a little bit about that.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 25:31

I renewed this sort of attitude that you know what do you got to lose. You know what do you got to lose by not trying. And Peter Berg, you know, born and raised in New York, a New York, lifelong New York Giants fan, was aware of my relationship with the Giants and you know he wanted me in the movie and you know so he called me up and told me you wanted me to be in the movie and I was like, okay, what do I got to lose? I tell everyone I never acted. I never played a tree in a school play, much less acted.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 26:06

But you know, my recovery really gave me courage to try anything. You know what? I had to learn how to fail again. I had to learn how to fail, yeah, and that was falling, walking, getting up and knowing that you're going to fall when you're wearing prosthetics, when you're, when something like this happens. Falling is a part of life and you know what we do is when we grow up and we become adults, we forget how to fall, we forget, we become afraid to fail. I was determined not to let that happen in my life.

Sara Best: 26:40

Well, that reminds me. There's a story in one of the latter chapters of the book where you take a spill on the sidewalk and you're looking around. It's so well described. I felt like I was right there, next to you reading it, and the only people available to help you were these two women who, as it's described in the book, two little old ladies out for like a ladies afternoon that you know, carrying a purse and pocketbooks.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 27:04

In Old Town, right, you talking about the one in Old Town, yeah, On the cobblestones, yeah, on the brick.

Sara Best: 27:09

I think it was a brick sidewalk and they got you up, they did it, they helped you and you let them and you were graceful about it. And yeah, learning to fail. For some people it's not again, it's for the first time like learning that it's okay and it's actually important to fail. How powerful that is. And you mentioned courage. Yeah, I don't think that's a word we say enough.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 27:32

Yeah, yeah. Well, Sara, really the other part of that is really the humility to accept help.

Sara Best: 27:39

Yeah.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 27:40

That I think, in terms of my leadership, the humility of accepting help was tremendously powerful for me. So, and transforming for me, for me, so, and transforming for me, so you know, one day I was this guy that needed help with very little in life, if anything, and now I literally depend on it.

John Broer: 28:04

Yeah, well, you were, you were the helper, you were the person providing protection and security and defense, and that totally shifts. I got to go back to the football really quick, I'm sorry. So these were during the Eli days, right? Yeah, yeah, because, remember, I remember this very well because I know there were a lot of people that were thinking Eli was going to be a bust and man, I tell you what, wow, that all turned around and I never knew this story or your role in it. So when I started to read about that, it was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool, like when you talk about those different connections.

John Broer: 28:37

But, if I may ask Colonel Gadsdon, our listeners, you know when you think about the Bossh ole Chronicles and it seems rather flippant considering the magnitude of your story. But people that are in leadership roles, I think they're hungry for something relevant because I think there's a lot of noise out there. I think there's so much. There's a lot of stuff published and there's so many podcasts other than ours. Ours is great, people should listen to it, but a lot of other noise out there to try to help people understand this is the way to be a great leader. What would you say to them those people are out there, that are out there, that are in a leadership role, that are struggling to figure out how do I do this? Well, I know you've already given us some tidbits. I think the humility, I think the humility is huge. What would you say to them?

Col. Gregory Gadson: 29:20

I think over the years I've consistently sort of come to these three points. We've touched on humility, we've touched on vulnerability, I mean, that's sort of who you are. But in terms of execution, what I've found is these three words trust, empowerment. Empowering and holding accountable. And we can think of the word trust from the perspective of the, you know the obvious. You know it's beyond trustworthy. I trust you, you trust me, but really it's about creating an environment where we can communicate. I've communicated effectively, but we have a relationship, we have a dialogue where you can come to me with bad news. You can come to me and say, hey, boss, I think that's a stupid idea. Or can we consider doing it this way? Do you have that kind of trust environment? And then next I talk about empowerment. The worst thing we can do as bosses is tell our subordinates well, you know they come up with a solution, or they've executed and you say, well, I would have done it that way or I would do it this way. I'm just now empowered. Now I've got the organization thinking about how to please me. I got the organization thinking about them trying to solve something the way that I would do it, versus trusting them to do it. So you got to empower, and truly empower people.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 30:48

And then finally I say, holding accountable. That's again, that's you and I, that's our team, kind of okay. What did we say we were going to do? What did we do? What did we learn from it? Look, we got to learn. We don't get to make the same mistakes twice. You know, did everything go perfect? No, but let's make sure that we learn. And I'm not very sympathetic about making the same mistake twice. But again, that's the system. Accountability goes both ways. I'm accountable to you just as much as you're accountable to me. My accountability is about setting the conditions, or helping set the conditions, so you can succeed and accomplish what it is that we expect.

Sara Best: 31:30

And to be able to do that you have to be present. It kind of brings us back full circle. I have one more question for you, colonel Gadson. About a year after the incident, you knowing all that had gone on, and they continued on. They clearly were impacted by the loss of your leadership and the camaraderie that you brought to the battalion.

John Broer: 32:03

But there you were.

Sara Best: 32:04

And it was a beautiful moment and I think you handled it really beautifully. Tell us about that.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 32:09

Well, Sara, I mean, as you bring it up, it's one of the things that, if you could see me, I mean like I immediately start tearing up when I think about that moment. It is, you know, almost 18 years later. It's a very emotional point for me and the one thing that probably is behind a lot of the emotion is, you know, you do your job and I love these soldiers, I love these guys, but I didn't know how much they love me and that's overwhelming, the knowing and learning how they felt about me. The other part is that every single one of my soldiers that deployed came back. We were the only battalion out of six battalions that was fortunate to have that happen, that every single one of my soldiers that deployed came back. We were the only battalion out of six battalions that was fortunate to have that happen. We had our brigade, the brigade from Fort Raleigh that I was part of. 120 soldiers didn't come home, so it's significant that we brought everybody back alive. That's remarkable.

John Broer: 33:13

I think, too.

Terese Schlachter: 33:14

One thing that happened when they lost Greg as their commander was that they certainly felt the loss, but I think they were also empowered because they wanted to do good by him. I think they worked harder.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 33:31

Yeah, they would capture the number three Al-Qaeda target in Baghdad during that deployment. Your guys Yep Wow.

John Broer: 33:43

Unbelievable.

Sara Best: 33:44

Well, and, Terese, it goes without saying that, especially in the early chapters of the book, you do such a wonderful job of helping us understand the depth and breadth of emotion and brotherhood and sisterhood that lived in that group. It's powerful, it's a must read. Okay, Terese, last question for you what is your favorite thing, either about the book or about having been able to complete this work?

Terese Schlachter: 34:12

So my goal when we started, I say I wanted to write a book, but I wanted this story in the hands of people who could use it. And when we started remember this was just after the search there were so many wounded. Walter was overwhelmed. There was such a struggle and I just wanted this story to be in the hands of those other soldiers so that they could read it and understand that their life wasn't over, that they could recover physically and mentally and emotionally. I still am most gratified, not by the numbers of sales, but by the feedback. When I get a feedback from someone who says this really touched me, this changed my life, it makes me emotional. I'm so happy that I got to read the story and it's helping me with my struggles.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 35:11

We are constantly getting notes. I have a friend who's writing a book now and I think us doing the book has helped give her courage to do that, but even her authors. I shared some of his thoughts and comments and you never get used to it. It's almost a little overwhelming that you have someone say this helped change my life. I ran into a lady that I spoke to back this summer and I ran to an airport in Jacksonville and she said you know, after you spoke to us, I read your book and it allowed me to make the actions that I made. I mean I had the courage. Now I found the courage to make a change, and it's just to make the actions that I made. I mean I had the courage.

John Broer: 35:54

Now I found the courage to make a change and it's just like yeah, and there are those answers when you ask that question do I want to tell the story, or who would want to hear the story? And you are getting that several fold over.

Sara Best: 36:10

Well, and what comes to mind for me? Legacy.

Terese Schlachter: 36:13

What an amazing legacy.

Sara Best: 36:16

Both of you have created. Thank you for your work. Thank you for Colonel Gadsdon for your willingness to put it out there, Terese for the incredible gift you have and had in putting the story together. It's really powerful. We will, of course, put a link to purchase the book in our show notes. We'll have contact information for the both of you. That's okay. We'd like people if they want to reach out to you you're available to come and speak and share firsthand. Thank you so much, both of you Thank you, Sara.

Col. Gregory Gadson: 36:47

Thank you, John. This was fun. You guys are doing an amazing job and it's just so. This is so authentic and and uh fun to be here. It just flies by Well.

John Broer: 37:00

Thank you, the the honor has truly been ours.

Terese Schlachter: 37:02

Thank you, so nice talking with you both and um so proud of you, Sara she's awesome.

John Broer: 37:09

All right, everybody. Well, thank you both and everybody out there in the Boss hole Transformation Nation. We will see you next time. Thanks very much for checking out this episode of the Bossh ole Chronicles. It was so good to have you here, and if you have your own Bossh ole story that you want to share with the Bossh ole Transformation Nation, just reach out. You can email us at mystory@thebossholechronicles. com. Again, mystory@thebossholechronicles. com, we'll see you next time.