People You Meet Along the Way...
General Wayne A. Downing died of some kind of cancer yesterday. I don't think you will read about him in any history books. You may not ever know about what battles he participated in, planned, or won or lost. I knew him as a Lieutenant Colonel on the fast track to higher elevations. He came to EUCOM and sat in the Secretary of the Joint Staff chair...usually filled by a senior full colonel, he was a LTC (P)...meaning he had been selected to be promoted but his turn hadn't come up yet. He was just filling a requirement to have some staff experience...waiting for the bird to arrive. He had been a battalion commander of a ranger battalion at Fort Lewis, WA before coming to EUCOM...he went on a 30 day leave so he could go back to Washington state and go on a field exercise he had trained them to do.
I didn't like Downing, much, I don't think he cared too much for me, either. But I did respect him. He was a warrior. All the stories of the special ops guys running around in Iraq during Desert Storm...marking targets for the Air Force...disrupting movements and operations in and around Baghdad...Bahgdad...the capitol of Iraq...all those exploits were done by Downing's guys. He was the Commander of the Special Operations Command.
You may have seen him on TV, offering analysis, commentary...providing historical background...but you never saw him doing what he did best...unless you were a special operator yourself. We don't have enough Downings in our military. He wasn't a really good staff officer...no tact and diplomacy merchant, he...and unfortunately, I fear that a lot of people will remember that he was abrupt, slightly arrogant...directive...and not enough will ever know what he did.
America has lost one of her finest warriors at a time when we have none to spare. Sad day.