Page 195 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

THE LESSONS

well as nearly half a million civilian employees and contracted service
personnel were in his hands. Harvey also oversaw more than 15 million
acres of land and nearly 1 billion square feet of facilities. It was a job of
mind-boggling proportions, but Harvey knew exactly what his first task
would be: get to know and understand the new environment. He traveled
extensively, visiting U.S. soldiers in the Middle East and at over 150 Army
installations, camps, and bases in the United States and abroad. Once he
had a clear understanding of the situation, Harvey realized that the Army
was significantly underresourced. He learned that in the 1990s, in the after-
math of the Cold War, the Army went from 780,000 to 480,000 personnel,
and he classified those personnel as inadequately trained and equipped.
“I think it’s ingrained in the national psyche that when the war’s over,
you just decrease the army. It goes back to World War I,” said Harvey. “We
went into World War II totally unprepared, and then we won that big war
and said, ‘Hey, it’s over! We don’t need an army anymore,’ and we decreased
again. We went to the Korean War unprepared, the Vietnam War unprepared,
the Iraq War unprepared. Right away it was very apparent to me and my
partner, Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker, that the budget,
personnel, training, and equipment were all inadequate.”
When Harvey took over as secretary, the 2005 Army budget was
$98.6 billion, and it was his responsibility to prepare and submit a new
five-year financial plan. The Office of Management and Budget and the
Secretary of Defense recommended a decrease in the Army’s budget.
“From the beginning, my number one priority, which is well documented,
was the well-being of the soldiers and their families. You see, when you’re
Secretary of the Army, there are some tough things you have to do,” Har-
vey said. “You have to sign condolence letters. You have to go to the hos-
pital and visit the wounded and sit with them and try to console them.
And you have to go to the funerals. The fact is that the Army went into
Iraq unprepared, and when you see soldiers die on the battlefield, it
changes you, and as a leader; you have an obligation to the Army to get
them the funding they need.”
Harvey’s wife, Mary Louise, concurred and said, “I have never seen
Fran work with such intensity and passion as when he was the Secretary
of the Army. You would have thought the soldiers were his children or
grandchildren.” Indeed, doing the right thing for the soldiers and their fam-
ilies became Harvey’s obsession, and he was determined to stand firm on

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