For some time on the job, Gates avoided holding the “town hall” meetings that are a staple of senior military official visits to war zones. “I always felt they were staged, and I didn’t think I’d get candid questions,” he told AFPS. “The one thing I have never been willing to do in this job is to use troops as props,” he added. “Another thing I don’t like about town halls is how long they have to be there before I get there. They’d rather be in bed.”
Gates repeatedly emphasized how heavily the troops weighed on his mind – when he signed orders, and wrote condolence letters – and he took responsibility for putting them in harm’s way. His tone contrasted sharply with that of his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, whose famously dismissive response to a US soldier in Iraq worried about the lack of equipment – that “you go to war with the Army you have” – came to embody a Pentagon heartbreakingly out of touch with the needs of its troops on the ground.
Just as troops were Gates' greatest concern, they were also, he often said, his greatest professional delight. He marveled at their capacity to endure discomfort and referred to the confidential lunches he had with troops – to which their commanders were expressly not invited. “That really rubs them raw,” Gates said in an interview with the Pentagon press service this week. “But they really have nothing to worry about. In 4-1/2 years, I’ve never had a kid say something negative about his commander.” They did, however, share complaints – large, small, and comical. They told him, for example, about the “weak crotches” in the Army combat uniforms. “I loved the comment one of the kids made,” Gates recalled. “He said, ‘You know, it’s not too bad in the summertime, but in the winter, it can get to be a problem.’ ”
He returned the favor. “I am more candid with these young people than I am with anyone else,” Gates said. “It’s because I trust them and believe in them. They are the only thing I will miss about this job.”
