With lots of people piling on David Petraeus, I would like to quote, at some length, from a dispatch that Michael Yon wrote in 2007. (I hope it is okay. You can find Mr. Yon’s full dispatch here.)
“A couple weeks ago, LTC Fred Johnson told me a story about General Petraeus. Back when LTC Johnson was Captain Johnson, and General Petraeus was Colonel Petraeus, Colonel Petraeus was Captain Johnson’s new commander. They were doing a live-fire exercise at a range at Fort Campbell when a young soldier named Specialist Terrence Jones tripped and accidentally fired his weapon while conducting a live-fire assault. The bullet from Specialist Jones’ weapon struck Colonel Petraeus, slamming through his chest and taking a piece of his back on the way out. Petraeus fell to the ground, bleeding out of his mouth. He nearly died. We could have lost one of the most important and influential military leaders in generations to a mistake. To a professional misstep.
The best that Captain Johnson and Specialist Jones might have hoped for was a painless end to their military service. I asked LTC Fred Johnson about the story of his own soldier shooting David Petraeus, and I asked how it could be that Johnson was still in the military. Johnson looked me in the eye and said something like, ‘Mike. You know what Petraeus did?’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘He gave me a second chance.’
Fred Johnson actually got picked up for promotion early.
‘But what happened to the young soldier?’ I asked, thinking surely there had to be a consequence. Conventional wisdom stipulates that for balance to be restored after accidentally shooting and nearly killing a superior officer, a sacrifice of some magnitude is necessary. A soldier just can’t shoot a commander in the chest and walk away. There is no such thing as an ‘accidental discharge.’ Unplanned bullet launches are called ‘negligent discharges.’ As in negligent homicide.
LTC Johnson answered something like, ‘Mike, you won’t believe how Jones was punished. Petraeus sent Jones to Ranger School.’
I couldn’t believe my ears! That’s a punishment that a lot of young soldiers dream about, even though Ranger School is a very difficult course. But after thinking on it awhile, I realized it probably explains why LTC Johnson sometimes says, ‘I believe in second chances.’
Fred Johnson said it just the other day. He said it to me, ‘When someone gives you a second chance, you should pass it along.’”
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