Medal of Honor recipients inspire Henderson firefighters with leadership lessons

Medal of Honor recipient Earl Plumlee speaks during a National Medal of Honor Center for Leadership store grooming for City of Henderson firefighters Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, successful Henderson. Plumlee, a retired maestro sergeant successful the army, was presented the Medal of Honor for his actions successful Afghanistan successful 2013. Photo by Steve Marcus

Retired Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee remembers the Taliban firing astatine his basal successful eastbound Afghanistan successful the weeks starring up to the camp’s planned decommissioning.

Each time, American, Polish and Afghan soldiers took screen by diving into bunkers, helium said.

What they didn’t cognize was that the Taliban had radical wrong the campy taking notes connected the process. On Aug. 28, 2013, an detonation blew a spread successful 1 of the base’s outer walls.

While 1 U.S. and 1 Polish worker were killed, Plumlee is credited with redeeming overmuch of the base. He, sometimes alone, rushed to prosecute the Taliban, was successful a conveyance arsenic it purposely got betwixt gunfire and helped determination different worker to information earlier they died.

With his Medal of Honor astir his neck, Plumlee told his communicative Tuesday to the Henderson Fire Department up of a enactment grooming league with the National Medal of Honor Center for Leadership.

“By sharing their stories, they animate a batch of our participants to statesman to spot that these Medal of Honor values aren’t conscionable for those connected the battlefield,” said Justin Habash, main learning serviceman with the Center for Leadership.

The Henderson Fire Department besides heard from Leroy Petry, who earned his Medal of Honor successful 2011.

Three years earlier during a raid successful Afghanistan, helium was changeable successful some legs earlier a grenade landed adjacent him and 2 different Rangers, according to the U.S. Army. He threw it back, perchance redeeming each 3 men but losing his manus successful the process.

“I cognize it takes a batch to instrumentality clip connected your nonrecreational days. I deliberation it’s going to beryllium incredibly worthy it,” Henderson Fire Chief Scott Vivier told his unit earlier Plumlee spoke. To “our 2 Medal of Honor recipients, we are beyond honored to person you with us.”

Habash, who led the program, said the aviator programme goes implicit the “five dysfunctions of a team”: deficiency of trust, fearfulness of conflict, deficiency of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results.

But the Center for Leadership puts a rotation connected the commonly utilized list, associating each with a quality “skill” that tin beryllium developed to combat dysfunction. A fearfulness of struggle tin beryllium eased by processing courage, for example.

“Like thing other that has to bash with quality and these kinds of skills, wont is the key,” Habash said. “There’s a fig of exercises that we bash and that I suggest to our learners that they tin prosecute successful to physique a wont of acting courageously, starting with thing that is tiny and manageable (and) causes them immoderate distress.”

For the program, Habash joined his enactment astatine Johns Hopkins teaching “ethical leadership” and subject inheritance with the six quality traits associated with the Medal of Honor: courage, sacrifice, patriotism, citizenship, integrity and commitment.

He doesn’t judge those traits are innate.

“These tin beryllium developed. They’re not conscionable quality traits that we possess, oregon we don’t,” Habash said. “And truthful I was fascinated by this thought of the Medal of Honor arsenic a genuinely inspirational North Star.”

After finishing the greeting session, Habash was impressed with the Henderson Fire Department’s familiarity with what helium was teaching. That wasn’t excessively surprising, however, arsenic the section has already developed a civilization of enactment development, helium said.

“From my acquisition gathering these programs and teaching astatine antithetic universities — teaching morals and enactment — the programme they bash is apical notch,” Habash said. “This is simply a spot wherever we privation to footwear things off.”