YoL: Compassion and the American Soldier Published Dec. 30, 2008 By Lt. Col. Andrew Kovich 90th Maintenance Operations Squadron commander F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. -- Compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. As we focus on compassion during this month in our Year of Leadership journey, I'd like to introduce a leader, Army Maj. Victor Joppolo. Joppolo is the hero of John Hersey's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "A Bell for Adano." "Major Victor Joppolo, USA, was a good man" who served as the mayor of the Sicilian town of Adano during the World War II U.S. occupation. In this capacity, he was responsible for rooting out uncooperative fascists, feeding the population, maintaining law and order, rebuilding the town and improving quality of life. Most of all, Joppolo's mission was to replace a dictatorship with democracy. As Joppolo explained to the people of Adano, "democracy is that the men of the government are no longer the masters of the people. They are the servants of the people." With this proclamation, Joppolo began the work of local nation building. Unfortunately, the compassion Joppolo displayed toward the people of Adano was not shared by other leaders. The theater commander, unskilled in civil affairs and overly focused on combat, implemented military policy detrimental to the war effort. Specifically, the general issued an order prohibiting mule carts from using the road to Adano. Further, a mule was killed upon the general's order for blocking military traffic. As a result of these actions, Joppolo's ability to establish trust with the people was hindered. It is on this issue that Joppolo demonstrated his moral integrity and courage by countermanding the order that clearly would have harmed the town. As Joppolo explained, "taking carts away from this town is like taking automobiles away from a country town in the States ... people will die ... I take absolute and complete responsibility for countermanding [the general's] order." At risk to his command, Joppolo's compassion for the people yearning to rebuild their lives is a shining display of leadership in the face of adversity. His story displays a difficult form of courage: stability operations. As such, we have much to learn from him. Joppolo's conviction to winning the support of the indigenous population and standing up for a "hearts and minds" campaign was extremely difficult to sell to a U.S. military institution focused more on combat than on winning the peace; a peace that could only be successfully won by defeating enemy forces and providing a better way of life for the Sicilian people. Joppolo's compassion, supported by his integrity and courage, serve as an example to us all. In fact, foreign correspondent Robert Kaplan recommends that rule number one for the U.S. should be to "produce more Joppolos." Joppolo's leadership abilities and his values are "our future in the world." As Hersey wrote in 1944, "the theories about administering occupied territories all turned out to be just theories, and in fact the thing which determined whether we Americans would be successful in that toughest of all jobs was nothing more or less than the quality of the men who did the administering." And so it is today.