MAJOR PHILIP ROMANELLI

One of the key points about being an Officer?about being a leader at all, but certainly about being an Officer?is that even when you're not technically in a leadership position, the Soldiers that you're with will still look to you for an example.

I'm a 38A Soldier, which is a Civil Affairs Soldier in the Army Reserve. In Civil Affairs we perform a lot of the nation building type activities.

So you'll see bulletins coming back from Iraq or from Afghanistan that talk about schools that are refurbished, police forces that are retrained. You can do those things and you can make an impact and you affect the way people think about you and the way that people think about the U.S. Army in general.

In many ways it's sort of the kinder gentler face of the U.S. Army, and it's great to be able to show that.

When you have a chance to lead Soldiers, that's an enormous opportunity. It is really an honor, and you're the Army Reserve Officer leading the troops and you are the one in charge. You can delegate authority, but you can't delegate responsibility.

At the end of the day you are the one making the decision. The buck stops here?it stops with you. And that means that you need to do everything you can to ensure that you're making decisions that are going to be the right decisions, that are going to help people go back home safe and sound.