Gossip Damage

Captain Knoppel was one of the most exemplary officers and pilots I knew. His teaching was flawless, his demeanor professional, his knowledge unquestioned, his patience resolute … he was “an officer’s officer.”

Unlike other instructors who were chatty, arrogant, or mischievous … interacting often, having a wonderful time, Knoppel was exceedingly reserved.  He would go to the Officer’s club but a single drink out of politeness would be as much as you might see … definitely NOT a “Dead Bug” participant … definitely not a “cross country” date for those of us using the training to ‘see the world.’ It was obvious that he was highly respected, but almost no one had any indication of a social relationship with him. I was intrigued and sought to get to know him. The most I could get directly from him was that he “loved to fly” … not that extraordinary for a FAR [Fighter-Attack-Reconnaissance] squadron instructor. Our squadron was full of captains and majors, some I was able to get to know quickly. A few demonstrated trust levels that I felt OK to explore. Eventually, I asked a captain what he knew of Knoppel, his response, “I don’t think you’ll be able to get Mark to talk much. He keeps to himself even with us.” The answer was the same across the squadron.

“Allie” [1LT-Ahlers] was a lieutenant who showed up in the squadron near the middle of my training. Gregarious, exceptionally bright, and very early in his career to have an instructor’s assignment, he was rumored to be soon to make captain. What struck me immediately is when Captain Knoppel grabbed him and hugged him his first day on base as he walked into the squadron office. I had NEVER seen Knoppel shake hands, let alone give someone a hug … Knoppel was one to salute in deference or to honor a subordinate. I knew I had to know Allie!

Allie was easy to know and as he began to trust that I didn’t spew private conversations to inquiry from my peers, he opened up. I was immediately struck by his image of Knoppel … he even knew him as “Mark” the first name I had seen but rarely heard spoken. The stories began to flow and initially, I felt like they were “just stories” … in fact, I doubted most of them.  They identified someone nearly as ‘wild & crazy’ as some of the other officers, a guy that lived for a “cross-country” to some obscure guard base near a beach or some history or maybe some other amusement. Mark loved to take an extra “go around” to pull some “G’s” or to spook someone on the ground.  The one thing that Allie continually noted that was absolutely congruent with what I knew was that Knoppel was an outstanding pilot, that he “knew his stuff” and that he was prepared for nearly any contingency [I was intimidated when Knoppel often interjected into a training – “You have an emergency, where is your nearest landing strip?” when I least expected it]. Allie reinforced that image in any conversation.

“So what the hell happened?” I interjected into another humorous detail, “He is one of the most reserved people I know? … He hasn’t even told me which training base he went to?”

“Well he had it pretty rough for a while … ”

THAT was different than anything I had EVER heard. No one … NOT ONE … had ever indicated Knoppel had ever had ANY difficulties with ANY thing?

“Rough?”

“Listen … what I tell you remains with you and me. Capisce?”

“Capisce?”

“CAPISCE!”

“Understood … what’s the big deal?”

“You can find him in the accident reports from four years ago.”

“KNOPPEL????? … ACCIDENT?”

“Yeah … it was pretty serious … they took about a year on it and he spent the time grounded and in front of review boards … no fun.  His student was released from the investigation pretty early on, but they kept him on the grill for quite awhile. Some of us thought his CO just didn’t like him, but I think it was because they couldn’t find evidence that worked with their idea of the accident and the CO was afraid of being seen as interfering.  His CO was Wilson [our current base commander] so you know he is OK with him at least now.  I always felt that Wilson was more torn up than Knoppel.”
“So where is the student?”

“He’s in Lakenheath flying F-111s. He wouldn’t be in fighters if there were a question … I think Knoppel stood up for him too!”

“Why would that matter?”

“Student at the controls at the onset … “

“Knoppel took the jet though, right?”

“Yeah … but he couldn’t recover the jet … Knoppel said the kid was calling altitudes all the way down … pretty good for a student.”

“Wow …”

“Here’s the deal … pretty much everyone figured that Knoppel screwed up and got over excited.  They were doing spin recovery … you know what that’s like … if you can’t do it in your sleep, it can be pretty hairy. Knoppel trusted the kid and went ahead. He was within his rights to do that even if a lot of instructors don’t.  When they were picked up, the kid didn’t want to share what they were doing, so everyone thought they must have been doing something they shouldn’t. I guess the kid knew that most of his peers didn’t have the option to learn it with the instructors they had … he thought they were out of line. The board didn’t like the silence … It wasn’t even a week before everyone was gossiping about it”

“People just stopped talking to Knoppel … everybody was afraid to be seen with him.  It was weird. Actually, I got my assignment about six months after that and man even I was glad to be out of there! 

This guy was my best friend from the instructor side and I was a Chicken Shit! I wasn’t the only one but I didn’t say much.  Some did … some of the officers, including his XO had opinions that they were sharing and everyone saw it as fact. They didn’t know squat. It was a YEAR AND A HALF before he was able to defend himself! People burned him down and any time he said anything, people saw it as quibbling … some even said he was lying to protect himself.  YOU KNOW that isn’t right … he lies to NO ONE! Anyway, he basically spent the year plus sitting behind the desk doing almost nothing.  He wasn’t in charge of anything, couldn’t fly, and didn’t have anybody that was willing to be seen in his office. Pretty tough! He didn’t say anything, but I think his evals were pretty milky during that time and his CO was not doing them.  I know you know that he had stellar evals up to that point just by what he knows and does now.”

“Agreed! … What did they finally figure happened?”

“They think it was either a broken cable or a sheared connecting pin in the right aileron.  Keep in mind what the terrain is like … he was in the farthest MOA in the mountains above the base … somewhere by Poe or Big Bend. I don’t think there was much left of the plane. Thing is, they both made it out alive, no more than cuts and bruises. Once that thing broke, there was no way they were going to recover that plane. Most pilots wouldn’t have had the SA [situational awareness]. ‘Planned emergency egress’ … done safely! The kid said Knoppel briefed the ejection in the seconds before they bailed … incredible!”

“So he was cleared.”

“Even received a citation.”

“So why is not his old self?”

“Are you kidding, people beat the hell out of him … everyone talked about him and no one talked to him. He spent a year in “paper shuffle hell” with no way to prove his skills, knowing his wings were on the shelf, knowing that every kid that might get a command someday were getting an earful about his incompetence. After you hear what he heard, you know you can kiss your trip to Alabama [war college/leadership – necessary for advancement] goodbye! … Thing is … people he trusted got sucked in … he learned the worst about people.  Not many people would be tough enough.”

“Do other officers around here know about all that?”

“What they know is that there was some sort of problem in his past … have you ever heard him talk about it? … or even get to a conversation point where he could defend it?”

“No.  … He isn’t a whiner … I think all he sees is a debate if he were ever to say anything.”

“Bet his life is pretty lonely.”

“At least in the squadron, I’m sure it is. If his XO hadn’t been a gossip, it might have been a better outcome … too much made it too far … and the cloud following him, even without the facts, generates concern. Most people knew how good he was and IS. Now, there are whole classes of officers who have the baggage they will have to get through to ever respect his true leadership potential. Hard to know if he’ll make ‘full bird’ … but we both know he should.”

“Yes, he should.”

Military Officers’ Manuals have guidelines for appropriate conduct of an officer … human decency dictates the same from all of us, even without enumeration.

What is your leadership?