Listen up Lieutenant… It’s EASY to start a War….

When I was a brand-new second lieutenant fresh out of West Point, finishing the Armor Officer Basic Course at Fort Knox in 1997, we were offered the chance to attend a voluntary end-of-day talk. The speaker was a grizzled, no-nonsense cavalry colonel—Vietnam combat vet, politically incorrect, and unapologetically old school. The briefing came with a bit of a disclaimer: attend at your own risk. But for many of us, it turned out to be the most impactful hour of our young officer careers.

In that single session, he distilled decades of experience into a raw, unforgettable lesson on combat leadership, the warrior ethos, and the responsibility of leading soldiers. No slides. No script. Just hard truth, blunt wisdom, and stories that hit like a tank round.

One story stood out.

He described his time as a squadron commander in Germany—specifically, in Budingen, the exact unit I was about to join. One winter, a heavy snowstorm hit. The kind of storm that, today, would shut down schools and keep most people off the roads. But this was the Cold War. The mission didn’t pause for weather, and soldiers needed to know they could function in any condition.

So, instead of calling it a snow day, he ordered what he called “the world’s greatest snowball fight.” He split his 700-man squadron in half across a football field, gave the order, and let chaos ensue.

His takeaway?

“It’s easy to start a war. It’s a hell of a lot harder to stop one.”

That lesson—delivered with snow, soldiers, and a nod to human nature—stuck with me more than any classroom theory. And it still does.

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