His name is Bo

It’s not my normal style to write about specific individuals in this Blog, but I want to do so briefly about a person in the Army Corps of Engineers who, in my opinion, has done and is doing a superb job. His name is Bo. To be more specific, Major General Merdith W. B. (Bo) Temple who is Director of Military Programs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He is responsible for policy, program, and technical functions in the execution of over $20 billion of design, construction, and environmental programs for the Army, the Air Force, other Department of Defense and other federal agencies and foreign countries. His experiences with “troops” and his easy manner in that regard, have served him well. He was the Theater Engineer (C7), Combined Joint Task Force Seven, Baghdad as well as Assistant Chief of Staff, Operations (G3), XVIII Airborne Corps, He commanded both the 20th Engineer Brigade (Combat) (Airborne Corps) and the 82nd Airborne Division’s 307th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He’s a VMI graduate and native of the Commonwealth of Virginia. So, now you know who Bo is. But why, you wonder, did I select him to write about. It’s simple, he always is “out and about” staying in touch with what’s happening on the ground, while at the same time doing all those things “generals” do back in the headquarters. Take a look here to read about his recent travel and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. MG Temple is the kind of general officer I like to watch in action. He’s a Soldier first and a general officer second. To put that into perspective, I’ve observed many engineer (and other branch) flag officers in my time who lacked that balance. I guess anyone who answers to the name “Bo” has to be a good guy. And, as I’ve written above, in my view he definitely is.