In one of the most anticipated panel discussions at the Association of the U.S. Army’s 2025 Annual Meeting and Exposition, three Medal of Honor recipients spoke candidly about their actions in combat and what the Army taught them about leadership.

Retired Capt. Flo Groberg was first to speak about how he responded to an attack on Aug. 8, 2012, when, as he led a security detachment out of Forward Operating Base Fiaz in Afghanistan for a weekly security meeting with the provincial governor, he tackled a suicide bomber to keep the blast away from fellow soldiers.

In an attack that lasted only about eight seconds, he said there was no time to assess the situation and the potential consequences. Rather, Groberg said, “It was the many hours, the months, the training that we've done over and over and over again to become professionals.”

“The Army trains you to be professional, to be a member of a unit. I was the closest one to the suicide bomber, Sgt. [Andrew Mahoney] followed me right into it, every single one of my soldiers did exactly what they were supposed to do,” Groberg said. “To me, it’s about the team, it’s about unity and it’s about doing your job. My team was as perfect as you possibly could be in that situation, and the consequence of war is that you could be perfect and still suffer losses. It is a business where you need to be trained up, you need to pay attention.”

Groberg and others were wounded, but Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin Griffin, Maj. Thomas Kennedy, Air Force Maj. Walter Gray and Ragaei Abdelfattah, a foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, were killed in the attack. On Nov. 12, 2015, Groberg received the Medal of Honor from President Barack Obama.

Retired Special Forces Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee, who received his Medal of Honor on Dec. 16, 2021, from President Joe Biden, said of his Army training that “you’re never really a leader until you have to lead your friends.”

He told of how he was going to be “the coolest squad leader on the planet,” only to show up on his first day to his guys “who showed me why there are no cool squad leaders, so I think that was a big piece.”

Plumlee was awarded the Medal of Honor for action near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on Aug. 28, 2013, when a massive car bomb explosion created a 60-foot hole in the perimeter wall of a forward operating base. As he and others rushed to plug the hole and stop suicide vest-wearing insurgents, Plumlee used his body to shield his driver as they provided cover for injured soldiers. Outmanned and armed only with a pistol, Plumlee stopped one intruder with a grenade and another by firing at the insurgent’s suicide vest. Injured by another explosion, Plumlee didn’t stop, firing his last two rounds at another intruder whose suicide vest exploded.

“Being promoted and leading my friends and peers and then having to hold them accountable,” he said, blurred the lines between professionalism and friendship, causing him to choose between “either toeing the line or being everybody's favorite squad leader.”

Deciding who he was going to be was his first step to being an NCO and a leader. “It was cold water to jump into. I was like,’ We're never going to show up early to formation,’ then I was there an hour before formation.”

Former 1st Lt. Brian Thacker earned his Medal of Honor for actions on March 31, 1971, when he singlehandedly manned an exposed observation position for four hours directing artillery and airstrikes, before organizing and leading his soldiers away from the fire base.

He stayed on the base alone, providing cover for those withdrawing troops. He called in friendly artillery fire on his own position as it was being approached by the enemy, despite being wounded and unable to leave. Thacker evaded the enemy for eight days before being rescued.

“When I joined the Army, I really didn’t know what kind of leadership skills I would have,” said Thacker who grew up in a military family and learned from his father and grandfather.

He received his Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon on Oct. 15, 1973.

— Gina Cavallaro