John G. Rossi

West Point, 1983

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Pete Martin on August 22, 2016:

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, fellow teammates and the Rossi Family, good morning. My name is J Rose, and I'm a Rossi guy...and I have stories. On behalf of all others who served under John G. Rossi during the 2-1 ADA Battalion and 35th Brigade days, it would be my honor to share some of them with you. This is a list of things I think about when I think about John G. Rossi. The title of my list is "Bayonet vs Floppy Disk" which is a story by itself. I must warn you though: some of the things I am about to say, for a few of you here -- especially those youngsters who came up in the old 2-1 days, may cause some memories to bubble up to the surface that you thought were locked away forever. I just want to make sure you're aware of that beforehand. Here's my list: "Bayonet vs Floppy Disk" Officer PT. Rubber Ducks at 0-dark:30. Medics in the Canyon. Scaling the O'Club wall and breakfast with Liz. Gas Mask Runs. Platoon Leader Certification. The Recall. The Bunker Office. Night Court in Full Battle Rattle in The Bunker Office. "Mud Soldier" at Oro Grande. The first time the Boss gave us his intent for Mud Soldier, he had all the battery level commanders around the table, McMurtrey (Battalion S3) was there, and he starts telling us, "Ok, we are gonna go out to the dirt at Oro Grande for competitions....we're gonna pull 5-tons up hills, there's gonna be fights and wrestling, and there's gonna be people bleeding and crying and hitting each other with sticks!" We did all of those things. Rossi's Roadsides. The Green Bag of Coveralls. The Green Bag of Food. There wasn't too many worse things that could happen than if in the middle of a meeting after about 30 minutes, you see the Boss slowly lean over to one side, reach his hand down into his green bag, and come back up with a banana or some carrots. We would just look at each other and know we were in for a long one. Really the only thing worse than that would be if he didn't have any food at all...the man got hangry! Nicknames. Man, did we have nicknames?! Joe Pepitone. Bob Sacamano. Big Daddy. Big Jim. The Tookester. The Dominator...that was you, Dom. Punxsutawney Phil. Staten Island Stevie. The 'Spoon.' Fat Bobby Bo. Fat Wells. Fat Cecil. Fat Colon. I'm not sure if you guys knew this, but the Boss was big on fitness. I remember one time at a QTB or training meeting we were going over APFT failures and overweights. The Boss was looking at the slide and was trying to understand why this one particular Soldier was in the overweight program for like...a decade. Whoever the battery commander was for that Soldier gave the explanation, then the boss gave some advice, "Follow the guy into the chow hall. If he reaches for the carrots and celery, then ok...but if he goes for the cannoli then hit him with a stick!" FRGs & OREs. CQ, SOGs & ECPs. The Letters. Shaving Enforcement. Saturday Night in the Barracks. Sunday Morning in the Motor Pool. The Night Baker. A Dozen Eggs & Rossi's Rocks. The "Whattayacall" The Snap & Point. This was a classic Rossi move. If he didn't remember what something was he would give the snap & point, "Yeah, it's a Whattayacall"...or (snap & point) "J, you're on!" Jalopy Yards & Spaceships. Sometimes you would get a call from the Boss, "Hey J, I'm down here in your motor pool and you got Humvee doors swinging in the wind, chock blocks all over the place, and windshields with the wrong names on 'em. It's like a damn Jalopy Yard!!" Or heaven forbid he came up to your ECP and found a Soldier on guard who didn't know how to use the crew served weapon. "Hey Bill, who do you got out here?! This kid's looking at this 50 cal like it's a spaceship!" Computers & Coffee. The Monday Morning 3x5. The Email Ban. Range Briefs with the LTs in The Bunker Office. Frequently during these events, these LTs would not only forget their own names but also how to speak the English language. Seinfeld & Baseball. Christmas Carols on Sheridan. Singin' the Oldies & 70s Parties. "J, come to my office." This is a call from the Boss that you really didn't want to get. Whenever I got this, I would immediately start thinking about what I might have screwed up and how to get my lies together so I could somehow come out of it with all my arms and legs. Where's Duthu? Where's Dawson? Potbelly Stoves. Extra underwear in the Carry-on. Del Boca Vista. "I know that." If you got the "I know that" during a briefing to the Boss, this was the first indication that it wasn't going so well...that you were telling him things he already knew and that you needed to quickly get on to the information he was really after. If you got 2, "I know that's" in the same briefing, then at this point your best move is to reach into your own green bag of food and hand him a banana or some yogurt. The Limo Night. The Limo Night is like Fight Club. We are not allowed to talk about Limo Night. All the pictures and details from Limo Night are securely tucked away somewhere on a private email server, never to be seen again. Battery Rotations and the Osan Greeting. Hot Cycle. The Phone Messages. When Big Daddy (Bill Darne) and I were battalion commanders together in Korea, during our first Ball we were over-served by the Osan O'Club, and we decided to call the boss. 19 times. "Hey, sirrrr...this is Bill & J. Answer the phone!" "Sir, c'mon...this is ridiculous!! Pick up!" When we got up the next day, Bill said to me, "J, I think we might have crossed the line with the Boss. I looked at my phone. We called him 19 times!" Since Bill is a bit more diplomatic than me, he crafted the apology email to the Boss. Later on Bill talked to him about it..."Sir, about all those messages we left...I hope we are still ok." The Boss was like, "Are you kidding me?! That was great!! I bragged about it to the Chief (Army Chief of Staff) and the Vice (Army Vice Chief of Staff) that my old commanders called and left a bunch of messages because theirs never do!" Nevada Freestyle & the Flip Phone. Shotguns & Speedboats. The Senior LTs. These were actually not LTs but 3 majors on brigade staff in Korea. I only know because I was one of 'em. I am looking out (into the audience) at one of the other ones right now, too. I honestly don't know how we got this nickname (from the Boss)...could have been our uncanny ability for shenanigans and tomfoolery. Harry & Eddy's Video. This is not really a funny story but did come from a funny event. It was COL Rossi's farewell from brigade command in Korea. We were a few months out and trying to come up with something special to do for the Boss. We held a council of "Senior LTs" to get some ideas. We also talked with Liz. What we really wanted to do was bring (West Point classmates) Harry & Eddy over as the guest speakers. Liz and I went back and forth with Harry & Eddy for a few weeks to try to make it work, but it just couldn't happen. So we did the 2nd best thing: we got Harry & Eddy to make a video. The weeks go by and we do the farewell...I'm the MC. I get to the point when I'm about to introduce the guest speaker(s), and I start to describe who it is. The Boss gives me this look like he's wondering what we're up to now, and then I play the video. The point of the video is that Harry & Eddy are trying to help the Boss figure out what to do next after brigade command. They get to the end and what they came up with was for him to go work for the Mets...as a janitor. After all the great things the Boss has done for me, I just wanted to do something really special for him. And that's why this is on my list. The last "J, come to my office" call I got from the Boss was about a year and a half ago. I was at Fort Sill on TDY doing some HRC stuff -- briefing the incoming Brigade and Battalion level commanders. After the briefing was over I was talking with a few of them when someone shouted, "Hey, the CG wants to see you in his office right now." When I heard that, I stopped what I was doing, packed up my stuff, and immediately headed over. On the 6 minute walk from Snow Hall to the HQ, I defaulted to my normal behavior in this situation -- running through my memory, trying to figure out the things that I could have screwed up, and getting my lies together to make a plan on how to survive this one. When I went into the HQ, the Boss came out of his office and saw me..."J, grab a plate and come sit down..." He just wanted to have lunch. Big Daddy was there too. I had my pad out on the table, ready to take notes. We didn't talk a lick about work. He just wanted to spend time with Bill and I, check on how we were doing, and ask me about Jennifer (my wife) and the kids. What a great man -- someone you only meet once in a lifetime. He meant so much to us all. If you talk to any of John Rossi's other "Army Children" they will all tell you these exact same things: most of what I think I know about leadership, I learned from him. He taught us how to build a top quality team that was only focused on first place finishes and championship trophies. He showed us how to instill discipline in our units. He taught us what Soldier Care was truly about and how to go about doing it. He forced us to be better husbands and wives, moms and dads. John G. Rossi totally turned my career around. It's not that it was horrible before I met him (in 1999), but he made me realize how clueless I really was about so many things. And it came at just the right time. The last thing I want to say is THANKS to Liz, Dom, Maria, and Angelina for sharing him with us. You sacrificed time with him so he could spend it with us. And much of the time you did have with him, you invited us to share that too and treated us like we were part of your Family, which is exactly how we feel about you. We will always be here for you. Thanks for listening.

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