Leadership and money.

All around your installation you see uniformed personnel, civil servants, and contractors working to provide services, deliver goods, and complete construction projects. Everywhere you turn, you find the resources of the United States Armed Forces at work: troop training, systems acquisition, operational missions to and from multiple combatant commanders' areas of responsibilities, new facilities being erected, resource deliveries, and a plethora of services provided. A lot of moving parts go into fighting the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). A careful scrutiny of those parts--and the activities that put them together in order to form the mission--reveals a common element: MONEY.

Money surrounds us, but what channels that money together and orchestrates its use? The answer: LEADERSHIP. Can leadership exist without money? Certainly, it can; it has and it does. But is money leadership? No, it isn't--but they are mutual friends. Money makes leadership easier--and maximizing the effect of purchased resources requires positive leadership. Clearly, General George Washington was a great leader in the absence of sufficient financial resources, but a few more dollars to pay and provision the Continental Army would have eased his decisions and opened leadership options.

Today, we in the Department of Defense (DoD) are the beneficiaries of great leaders with money at their disposal. Prudent mission accomplishment requires responsible execution of dollars to set the stage for success in the GWOT. Roman author, orator, and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) wrote, "Endless money forms the sinews of war."

While our pot of money isn't endless, it has been large. The United States Congress has appropriated sufficient funding from the U.S. taxpayers to carry out the mission. Our job is to turn those dollars into action and results. While effective resource use is utmost, efficiency is desired in order to produce the maximum result for the least cost to the taxpayer. Leadership provides the means to strike this balance.

Unlike traditional DoD appropriated funding, the current source of dollars is more directly tied to the taxpayer, which includes us all. Specifically, the GWOT is being funded largely through supplemental appropriations outside the annual defense budget; therefore, the dollars used cost each taxpayer additional money.

Leadership makes the difference daily, but who are the leaders?

We are--as DoD financial managers. Leadership is reflected every time we request the things we need over the nice-tohaves: every time we remember that while the pot of money is big, the pool of people resources to execute the requests is minimal; and every time we prioritize requirements, mindful of the real mission--even when we follow the most mundane of technical orders and procedures (such as tool control, preflight checks, and exercise checklists) and scrutinize purchase requests to buy only the level of requirement solution necessary (no bells and whistles or gold-plating).

Seemingly simple things, like tool control, furniture buys, proper care of the equipment we use, and respect for the facilities we inhabit, all make a big difference when summed together. Each of us, no matter what rank or duty title, possesses the capacity for resource stewardship. When we exercise this judgment and prudence, we are leaders, leaders in the public trust.

While money isn't leadership, it certainly affects one's options. The comptroller/resource manager--as well as unit resource personnel--exists to aid commanders and staffs in choosing between, and possibly expanding, options when making decisions that hinge upon money. All across the DoD components, at every level, there are leaders working diligently to balance effective and prudent execution of their missions each and every day.

As DoD financial managers, we have been--and continue to be--good stewards of the taxpayers' money. Thank you for your leadership. Keep up the good work of sustaining the fight!

Major David Peeler is Commander of the Air Force's only Expeditionary Comptroller Squadron, supporting Air Force operations in the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility. Peeler is a member of the Desert Eagle Chapter of ASMC.

(Editor's note: We occasionally receive opinion pieces offering perspectives that we believe will resonate well with our readership. This is one such piece.)