A Cause Greater than Self: The Journey of Captain Michael J. Daly, World War II Medal of Honor Recipient

Chapter 9: “Discipline of Kindness”

131 Western Germany, March 1945. Michael Daly’s men showed a willingness to follow him because they recognized him as a superb warrior and also because they felt that he had their best interests at heart. He modeled courage and confidence—an almost insouciant disregard for personal danger—when he sensed that his men needed protection , inspiration, or reassurance. He also skillfully used group psychology. During one operation, for example, Daly and his men needed to cross a draw on which the Germans were firing, but from a distance. When the men balked at making the crossing, Daly urged them forward, assuring them that the German fire was too high to hit them if they stayed low. As the group moved quickly across the open space, Daly heard a pained yell from one of them: “Daly!” the man shouted—the battlefield was no respecter of rank—“They hit me . . . in the foot!” By then, though, he and all the others were across the draw.1 General Eisenhower once said, “The most terrible job in warfare is to be a second lieutenant leading a platoon when you are on the battlefield.” Platoon leaders accounted for approximately 31 percent of all casualties in an infantry division. (Company commanders accounted for another 30 percent.) Daly, however, relished his job as a company line officer leading men in combat. He regarded it as the highest honor and responsibility the government could bestow on an individual. He had always loved action and felt happiest when making a difference. As an officer he made a difference, and it called forth his best self. He bore responsibility for achieving his mission and for taking care of his men, and as a company commander (which he called the “best job in the infantry”) he enjoyed greater autonomy in choosing the means. The well-being of his men became his passion, so much so that, for their sake, he repeatedly placed his life on the line. He had moved smoothly from enlisted man to commissioned officer and in the process had shown himself a decisive leader comfortable with command. S. L. A. Marshall, deputy theater historian for US forces in the European 9 “Discipline of Kindness” 132 Chapter 9 Theater, wrote: “The test of fitness to command is the ability to think clearly in the face of unexpected contingency or opportunity. Improvisation is . . . the essence of initiative in all combat just as initiative is the outward showing of the power of decision.”2 Initiative, clear thinking, daring improvisation— Daly had demonstrated each of these on the battlefield numerous times, and his men responded accordingly. What happened to the irresponsible teenager of eighteen months earlier? Daly always contended that war did not change people so much as it removed masks and allowed “what’s there inside to come out.” It made people “more of what they are,” so long as it did not push them beyond their breaking point. Clearly, in Daly’s case, the experience of war had matured and sobered him and given him a sense of mission. He had always been inattentive to what he regarded as meaningless rules and regulations, and he continued so, but Figure 6: Organization Table: Daly’s Chain of Command, March-April, 1945. “Discipline of Kindness” 133 he had always been at his best when part of a team and able to focus on a larger goal. Now he had that goal, and others depended on him in life-anddeath situations. Daly was a real romantic. Paul Daly’s stories about Roland, Oliver, and the knights of the Round Table had taken root in him. In that, he was like his father, but he departed from his dad in being able to focus on individuals as well as causes. Mike Daly, for instance, could never view his men the way that his father did when he compared infantrymen winning battles to horses winning races. The stark reality of war provided a setting that highlighted and channeled some of Mike’s finest personal qualities: energy, athleticism, audacity, independence , aggressiveness, intrepidity, leadership, and courage—traits he had demonstrated before the war, but sometimes in ways that had led to trouble. Aristotle observed that courage makes all other virtues possible. Daly possessed courage in abundance, and other virtues flowed from that. For him war was the “refiner’s fire”; it matured him and brought forth...