Heidi Millburg, American Hero
War Time Leadership Takes Many Forms
Heidi Millburg is an American hero. Period. Full stop.
I’ve served alongside some fantastic people in the field: Green Berets, ANASOC, French Foreign Legion, Romanian SOF, German SOF, etc. However, Heidi is the best wartime commander I’ve ever served under.
But here’s the thing: I didn’t serve with her in Afghanistan or Iraq. I served with her here, in the United States.
I bumped into Heidi during the fall of Kabul. After returning from helping the Defense Intelligence Agency in DC, I came home and started working ungodly hours. Somehow, someway, I got inside Operation Sacred Promie (OSP), a non-profit that had sprung up during the fall.
Because most of my work was in the shadows, I didn’t have a similar organization to fall into. While OSP focused ostensibly on the Afghan Air Force, especially its Special Mission Wing, my contacts were scattered throughout the country. Nevertheless, I fell in relatively quickly since I had recently served as the Air Attache in Afghanistan. I knew many of their players, but I was focused on non-AAF “contacts.”
It was a chaotic time. As I’ve said many times, the first six months after the fall of Kabul were the darkest of my life. OSP didn’t last very long. In fact, it disintegrated. That’s not a knock on anyone. Not at all. The trauma and moral injury during that first year will give researchers ample fodder for future dissertations.
But through all that chaos, a leader emerged—Heidi. I’d never met her before, but as everything fell apart, Heidi kept the team together. Years after OSP fell apart, its remnants remain in various SIGNAL chat groups.
Heidi didn’t just lead the group virtually. Nah. During the first year, while she was stationed in DC, she went and knocked on politicians’ doors to remind them that our Afghan allies were left behind.
She did that. Nobody asked her to do that. She just fucking did it because it needed to be done, being in the military be damned.
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s not just leadership—it’s a fucking miracle.
Because of Heidi’s dedication, guys like me who thrived in the shadows setting up networks upon networks, helped get hundreds of Afghans out. Hundreds. I stopped keeping track of the precise number. While the Afghans are the ones who saved themselves, we got them out because of Heidi’s relentless advocacy in a challenging environment.
And here’s the thing, people: She has never served in Afghanistan.
She just did it because it needed to be done. My G*d. I’m in awe of it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you should be considered so fortunate to have a leader like Heidi leading our young Airmen. She’s a fearless warrior. She builds and maintains teams by creating an environment where people are heard and seen.
I was thinking all these thoughts today while watching Heidi successfully conclude her tour as a squadron commander. Now, she’s off to another assignment to serve as a Deputy Group Commander. If the Air Force had any sense, they would clear a path for her to become a Group and then Wing Commander.
She’s that good, people. That amazing. I would follow her into the gates of hell and back.
And you know why?
Because I already have.
