The Leaders Who Walked With Me: How Four Childhood Books Shaped My Military Life

Leadership is often described in tidy definitions and laminated cards: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage. But no one becomes a leader because they memorized an acronym. Leadership comes from stories - the ones you grow up with, the ones you cling to during the hardest seasons, and the ones you discover about yourself along the way.

Before I ever stood in formation, before deployment orders, before helicopters and sandstorms and long nights of wondering who I would become, there were books. Four stories in particular: The Hobbit, Ender’s Game, The The Hunger Games, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I didn’t know it at the time, but these characters - Bilbo, Ender, Katniss, and Edmund - would become mentors, mirrors, and warnings as I navigated my own journey into service, war, and adulthood.

Each book arrived in my life exactly when I needed it. And each character taught me a different face of leadership.

Bilbo Baggins: Courage Is Doing It Anyway

I read The Hobbit right after I got my deployment orders to Afghanistan. There’s a special kind of shock when someone knocks on the door of your comfortable life and tells you your plans are over. That you need to pack your things. That adventure - or violence, or uncertainty - is now mandatory.

Gandalf or Uncle Sam, who really cares? Both show up uninvited. Both tell you, “Let’s go.”

What I love about Bilbo is that he is not a warrior. Not a chosen one. Not a knight of the round table. He’s a reluctant fool with every excuse to decline. But the only way out is through. He taught me that courage isn’t the absence of fear or the presence of a sword; it’s the decision to leave the door open even when you’d rather lock it.

In the military, we talk about “embrace the suck.” Bilbo taught me how to do that with a sense of humor and a steady hand.

Ender Wiggin: Empathy Is the Ultimate Tactical Advantage

Ender’s Game is often read as a book about strategy, but I found it to be a book about the burden of command. Ender is a child forced to grow up in a system that wants his brilliance but doesn’t care about his soul. He’s isolated, manipulated, and pushed to the edge.

But his greatest strength isn’t his ability to win; it’s his ability to understand. To defeat an enemy, he first has to love them. He has to see the world through their eyes.

In uniform, it’s easy to dehumanize the mission. It’s easy to see people as data points or objectives. Ender reminded me that a leader who loses their empathy loses their humanity. He taught me that the most powerful thing you can bring to a conflict is the willingness to see the person on the other side of the line.

Katniss Everdeen: Balance Is the Key to Survival

Katniss Everdeen is a leader born of necessity. She doesn’t want the spotlight. She doesn’t want the responsibility. She just wants to protect the people she loves. She’s a survivor, a huntress, and a symbol of defiance.

What Katniss taught me is the importance of balance. In the military, you are often pushed to the extreme - physically, mentally, and emotionally. You are expected to be everything to everyone at all times. But Katniss showed me that a leader who doesn’t find balance will eventually break.

You have to know when to fight and when to rest. When to speak and when to listen. When to lead and when to follow. Katniss taught me that survival is not just about staying alive; it’s about keeping your spirit intact.

Edmund Pevensie: Redemption Is Always Possible

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edmund is the traitor. He’s the one who sells out his siblings for a taste of Turkish Delight. He’s the one who falls for the promises of the White Witch. He’s the one who needs to be rescued.

Edmund’s story is a reminder that no one is beyond redemption. We all make mistakes. We all fail. We all have moments where we are tempted by the easy path, by the promises that promise comfort but deliver isolation.

His betrayal wasn’t stupidity. It was desperation.

And so was mine.

But Edmund’s redemption - and mine - only began when he let the façade drop. When he stopped pretending he was fine. When he surrendered the ego of who he thought he was supposed to be.

Within every soldier there’s a lionheart waiting to thaw the winter.

What These Characters Taught Me About Leadership

Each of these characters carried a different part of the leadership equation - parts the military can teach but can’t fully explain.

Bilbo taught me courage.\nEnder taught me empathy.\nKatniss taught me balance.\nEdmund taught me renewal.

Together they shaped my understanding of leadership as something more than rank or authority. Leadership is not perfection, certainty, or fearlessness. It’s a journey through discomfort, responsibility, sacrifice, and growth. It’s showing up for others even when you’re barely holding yourself together. It’s learning from stories - especially your own.

These books didn’t just entertain me.\nThey prepared me.\nThey steadied me.\nThey reminded me who I was in the moments when it mattered most.

And in their pages, I learned the truth every leader eventually discovers:

We become who we are by the adventures we accept, the battles we fight, and the hearts we allow to change us.