JMKSOMUE, N.C. Some people go on and on about their accomplishments, always telling everyone about how good they are, always reminding people of how instrumental they were to getting it all done. There are those people, and then there are people like Maj. Farrell Sullivan. Despite being among the best in the business the business of training and deploying for war Sullivan is a reserved guy who manages to turn conversations about himself into conversations about his Marines. He'll be embarrassed to read a news story that heaps praise on his abilities.
Maybe that's why he was selected for one of the Corps' most esteemed honors, the Leftwich Trophy for Outstanding Leadership. Every year, the Marine Corps boils down its hundreds of combat-arms captains to a short list comprising the best of" the best. First awarded in 1980, the annual winners roundup reads like a veritable who's who of top Marine ground officers. Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejiik, Leftwich Trophy 1985, currently the chief of staff for U.S. Special Operations Command. Col. Paul Lefebvre, Leftwich Trophy 1987, former 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit commander. Col. John R. Alien,
Leftwich Trophy 1988, now commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. And now, Sullivan, 31, commanding officer of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, and 8th Marines. The native of Huntington, N.Y., who comes from a family of Marines, recently was promoted to his current rank. The announcement that he won the 2002 award came May 19 from Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee. Tracking Sullivan down to ask him about the award was no small feat. He and his Marines' are in South Korea, participating in an exercise as they wrap up a Unit Deployment Program rotation to Okinawa. The six-month deployment was extended for three additional months to free other units from the UDP rotation for the war against Iraq.
When he eventually was able to respond via e-mail, Sullivan had more to say about his Marines than himself. In his mind, he's a bit player, trying to lead his Marines as best he can and looking forward to returning to the states and marrying his fiancée, Marine Capt. Marta DeVries, who has been deployed for the past few months to Kuwait and Iraq.
"The Marines and sailors put me in the running," Sullivan said in a June 12 e-mail to Marine consistently performed well over a two-year period." That's putting it mildly.
A Sharp Unit
In April 2002, Lima Company returned from over four months of duty in Afghanistan, where they guarded the U.S. Embassy in Kabul against terrorist threats as part of the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism). Their work earned them the State Department's Group Superior Honor Award, presented in July. And while on Okinawa, Japan, Marines from Lima Company won the 3rd Marine Division's Super Squad Competition, a grueling affair and a high honor for the unit whose squad claims victory. Sullivan speaks of his Marines the way he speaks of himself, not in a bragging tone, but with an air of confidence. The Marines do not seek accomplishment for awards," Sullivan said. They just want to be recognized as a unit prepared for combat."
Prepared they seem to be, and led by a Marine with all of the right qualifications for the job. A graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Sullivan participated in Operation Assured Response in 1996, providing security for the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. Later that year, he took part in Operation
Marathon, a security mission to protect Chinese migrants at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba. He assumed command of his first company Headquarters and Service Company, 3/8 as a first lieutenant, and was later sent to The Basic School at Quantico, Va., to train new officers. While he was there, older brother Maj. Daniel Sullivan received the Leftwich Trophy in 1999 for his handling of Lima Company, 3/8, the same unit Farrell now commands.
The younger Sullivan later attended-the Command and Control Systems Course at Quantico, earning the prized Maj. Gen. Merritt A. Edson Award a leadership-related honor upon graduation in 2001. Last year, he was nominated for the Leftwich Trophy but was not selected.
It's a good resume, one to make many jealous, but Sullivan doesn't rub it in. He credits it to a good family, a run of luck and a string of good mentors. And talented Marines taking his advice and offering theirs.
"Consistently refusing any personal recognition, he aggressively seeks every opportunity to put his subordinates in the limelight," wrote Lt Col. David H. Berger, Sullivan's battalion commander, in his award nomination write-up. But while they can put his name on it, they can't make him consider it his award alone. "I have been truly blessed and very lucky," Sullivan said. "I believe you make your own luck to a certain extent, but some of it is not within your control. My Marines could not choose me to be
Their CO and I couldn't choose who was going to get orders to Lima Company.
"I try not to forget that, and I try to be the leader they were looking for."
