Leadership through Humility

MP Company Captain to represent Sustainment Brigade for MacArthur Leadership Award

By Sergeant First Class Pete Mayes
101st Sustainment Brigade

FORT CAMPBELL, KY., October 4, 2009 – When Captain Michael Cotovsky learned he was being nominated to represent the 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, at the Division-level Gen. Douglas MacArthur Leadership Awards, he did what he normally does in these instances.
He gave to the credit to the Soldiers under his command.
“(The Soldiers) are extremely professional and are always trying to do what’s right,” he said. “They always want to represent the company well, and when they’re given a task, they get after it.”
Captain Cotovsky was recognized by Sustainment Brigade leadership and his company this past Friday. He and his company recently returned from a one-year tour to Iraq five months ago.
The award was created in 1987 by the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Foundation to recognize company-grade officers who demonstrate MacArthur's ideals of "duty, honor, country." The award sustains and promotes effective junior leadership in the Army.
716th Military Police Battalion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Michael Dolata said Captain Cotovsky, commander of the 194th Military Police Company, represents the best example of an officer who takes care of both the Soldier and their families.
During their deployment, LTC Dolata said the company worked alongside the Iraqi Police and the Marine Corps conducting training and law enforcement. All the Soldiers who deployed came back, he said.
“We only select the best MPs to serve here,” he said. “The Cotovsky’s are a super part of the 194th.”
Captain Cotovsky’s wife, Catherine, said her husband she was not surprised about the nomination, nor his non-chalant attitude toward it. It’s just part of his personality, she said.
“He would never ask any of his Soldiers to do things that he would not do himself,” she said. “I think they see that in him and respect him for it.”
“The job’s never done,” Captain Cotovsky said. “There’s always work to do.”