Q&A: Colonel Patrick Biggs (US Army), Hoover National Security Affairs Fellow

Members of the 2023–24 class of the Robert and Marion Oster National Security Affairs Fellows Program are participating in an interview series in which they discuss their career experience, how they plan to spend the academic year, and their mentoring of Stanford undergraduate students. They also reflect on leadership lessons they learned in service to the nation.

Today, we speak to Col. Patrick Biggs, a US Army officer with professional expertise in East Asia, security cooperation, military engineering, and army operations and training.

Why did you join the US Army?

I joined the army because I have always had a desire to serve my community and country. My family has a tradition of service, and as a youth I was involved in my community as a part of the Boy Scouts of America and through my church. I found that I enjoyed the sense of service and commitment that came with giving your time and effort to support the people around you. The army has given me the opportunity to do the same thing on a larger scale.

In addition, I learned once I joined the army that our job is to care of the people within our organization as much as it is to provide for the nation. Once I realized this, I knew that I had to stay in the army if I believed that I could do the job as well or better than the next person. To do anything less would be a failure to those soldiers who depend on good leadership.

Will you tell us about your educational background?

I graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 2001. I have always had a love for science. This interest led me to major in chemistry while there. Once I joined the army as an engineer officer, I grew to love engineering and the application of science. When given the opportunity, I jumped on the at the chance to earn my master’s degree in engineering management.

Will you tell us about your career arc?

I have been in the army for over 22 years as an engineer officer, where I have primarily supported combat units. I have had four combat tours, three to Iraq and one to Jordan, for a total of 46 months deployed in combat zones. I served on a four-star staff in Korea ,where I worked closely with our partners and learned how to operate in a combined and joint operation. Most recently I served as a battalion commander for a brigade engineer battalion and then as the senior trainer for the same type of unit at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, the nation’s premier training center.

Will you tell us how you heard about the Hoover National Security Affairs Fellowship and how you hope to make the most out of this academic year?

My next assignment will be as the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers District, Japan. As such, I want to take this opportunity to familiarize myself with the geopolitical situation within the region so that I will have the understanding I need to advise senior leaders as needed within my area of expertise. I hope to understand the historical and current state of relations for all major players within the region as well as how they interrelate with one another.

Part of the National Security Affairs Fellowship has been teaching and mentoring Stanford University undergraduate students. Could you tell us about your experience mentoring them?

Working with Stanford University students as our mentees is the greatest privilege we have during our time as National Security Affairs Fellows. We are provided with the opportunity to share our experiences with the students and let them learn from those experiences. They represent the best and the brightest of the next generation of leaders for our country, and any chance we have to help prepare them for their next step is welcome.

However, this exchange is not one-way. I have found that I learn as much or more from my interactions with my mentees as they learn from me. This has been an amazing opportunity for this old dog to learn a few new tricks.

What does leadership mean to you?

It doesn’t matter what your job is; to be successful you must prepare your body, your mind, and your team. Run through possible scenarios in your mind, think of everything that might happen, and make a plan. When a leader half-steps and hesitates to decide, it puts everyone in danger. A plan that is just “mostly right” but implemented immediately will be better than a perfect plan that is put into place three days too late.

One of the hardest things to do as a leader is to tell one of your soldiers to do something that has to be done but that you know puts that individual in a tremendous amount of danger. As a leader, you are a servant first. You exist to take care of the team and ensure it has the tools to succeed. A leader with a selfish or self-centered reputation will rarely earn the loyalty of his teammates. However, if you acknowledge, “It’s not about me, it’s about the team,” great things are possible.

Leadership isn’t about being everybody’s friend. It’s about trust and respect. There’s nothing that you can specifically do to ensure that your people trust and respect you. The sum of your actions over time defines who you are as a leader and determine if your guys trust you or not. Asking questions, giving yourself for your team, doing your homework and putting in the hard work, making detailed plans and communicating them to your team, and so on, are all part of it.