Empathy trumps apathy, says Will Cambardella
Will Cambardell
Really understanding and sharing in another person’s emotions and thoughts takes time, effort and attention, says Will Cambardella, strategic account executive, government, for Midmark Corp. Cambardella has exercised all three, recently completing an eight-year reserve tour at AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, which included deployments to Chad, Niger, Senegal, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.
Cambardella is of military lineage. His grandfather, Sargente Raffaele Cambardella, fought on the Italian Front in World War I and was a prisoner of war. His mother, Beadie, was an Air Force flight nurse in Georgia. And his father, Gennaro Cambardella, was a woodshop teacher as well as an Air National Guardsman at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in suburban Atlanta. “They are my lifelong role models,” says Cambardella. “Married for 46 years.”
An ROTC cadet at Jacksonville State University, he received an English degree and commission as a Second Lieutenant. “I received and rendered my first salute from Dad in 2000,” he recalls. Shortly after graduation, he served on active duty at Hunter Army Airfield near Fort Stewart, Georgia, as an Ammunition Magazine Platoon Leader. “We supplied the ordnance for the 3rd Infantry Division (Rock of the Marne!) during the initial invasion of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.”
Leadership lesson in Iraq
It was somewhere near Karbala, Iraq, that he gained a valuable lesson in leadership – and, in a sense, salesmanship. The United States had declared war on Saddam Hussein, and began its campaign with what was called “shock and awe,” that is, an overwhelming demonstration of firepower intended to demoralize and neutralize the enemy.
“My commanding officer had to execute a maneuver that took him away from the ammunition company I was in,” recalls Cambardella. “He told me, ‘You have to get the company to Baghdad.’ With the help of my enlisted – the backbone of the Army – this young lieutenant led a company of 200 to our objective, right outside of Baghdad. We hit our milestone, we executed the maneuver.
“It was the first time I had to ‘sell’ lots of people in duress on something, and execute a plan to make this ‘orchestra’ of war sing. I was battle-tested to be a leader in 2003. You really don’t have a choice, though. You have to just jump into the fire.”
Back in the United States, Cambardella received training at the Defense Information School, which is charged with training those in the military on documenting and communicating the actions of the U.S. military services. He served as a public affairs officer in an F-16 fighter wing based in Dannelly Field, an Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Alabama. Because of his training, as well as his experience in and knowledge of both the Army and Air Force, he became director of strategic communications at the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC), which is charged with developing language, region and cultural learning programs for what it refers to as “Total Force Airmen.”
“Go back to 2005 or 2006, when you had hundreds of thousands of young, 20-year-old types who knew very little about how to communicate with the local populations in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he says. He credits Army General David Petraeus, who was commander of coalition forces in Iraq, for impressing the importance of learning about local cultures, so troops could interact sensitively with the local people.
Africa
Cambardella’s boss at AFCLC, Dr. Dan Henk, was a military anthropologist whose research was instrumental in the creation of the United States Africa Command, or AFRICOM, one of the Department of Defense’s regional military headquarters. “He encouraged me to cross the pond,” says Cambardella, who was selected to serve as a public affairs action officer for AFRICOM in 2010.
Established in 2008 and based in Stuttgart, Germany, AFRICOM has administrative responsibility for U.S. military support and U.S. government policy in Africa, including military-to-military relationships with 53 African nations. Every year, U.S. Special Operations participates in an operation called Flintlock, which is an African-led military exercise sponsored by an African country on a rotating basis. Part of Flintlock’s mission is the provision of temporary health services for the local population.
“We provide triage stations for screening, general medicine, women’s health, pediatrics, dental, optometry and pharmacy,” says Cambardella. “Special Operations medics and allied countries integrate with local doctors and healthcare workers to treat patients from different tribes, to include Hausa, Tauregs, Fulani, Djerma, Wolof, Fula, Mossi, Bobo, Sara and others.
“People show up on donkeys, camels, horses, and scooters.”
Cambardella’s primary responsibility was to embed international news media in AFRICOM’s activities. “We take them everywhere they want to go,” he says. “I remember being in Chad in 2015, when Boko Haram was a major threat.”
He also directed the dissemination of information about the clinics and other civil military operations throughout villages with flyers, radio, television, call-to-prayer, mosques, leaflets, word-of-mouth and other means.
Malnutrition, malaria, fissures, dehydration, pneumonia and garden-variety ailments are the greatest healthcare challenges for the people in the Sahel, the name given to the southern portion of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.
“It’s a tough existence for some of these souls. How can I make it better for them? How can you make it better for them?” says Cambardella. “I asked myself these questions, and give my money to Doctors Without Borders. These people are true heroes. They are frontline medical care providers serving in adverse places under duress, long after troops’ exfil,” the term used by the military to refer to the removal of personnel from hostile areas.
“Violent extremist threats in the region, like Boko Haram and a potpourri of bad actors, obscure efforts to provide food, aid and medicine to those in need,” he says. Migration due to conflict, terrorism, public health crises, political instability and accelerated environmental degradation contribute to the difficulties.
Nevertheless, Cambardella is optimistic that if the U.S. government continues to devote the necessary resources, health security for the people of the Sahel can be achieved.
Medical sales
Since the end of his enlistment in active duty Army in 2004, Cambardella has been in medical sales, first as a territory sales manager for Allergan, the pharmaceutical company. “It was a great opportunity for my transition from active Army,” he says. “I was petrified of sales at first,” he says. But Allergan gave him the classroom and field training he needed to become a successful salesperson.
Following Allergan, he worked as government accounts manager for Bausch + Lomb. In 2016, he joined Midmark as strategic account executive – government.
“Given its sterling reputation as a league leader in the industry, Midmark is the lion’s pride of the industry and a real winner,” he says. In his current position, Cambardella has “the privilege of calling on over 3,000 federal medical facilities, including Veterans Health, which constitutes our biggest customer.
“I enjoy providing healthcare excellence to our veterans, government clinics and overseas clinics to help those who need it the most.”
Empathy is the neutralizer of apathy, he adds. “An apathetic Veteran Healthcare System is a stain on the taxpayer. What can you do to make things better? Volunteer locally for a few hours per month at the nearest VA hospital.”
Cambardella recently left AFRICOM and started a new position in October as the Reserve Public Affairs Officer (PAO) for Joint Forces DLA at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia.
Midmark has been the “epitome of support,” he says. “They sell state-of-the-art medical equipment to the U.S. government, and recycle used equipment by sending it downrange to several underserved African countries, thanks to Midmark’s Mitch Eiting and the company’s global philanthropic efforts. And I get to sell to my comrades in the DoD, VA and PHS. Winning!”
Another support? Cambardella’s wife, Tara. “She has been my rock.”