1. When he led the military soccer team to victory against the scientists, despite the scientists fielding three Brits who claimed to know the rules better. Not that there was any doubt that the military team would win, of course. 5-2 was a nice victory margin though.
2. When he arranged for Sergeant Lubock, who’d lost his entire team off-world and nearly jumped from one of the city balconies two days later, to go back to Earth and into a couple months medical leave, complete with counseling appointments. It wasn’t so much that he did it as the way he did, so quietly that most people never questioned the medical leave explanation or connected the dots from losing his team to going home. The couple of people who did know agreed that Sheppard was a good guy, doing all that for someone he barely knew.
3. When he was the first person to stand up and say he was in a relationship with another man after DADT was repealed. A few of them agreed that they weren’t sure they needed to know about their CO’s romantic life, a few more exchanged looks of yeah, like that’s a surprise, but everyone agreed that it took guts to do that. Also made it a hell of a lot easier for anyone else who wanted to do the same thing, knowing that Sheppard had just more or less stated that Atlantis would be an environment of complete tolerance.
4. When he got trapped off-world with only Dr McKay for company for three months and didn’t kill him. Not like McKay wasn’t a stand-up guy when it came to saving the city, and clearly the colonel liked him well enough to have kept him on the same team for all those years, but the man took hypochondria and paranoia to the next level and then some. John’s men appreciated the restraint he must have shown for those three months.
5. When General O’Neill came out to Atlantis personally to promote John to full bird colonel. In a way, it wasn’t a big deal, since he had the time in and everyone knew he was the best CO Atlantis could ask for, but enough people knew bits of the colonel’s service history to know it hadn’t always been a sure thing he’d get that far. Also, he’d gone on enough deadly missions over the years that more than one of the people in the audience at his ceremony hadn’t been all that sure he’d *survive* as far as full-bird colonel.
Five times John’s men were proud to have him as a CO
2. When he arranged for Sergeant Lubock, who’d lost his entire team off-world and nearly jumped from one of the city balconies two days later, to go back to Earth and into a couple months medical leave, complete with counseling appointments. It wasn’t so much that he did it as the way he did, so quietly that most people never questioned the medical leave explanation or connected the dots from losing his team to going home. The couple of people who did know agreed that Sheppard was a good guy, doing all that for someone he barely knew.
3. When he was the first person to stand up and say he was in a relationship with another man after DADT was repealed. A few of them agreed that they weren’t sure they needed to know about their CO’s romantic life, a few more exchanged looks of yeah, like that’s a surprise, but everyone agreed that it took guts to do that. Also made it a hell of a lot easier for anyone else who wanted to do the same thing, knowing that Sheppard had just more or less stated that Atlantis would be an environment of complete tolerance.
4. When he got trapped off-world with only Dr McKay for company for three months and didn’t kill him. Not like McKay wasn’t a stand-up guy when it came to saving the city, and clearly the colonel liked him well enough to have kept him on the same team for all those years, but the man took hypochondria and paranoia to the next level and then some. John’s men appreciated the restraint he must have shown for those three months.
5. When General O’Neill came out to Atlantis personally to promote John to full bird colonel. In a way, it wasn’t a big deal, since he had the time in and everyone knew he was the best CO Atlantis could ask for, but enough people knew bits of the colonel’s service history to know it hadn’t always been a sure thing he’d get that far. Also, he’d gone on enough deadly missions over the years that more than one of the people in the audience at his ceremony hadn’t been all that sure he’d *survive* as far as full-bird colonel.