operationforwardpass.com

Part I is here.

So here you are with all these new people, trying not to be overly “bossy,” yet you may be the one with the answer, or not (but you think you do). Controlled anarchy will ensue. I discussed some reasons for haning together in the first part. Now what happens if you decide to be the maverick?

I once saw this in a more practical application, and the scenario gets my point across. Our staff ahd been assigned to provide services for the submarine community as they trained prospective commanding officers (PCOs). We were assigned three ships, a CG-47, a DD-963 and an FFG-7, along with a contingent of ship and shore based helos. Our operations ostensibly required us to be sitting ducks for the soon to be COs, as they shot at us with two (per person) exercise MK-48 torpedos. My commodore, on the other hand, viewed this time at sea with dedicated submarine targets as a good training opportunity. As a result, we made our plans. Here’s where it got touchy. The CO (an O-6) of the CG-47 was, by lineal number, senior to my boss (also an O-6). My boss, by virture of the tasking was in operational control and this just chapped the CO of the AEGIS cruiser (that’s another entire series of posts for another time and place), that he had to take orders from someone junior to himself. Net result, after smoking the sub guys like cheap cigars for about 10 of the planned “mini-wars,” the CG-47 CO took off downrange “to get a sub.” He left himself and his crew hanging out by themselves, as the PCO lined up and put an extorp right into his bow.

Somewhat humbled, our task unit finished our series of 14 events, the score being 12-1-1 in our favor. We would have had a 13-1 record, had it not been for foolish pride. Had it been a real shooting war, the $1B state of the art AEGIS Cruiser would have been quickly swallowed by an unforgiving ocean, with many of the 450 man crew killed, injured or drowned.

Different from your indoctrination training, where you have no ranking right away, we had listed of who could tell who what to do. The point remains: Be careful when you decide you know better, for it may be you all alone to suffer the consequences, be they pushups until you sweat all the moisture out of your body, or several extra night watchs in the barracks. Later the fallout may be far more striking.

The maverick can not only get him or herself killed in combat, but they have the opportunity to bring a few of you to the same fate. Your DIs are looking to see if you all get this by the immersion into situations they will place you in. Between their wisdom delivered at 115 dB, and the freindly persuasion they invite you to help your fellow inductees with, they are making a point: Stick together.

At some point in the within the first few moments of arriving at any place of military indoctination, you will be joined with a large number of complete starngers and you will be forced to begin bonding, in a common defense against the people who are yelling at you, using all sorts of unintelligible terms (which you will soon speak as if they were your native born langauge).

Literally, you don’t have a clue who these are, what they are made of, why they are there with you, or how they made the decision to sign and raise their right hands. You intelliectually know this, but….you’ll know it at a visceral level once you get to experience it.

Here’s your pre-planned response: Join the team and get your part done, then help those who are struggling. The second part may be hard, for the DIs (or what every name they are titled as) will be trying to cull out the “weak” from the pack, mostly to take the opportunity to help them excel at levels they haven’t before (that’s euphamistically said) and may be brusque in telling you your help is has not been requested, nor needed. Think carefully as to how you respond, for in the end game, everyone needs to be able to carry their portion of the load, and have extra capacity to help when it’s really needed.

Continued tasking: Keep your ears on full receive, and focus on the actual directions, trying your best to discount the chaos injected by the loudness and rapidity of the orders. Once you get it, do it.

Try not to, at least right away, make yourself distinguishable from the group, in a positive or negative way. Save that for later.

By the end of the first day, you’ll get a few moments to talk to each other,and begin sizing each other up. Some of the first “leaders” will not be the ones who are good leaders, but ones who think they can. Most likely, several people will all try to sell themselves as leaders. You have to begin forming as a unit now, and this process amongst yourselves is analagous to the moments after a major and unexpected attack. Units are dispersed, everyone shows up with what they’ve got and it’s time to create a battle plan to go on the offensive. In this case, you’re all rankless, so no one can flash their insignia around. It’s a great experience for later on.

When the next day begins, most likely only a few short hours later, you will be tired and still being yelled at. More chaos, more orders, more questions, more mistakes out of ignorance. Now it’s time to steel yourself and just keep going. One foot in front of the other, forgetting the mistakes, doing your pushups and not showing your emotions.

Soon the moment will come when the mistake of one of you causes the punishment for all. Get over it, it will happen and there is a point. part of the point is for you, as a recruit class, to put the peer pressure on. That may be help or harassment, or a combination. The other part is to make the point that you’ll all in this together and the action of one can cause serious consequences for all the rest of you in a combat situation. Therein lies the lesson: Get with the “group think” program. Know the rules, follow the rules, make sure the others you are in charge of know the rules, too. It saves lives and wins the day when you operate together.

“Group Think” will be a topic soon. It’s not a bad thing, as long as you understand it.

Go forward and excel.  See Part II here.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!