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I was asked to call politicians “Honorable”. It still makes wake up in a cold sweat.
Do the next right thing. Can’t change the past, so learn from it and move forward. Own it, or at least your part in it. Blame leaves you in limbo because when you deny your responsibility you also take away your opportunity to own a solution or path forward now. So own it, accept that you did something objectionable, and build a plan of attack for the next time. Service isn’t the only time in life you’ll be asked to do something objectionable. That’s life. Sometimes we make bad calls. Brooding over it won’t make you a better person now and it won’t right what happened. Choose to grow and be better for it, not broken and miserable.
Pro
Morally? No. Most of my questioning surrounding my tactical mission guidance had to do with stupidity.
"Sir are you sure that's a good idea?" Type stuff.
Rising Star
The Good Idea Fairy was my mortal enemy in the Army and I battled it with mixed success.
I can only speak about my specific unit (Army SF). I was never put in a position where I, or my team, was asked to do something that violated the ROE or the Law of Land Warfare.
That being said, war is chaos, and it does not always afford one the privilege of moral structure.
What I mean is, that while one may comport oneself with as much moral rectitude as humanly possible, sometimes the enemy does things to people that has one question whether the ROE applies on a particular day to a particular enemy (i.e., "I may just make an exception for this guy", etc.).
But, one of our senior leaders gave me the best piece of advice I ever received. He said, "Part of your job as a leader is to protect the men from themselves. Regardless of how they may feel about you stopping them from doing something they may impulsively want to do, remember that you are safeguarding their minds and souls for the years to come after this is all over." That advice guided my decisions and actions.
@senior manager 2
I have not read it,but it makes sense that this wisdom permeated many units over the years.
Yes, it was one of the reasons I decided I needed to make a career transition out of the military. It’s something I still reflect on from time to time but I know there was nothing I could do at the time and leaving was the best thing I could possibly do. Talking about my experiences with the people close to me has also been cathartic.
Yup. End of the day- other shit that we’re my calls bother me more.
Every damn day
Post-service I’ve found myself advocating for the advancement of non-lethal methods to de-escalate or disarm.
Scanning Google Earth for design inspiration and then wondering why with all the beauty in the world we build strip malls.
Copenhagen did a great job with city planning for example. Can we make more sister cities?
Landscape design + DALLE?
Building Information Model (BIM) > Sears kit homes at scale?
We broke some records I live with.
It’s not a repeatable model for every conflict in every country and there are a lot of conflicts in a lot of regions, some of which may be preventable if food, water, housing, health services components scale first.
Not morally, but survivors guilt. And because of that, I’m sort of ashamed of my service. Whenever asked in a room who have served, I never speak up or raise my hand.
Pro
It's super weird. "Look at me!"