COURAGE
The general public equates courage with acts of potentially great danger where a single individual may stand out as performing an extraordinary feat at a moment of mortal consequence. It is different for Infantry.
Courage to the Infantry is not a single heroic act at a crucial moment in the unit’s life. That is for the movies and award narratives. Rather it is enduring the daily insults of life in a forbidding and unforgiving environment and the willing subordination of the each in favor of the whole. Family first. Me second.
Courage is best equated with endurance, perseverance and subjugation of the one for the betterment of the whole. It is the patience and confidence to follow someone into the unknown for either a nebulous or uncertain purpose because that is where the family unit is going.
Courage is knowing that where you are going, you may never return from but still going because that is what you must do. And you know both to be true.
Courage is doing exactly what is required and how it is required as training previously taught and the present demands. Courage is doing your job. Courage is an open appreciation of and a willingness to accept the consequences of your actions should bad luck and ill-fortune prevail.
Courage is the act of praying to see darkness during the light of day and praying again for the first morning beams of light during the shroud of night.
More than anything, Courage is the quality of rejecting the cold choices between personal desires and organizational needs. It is a fixed resolve to keep that choice during every moment of service. Quitting is easy. Enduring and performing is much harder and the true measure of the man. One moment’s performance is a potential within every man. Doing what needs to be done every day is a far better mark of the true level of courage that resides within.
IT Logistics Manager I Veteran
4 年Thank you for the excellent article Keith. Infantry life was a tough one. Glad I walked that path though. I still keep in touch with some peers from back then. Those are deep bonds.
Well written.
University of Maryland
4 年A bold, yet compassionate, critical thinker -- who acted on that skill set, and the judgment it begot, in peace and in war. ["Yes men" fail, and do their organizations a grave disservice. Military cemeteries are full of their mistakes.] We ALL sought LTC Nightingale in 2-505 of the 82nd; a relative few were able to command for him; just missed it, but watched, from my own regiment, "what right looked like:" leadership -- by example.
Senior Information Operations Consultant, Planner, Program Designer and Leader, Organizational Coach, Teacher, and Mentor. (Comments Are My Own)
4 年Courage, Candor, Commitment... characteristics of leadership expected from all soldiers regardless of rank or specialty.
Patriot | CMMC Evangelist & Capacity Builder | Coup d'Oeil | DoD | IC | SOF | Veteran | Board Member | Digital Transformation | CUI | Cybersecurity | Technology | Compliance | Innovation
4 年Sir..... this is outstanding wisdom at the heart of Regiment. Suggest to Mike Hall Jeff Mellinger this should be standard reading in RASP and for @Three Rangers. It provides the connective tissue in forming enduring Purpose from birth in Regiment to transition in your next mission as a civilian. RLTW!