The Miserable Mile
When I stumbled upon this picture this morning on my social media news feed, I decided to share an antidotal story about an experience I had at Ranger School.
Family members and friends have asked me a variety of times to recall challenging moments in the military. Usually I will tell a comical story about soldiers engaging in buffoonery to liven up a dire situation.
However, today when I saw the picture above, something else came to mind.
The picture above is a snapshot during the 1st or 2nd day of Ranger School. I honestly cannot remember which one, but it doesn’t matter. The first week all runs together with little, to no sleep. Our task was to follow a gazelle, also known as a Ranger Instructor, on a 1-ish mile sprint to Victory Pond to conduct the Combat Water Survival Test (CWST).
As we ran to the pond, we carried 3quarts of water on our back, an additional quart of water draped over one shoulder, while awkwardly attempting to carry a waterproof bag that was full of dry clothes, boots, and additional gear which was needed for the training. To say that the load was uncomfortable is an understatement. Between the lack of blood circulation, tripping soldiers, and cackling sound of loose gear, I’m sure we looked ridiculous. After completing the CWST, we gathered in formation similar to the soldiers in the back of the photo above, then we ran up the hill to our next training event, which I believe was land navigation.
As embarrassing as it is to say, this was one of the most mentally exhausting runs I ever completed.
I know, it sounds dramatic. 1 mile can’t be that bad.
You are correct, a 1-mile run does not usually make my list of challenging days in the military. However, this was different. By the time we were on our way to the next training our waterproof bags were filled with wet boots and wet clothes.
During the run I witnessed two Ranger candidates quit. They literally stopped running and quit immediately.
In that moment, I understood their choice. I did not praise their choice nor would I ever condemn it. I just understood. I do not know if they were injured or if other factors led to them quitting.
I can remember feeling my own response and observing the responses of others. Some responded with humor, some responded by yelling at others to push through, others were silent. Everyone had a different response.
I’m reminded by this picture, and memory, that everyone deals with adversity in different ways. Part of exhibiting emotional intelligence and being culturally competent is understanding that our way of dealing with distress is not always the standard.
Former Green Beret, Indie Author, YouTuber, East and SE Asian cultural expert, Thai linguist
4 年Great picture and excellent insight Sir! The essence of motivation is wanting to do something that sucks even when it may not entirely make sense at the moment. There are people who buckle under the stress because they are ill-equipped to handle it, for a variety of reasons too numerous to mention. Then there are those who probably COULD do it but choose not to because they see something as a risk/effort vs. reward calculus--in short, for them the juice isn't worth the squeeze. I have seen this approach in numerous other places besides Ranger school, including in my experience at work at a $10 an hour LP job for AAFES (basically indentured servitude just to stay in Okinawa after retiring!) and during many of my classes wherein students either checked out mentally or outright dropped classes that weren't to their liking. Frequently, we hear excuses about some flaws in the program, as if someone's performance is directly predicated on the perfection of instructors, schools, or society as a whole. In reality, these are all just excuses to quit--to take the path of least resistance. Sadly, as our meritocracy crumbles, you see more of this thinking being legitimized by rewarding these self-serving decisions. At the end of the day, I guess knowing that you did the right thing has to be its own reward.
Department of Defense Senior Executive
4 年Jim, great reminder of digging deep. Thanks for the reminder! Ski
Army Instructor Pueblo West High School
4 年RLTW!!
Division Counsel
4 年Well said. Thanks for sharing...