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Paul A. Clayton
Physical danger might not be the hardest part of being a solider. A soldier can ...
elPresidente
The US had no business there and EE Times is no place for a platform to worship ...
Our jobs are hard, but they won't kill us
Steve Blank
9/5/2012 1:53 PM EDT
Everything in perspective
While we were living the good life in Thailand, the Army and Marines were pounding the jungle every day in Vietnam. Some of them saw death up close. Some 58,000 didn’t come back – their average age was 22.
During the Vietnam War about 9,000 aircraft and helicopters were destroyed. Thousands of pilots were killed.
I still remember that exact moment - standing in the bright sun where a plane should be, the smell of jet fuel everywhere, the distant rumble of full afterburners - when all the noise and smells seemed to stop, like someone had turned off a switch. It was there and then that I had a flash of realization and woke up to where I was. I clearly understood this wasn’t a game. We were engaged in killing other people and they were equally intent on killing us. I turned and looked at the pilots with a growing sense of awe and fear and realized what their job – and ours - was.
That day I began to think about the nature of war, the doctrine of just war, risk, and the value of national service.
Capt. Jeremiah Costello and his A-7D were the last attack aircraft shot down in the Vietnam War. Less than 90 days later the air war over Southeast Asia ended.
For the rest of my career, when things got tough (being yelled at, working until I dropped, running out of money, being on both ends of stupid decisions, pushing people to their limits), I vividly recall seeing that empty spot on the flight line. It puts everything in perspective.
--Steve Blank is an electronics entrepreneur and lean startup advocate based in Menlo Park, Calif.
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While we were living the good life in Thailand, the Army and Marines were pounding the jungle every day in Vietnam. Some of them saw death up close. Some 58,000 didn’t come back – their average age was 22.
During the Vietnam War about 9,000 aircraft and helicopters were destroyed. Thousands of pilots were killed.
I still remember that exact moment - standing in the bright sun where a plane should be, the smell of jet fuel everywhere, the distant rumble of full afterburners - when all the noise and smells seemed to stop, like someone had turned off a switch. It was there and then that I had a flash of realization and woke up to where I was. I clearly understood this wasn’t a game. We were engaged in killing other people and they were equally intent on killing us. I turned and looked at the pilots with a growing sense of awe and fear and realized what their job – and ours - was.
That day I began to think about the nature of war, the doctrine of just war, risk, and the value of national service.
Capt. Jeremiah Costello and his A-7D were the last attack aircraft shot down in the Vietnam War. Less than 90 days later the air war over Southeast Asia ended.
For the rest of my career, when things got tough (being yelled at, working until I dropped, running out of money, being on both ends of stupid decisions, pushing people to their limits), I vividly recall seeing that empty spot on the flight line. It puts everything in perspective.
--Steve Blank is an electronics entrepreneur and lean startup advocate based in Menlo Park, Calif.
Related stories:
Has Steve Blank found a for startups to fail less?
NSF's I-Corps targets 'innovation ecosystem'
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Ray.Anderson
9/7/2012 5:41 PM EDT
I was onboard the USS Enterprise cruising the South China Sea back in 1973-1974. I was an Aviation Electronics Tech (AT2) at the time supporting the comm/nav gear used on the A7E and F14 aircraft. We had at least a couple of the same unfortunate experiences that the author describes.
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WKetel
9/7/2012 8:41 PM EDT
In one recent job interview the manager interviewing me asked about how I handled stress. I responded that I tried to avoid over reacting in high-stress situations. Then he asked what I considered a high-stress situation, and I replied "coming under heavy automatic weapons fire, sir". That ended the questins about stress. Indeed, most things are relative.
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t.alex
9/9/2012 7:15 AM EDT
Inspiring piece of article. Our job is really nothing to make a fuss about.
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KB3001
9/9/2012 12:02 PM EDT
Excellent piece Steve, thanks for sharing.
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Streetrodder
9/10/2012 10:13 AM EDT
Steve;
Thanks so much for the reminder. I had a fairly abusive childhood and managed to rise above it. I still need the reminder that however bad it gets at work, I've been through worse and made it.
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elPresidente
9/10/2012 6:13 PM EDT
The US had no business there and EE Times is no place for a platform to worship war or gullible "heroes". That A7-D was thankfully replaced - "thankfully" because it was another $10M, or whatever, in Vought's pocket.
The "enemy" should have shot down everything and maybe the war would have ended sooner with fewer losses of our sons.
How did crap like this get past your editor? Even your title sucks - more of us have died at our desks from job stress than died in your silly IndoChinese war.
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Paul A. Clayton
9/10/2012 6:25 PM EDT
Physical danger might not be the hardest part of being a solider. A soldier can face great moral stress. Decisions must be made about the use of force often with little time for consideration and often with unclear distinctions between active combatants, enemy collaborators, innocent civilians, and even friendly forces.
Perhaps the hardest moral action would be to disobey an immoral order that appeals to the human sense of revenge.
From Lois McMaster Bujuld's Barrayar: "Any community's arm of force—military, police, security—needs people in it who can do the necessary evil, and yet not be made evil by it. To do only the necessary, and no more. To constantly question the assumptions, to stop the slide into atrocity."
Soldiers also come home to a very different environment that requires different behavior and often lacks understanding of the difficulties.
Death is mainly a problem for loved ones, and losing limbs might not be worse than guilt of great moral failure (or false-guilt like survivor's guilt) or a terrible sense of isolation on returning home.
Becoming an amoral monster might well be a fate worse than death (though even a monster could repent if alive).
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