Like songs and photos, our stories remember when. On my way to Vietnam in the summer of 1971, I read a cover story in a magazine with a misleading article entitled something like `How graduates of the Ivy League were sitting out the Viet Nam War.’ I knew and learned that Dartmouth graduates served, shed blood [as did Peter Barber ‘66], and died [Bill Smoyer, ’67 and Larry Hogan, ’69 and others]. Thousands sacrificed their todays and tomorrows!
In Vietnam, I learned and applied leadership, communication, and relationship/respect/results lessons. The following were key ones for combat and living: 24-7 and WE > I (about working efficiently, effectively, and enthusiastically, says my good friend, Bamboo) and got your back. Additional lessons include decision making, accountability, planning, prioritizing, adapting, empowering, and map reading, weaponry, and tactics like “seek and secure the high ground.”
Mission, Meals, and Mail … An OCS instructor at Ft Benning told us trainees that we all need these and if you are a leader, you bear a responsibility to provide them. The advice did not get any simpler, or more profound! As an HR coach, I often use challenges, support, and respect for coaching leaders. These words certainly include the 3Ms’. You may agree with me that still too many leaders have not learned and/or do not apply these critical imperatives.
As an 11th Brigade, infantry platoon leader in the Song Tra Bong Valley, west of Chu Lai, in 1971, my mission was to lead a group of men, mostly younger than me. I served as a headquarters company commander during the Americal (23rd) Division’s shutdown; and then as an instructor with the 196th Infantry Brigade in Da Nang. The 3M’s were my daily diet. Our mission was helping the South Vietnamese soldiers gain skills to defend themselves and helping with interdiction activities (cutting off supply lines and enemy infiltrations from either North Vietnam Army (NVA) regulars or Viet Cong (VC). I also taught a class for daily, new arrivals about: the Rules of Engagement; and I remain burdened with its somber, deadly aspects and troubled with political interference, opinions, and confusion. Who likes “too many cooks in the kitchen?”
In my memoir - Postcards to Jon…Our Journey Home, I recalled, reflected, and summarized my Vietnam combat tour with this paragraph: … I am aware of the horrors of war ... it is hell! And it is about chaos, destruction, death, and survival. It is also about diplomatic failures and wasting human and other resources. It is about the realities of blood, mud, deprivations, loneliness, smells (from drums of compost to weeks of sweat), bloodsucking leeches, injuries, and fatalities. We survivors know! That said, I treasure [embrace and respect] the camaraderie and lessons and do hold the defense of liberty as a sacred duty [and vital mission].