Obit 2

We left our wannabe hero as he prepares to board a bus headed for Memphis. Information gaps acknowledged, but not yet taking responsibility for arrogance.

It seems that my life has been segmented by school or other life learning exercises. The break points in the memory flow have significant tipping points that define the next phase. Memphis was one also.

The bus trip up through Mississippi to Memphis was a learning experience all by itself. That story is best told in a different venue. School in Tennessee was a load of fun, surrounded by airplanes, systems, learning all sorts of things – attempting to resolve the information flow as the firehose was opened. New life, new career, new everything.

But, here is the point in time where learning forever was pushed into my little pea-brain…and it actually stuck the first time through. After checking in and joining the training command as a student, my first day in this new school had a block of orientation to the entire process from day 1 to 3650. They had a 10 year plan mapped out. After my initial training in fundamentals and theory, I would attend a specific course of instruction around electrical systems, power distribution, troubleshooting, and more system theory. Actual aircraft were used for testing skills. Overall process and governance was taught also as the standards were based on Naval Aviation Operations. So a system learned in one unit was transferable to the next unit, aircraft, or operations center.

What a concept.

Like maybe that type of thing should exist at any time there is human interaction with education needs, structures, process and larger organizations?

Bottom line was once I left this “school” environment I could expect to be attending further schools at least once a year. Type specific systems, communications, automatic flight controls, navigation, it just goes on and on. But the true value of this constant education and growth was the leader training that was endemic to the entire process. Each element fit into a larger matrix aimed at preparing the individual to manage technical work groups and eventually entire maintenance departments in extremely high stress environments.

After four or five years of this exposure and daily touching of the systems and technologies the individual is well prepared to start supervising others while they grow up through the system.

So, my value-add lesson was that I needed to accept the idea that I was going to be in a school of one sort or another for my entire military career. You were either going to be in a technical school, deployed, or in a leadership school. In between, you did your “regular job” in your unit.

Just one more nail in the coffin for the excuse of “I didn’t want to be in school anymore.” As it turned out, that is about all you do in the Marines; train, deploy, school. I had taken an action with a major goal of “no more school.” Oops.

And there I thought I knew everything. This error will repeat several times over the years. After a while, you learn to make decisions with imperfect data, but then you manage your risk differently – another lesson I learned the hard way.

Take whatever education is offered – you won’t know you need it until you need it and then it will be too late. Another twist is to be completely open to generic benchmarking – a term I didn’t learn until much later, only to realize I had been doing it all along.

Arrogance was not gone yet, but maybe the information gap lesson was learned.

YMMV

Obit Part 1

 

We first see our hero, or at least a wannabe hero, on 15 September 1975 at the culmination of a year of planning and execution.  Our hero is exiting the bus at MCRD San Diego and has just realized that some of the stuff in the movies is actually true.  As in solidly into the “Holy Crap!” category.

Have you ever made some serious life decisions and then realized that perhaps that the decision tree was created in fantasy land and based on either incomplete information, misdirection, or perhaps outright lies?  I was dealing with a very professional sales guy – even if he was dressed in Marine Corps blues.

What I thought I had solidly blocked out, was in fact, based on conclusions that had almost no connection to reality.  I had been so sure I was right.  Looking back after all these years, I can see where I had a serious case of myopia complicated by some hubris issues, and further exacerbated by rose colored glasses.  Thank you Leon Uris.

I will wait here whilst you look up those big words, the Leon Uris reference, and connect with the visceral 18-year-old fear of the unknown.  Because I had stepped into serious land.

The process started at about age 11 or so when I stumbled across Battle Cry.  Somehow that got imbedded into my psyche and I knew what I wanted to do.  Fast forward several years, and I passed the ASVAB with good enough scores that I qualified for every enlisted job the USMC offered at that time.  Airplanes were my goal the USMC was my path.

So, there I was, standing on the yellow footprints, trying to decide what I needed to do. The conclusion, based on me wanting to be there, having taken (adult) actions to be where I was, and then actually holding up my hand and affirming that I would do what I was ordered to do, was that I needed to leave on 11 December by the shortest legal path that resulted in me doing what I wanted to be doing at this time next year.

The next three months of my life are somewhat of a blur, but I did get through it. Should you ever be curious, ask me. Life is different in that environment, but several lessons learned there kept me in one piece over the years. Oddly enough, I graduated in spite of me thinking almost everything is funny. Serious humor in boot camp. I get the stereotype, but dang.

Following some tribulations, I arrived in Meridian Mississippi ready for my second USMC school. The first being that lovely boot experience. It was not until this time that I viscerally recognized how big a mistake I had made. I was going into a school environment that did not teach what I wanted. Oh boy. Arrogance and incomplete information.

The worst part of this is the arrogance and incomplete information correlation did not solidify for many years. How many times have you made some decisions thinking that you knew what you needed to know – but part of that information process was tilted because assumptions regarding portions of the decision tree were “hardcoded” by the arrogance of thinking you know something.

In this case, the recruiter had a quota to fill and I was not asking the right questions because in my arrogance I assumed I knew the answers. Ooopseyo. Which makes the incomplete information piece be on me also. Doubled up on the critical mistake category before I was 19. The recruiter sent me to aviation supply school. If it had not been for a screening process at the gaining command, my life goal for being around aircraft would have been from a different perspective.

The Marine conducting the personnel record screening at the gaining command could have made some assumptions and acted on less than complete information, but they did not, so I benefited from their diligence. My contract for supply school was modified to the point where I was separated and sent to Memphis for Aviation Electrician School.

The incomplete information issue can be handled in other ways allowing action plans to develop with contingency decision trees based on the missing information. Sounds circular, but it works.

While the incomplete information lesson sank in immediately, I did not learn the arrogance lesson so quickly as I repeated that mistake over the years, and it has bit me each time. Lose the arrogance. I don’t know everything even in areas where I think I do. Recognize that and take actions to gain the needed information, modify behavior, and . Life is much easier that way.

YMMV