A Team

In the name of getting my life on a more productive track, I joined the United States Navy. The year was 1982 and I was twenty years old. To say that I was uneasy about this decision was an understatement; I was terrified. Being from a small, rural town in middle Georgia I had never ventured more than 300 miles from home and even on those trips I was never alone. Time to grow up.
The only things I knew about military life came from black and white episodes of Gomer Pile. Somehow I knew that this would be of little use, though I caught myself listening for the laugh track and background music on several occasions. I began to feel comfortable when I came to the realization that although this was new to me and I had no idea what to do, I was not alone; we were all brand new. We struggled to learn to correctly fold our clothes and make our beds, and we flopped on our beds nightly exhausted from the additional exercise we were all “awarded” because of mistakes made by individual shipmates. We must work together or we would be the fittest graduating class in history.
Like many other young men of this era I was a smoker. This not something I’m proud of, but it was the perfect thing for the company Commanders to hold for ransom… and believe me they did! One Sunday morning we were hanging around the barracks writing letters, resting and just enjoying a much needed day off. I was in the bathroom shaving when I heard a shipmate yell the dreaded “Attention on deck”! This meant we were about to receive a surprise visit (and possible inspection) from our constantly disappointed superiors. “On the line” was called and we lined up at attention in front of our bunks. This could not be good!
All hopes of receiving a smoke break this day were brought to a screeching halt when it was discovered that one of our fellow recruits had a pinch of smokeless tobacco in his mouth. Tobacco of any persuasion was considered smoking, and the fact that this young fellow had taken it upon himself to partake was going to cost us dearly. A large steel trash can was turned upside down and the offender was made to stand on display in front on 79 very angry recruits. “You may never smoke again, and you have this young fellow to thank” was announced by the company commanders as they turned authority over to the head recruit and exited the building. The young man stood at attention on the trash can for hours receiving the taunts and catcalls of an angry mob.
Well I learned a valuable lesson about human nature that day. You are only as strong as your weakest link. Even the angriest of sailors began to feel sorry for the young man, and the taunts turned into “don’t worry about it” and “It’s no big deal, I need to quit anyway”. We were becoming a team. Even though this young man had made a mistake that would cost us dearly, he was one of us. I wonder to this date if this event happened in real time or was simply a bonding exercise, but either way it hit its mark. If we can begin to learn to view mistakes as learning opportunities for this great big team, the world will be a much better place to live.