General So-And-So, with his magic bullet point briefings. Trust in your leadership, in your training. And now this: trust in your battle buddies.
It’s a concept we’ve been battered with since basic training, a sort of cross between safety in numbers and cover your ass. Or in this case, cover someone else’s ass. But trusting your battle buddy, it’s something I agree with whole heartedly.
For the most part those “battle buddies” we end up with are by choice. They’re the friends you make through work, the wingmen and women you go out to bars with, the acquaintances you know but don’t really hang out with, and the confidants you come to collect. The battle buddy, my guess is it was designed for battle specifically, someone you can trust on during a fire fight to watch your back, make sure you’re not alone, and in dire circumstances, get you some help. It was an oversight by your peers; a sort of watchman you watched.
And while the concept still applies easily to wartime operations, stateside it is much more than that. You bring a battle buddy to go speak to your chain of command as a sort of witness just incase. You bring one to the bars to make sure you don’t get too drunk and to look out for you against others (or yourself at times). You train with them, live with them, and become entirely trusting of them, even when you don’t know them.
In the convoy down to Kalsu, the thought of this popped into my head because I was a gunner on our HMMWV. I was covering the left sector of fire, and it didn’t even cross my mind to look behind me during the over 2 hour drive because I knew my “battle buddy” had me covered. In the case of something happening it would have been entirely too easy for someone to pull out a gun and shoot me, but they didn’t and I attribute that to the “teeth” our convoy showed.
Regardless, the third point of General So-And-So was valid. But it makes it extremely hard to follow when your chain of command rips the people you’ve trained with and come to trust out of your team. It is hard to say, “Yes. Old White Man may be an asshole at times, but like everyone else on Team 3 I trust him with my life” and then for zero reason have him removed.
This happened a day or two before our convoy to Kalsu. He was one of our main drivers, and was replaced (if you can call it that) with The Scream, a Korean with little English ability, zero confidence, and zero trust in our eyes. I wouldn’t give the Scream a weapon if we were about to be overrun. I certainly don’t trust the Scream’s driving ability. He is more off the road than on the road, and in this I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Convoying behind him to Kalsu and the dust was so heavy in my face I wondered for a moment if I would ever again get clean air.
So Old White Man, who I trusted, whose trust I feel I gained – was removed without due cause from our team. He was removed and placed on a team in Mosul because one of their soldiers, Troll, became pregnant and is no longer combatable. I’ve asked and pondered why him, why Old White Man and I’ve gotten no good answers. He was our number one resource at media exploitation. The Scream cannot be understood well enough to converse with. The Scream has no abilities in any area, period. Old White Man was part of our team, and he is already and will continue to be missed terribly.
As for The Scream, I will in no way ever trust him. He will never be on this team. He will never be my battle buddy.
It’s a concept we’ve been battered with since basic training, a sort of cross between safety in numbers and cover your ass. Or in this case, cover someone else’s ass. But trusting your battle buddy, it’s something I agree with whole heartedly.
For the most part those “battle buddies” we end up with are by choice. They’re the friends you make through work, the wingmen and women you go out to bars with, the acquaintances you know but don’t really hang out with, and the confidants you come to collect. The battle buddy, my guess is it was designed for battle specifically, someone you can trust on during a fire fight to watch your back, make sure you’re not alone, and in dire circumstances, get you some help. It was an oversight by your peers; a sort of watchman you watched.
And while the concept still applies easily to wartime operations, stateside it is much more than that. You bring a battle buddy to go speak to your chain of command as a sort of witness just incase. You bring one to the bars to make sure you don’t get too drunk and to look out for you against others (or yourself at times). You train with them, live with them, and become entirely trusting of them, even when you don’t know them.
In the convoy down to Kalsu, the thought of this popped into my head because I was a gunner on our HMMWV. I was covering the left sector of fire, and it didn’t even cross my mind to look behind me during the over 2 hour drive because I knew my “battle buddy” had me covered. In the case of something happening it would have been entirely too easy for someone to pull out a gun and shoot me, but they didn’t and I attribute that to the “teeth” our convoy showed.
Regardless, the third point of General So-And-So was valid. But it makes it extremely hard to follow when your chain of command rips the people you’ve trained with and come to trust out of your team. It is hard to say, “Yes. Old White Man may be an asshole at times, but like everyone else on Team 3 I trust him with my life” and then for zero reason have him removed.
This happened a day or two before our convoy to Kalsu. He was one of our main drivers, and was replaced (if you can call it that) with The Scream, a Korean with little English ability, zero confidence, and zero trust in our eyes. I wouldn’t give the Scream a weapon if we were about to be overrun. I certainly don’t trust the Scream’s driving ability. He is more off the road than on the road, and in this I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Convoying behind him to Kalsu and the dust was so heavy in my face I wondered for a moment if I would ever again get clean air.
So Old White Man, who I trusted, whose trust I feel I gained – was removed without due cause from our team. He was removed and placed on a team in Mosul because one of their soldiers, Troll, became pregnant and is no longer combatable. I’ve asked and pondered why him, why Old White Man and I’ve gotten no good answers. He was our number one resource at media exploitation. The Scream cannot be understood well enough to converse with. The Scream has no abilities in any area, period. Old White Man was part of our team, and he is already and will continue to be missed terribly.
As for The Scream, I will in no way ever trust him. He will never be on this team. He will never be my battle buddy.
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