Sir...Hope everything is going well for you and that you're having fun in the Marines. I can't believe you have been in for a year.
Dear Elle,
Thanks for checking in! Everything has been going very well. I'm almost a year out of the Naval Academy and I'm still waiting around to start flight school. TBS was excellent training, and I'm excited to begin flying whenever they have a spot for me (mid-august is the estimate right now).
WIll you be in Texas anytime soon? I'm on PTAD at UT in Austin, probably until the end of June or so. Perhaps even longer, if they need me.
The "Speed & Intensity" was direction taken from MCDP-1, a Marine Corps publication called "Warfighting". I found it in Nimitz Hall when I was training you guys and decided it had some good stuff to teach during the "grey" time of plebe summer. I later learned that it is foundational to modern Marine Corps tactics, which is referred to as "maneuver warfare."
I also remember reading "Message to Garcia" by Elbert Hubbard to you plebes during the summer time. That was a lesson we were supposed to teach you. In case they forget that this summer, I'd recommend that book for some training. Also, remember myself and Rob Epstein reading you passages from "Starship Troopers"? A few of you guys fell asleep those days. The author, Robert Heinlen, was a Naval Academy grad before WW I and wrote many books. Check that out and take some lessons to pass on to your plebes.
Looking back, I feel as though my experience as a second class was a lesson of trial and error. As a youngster going into my second-class year, I was critical of the leniency of the class of '07 and '06 toward my plebes ('09) and I decided that I'd certainly give my plebes some of the hard time I found beneficial from my firsties, the class of '05.
Choosing to be "hard" on plebes can be a great thing under certain conditions, but destructive under a few misconceptions. The misconception is that being a hard trainer is, in itself, good for their development as officers. The benefit of hard training comes from the confidence they'll gain and the camaraderie which they'll grow into through training.
I considered "easy" second class as simply lazy. Since they didn't rate hard, or ask many questions, I figured they didn't care. This mindset was true to an extent, but became a source of arrogance on my part as a second class. I certainly cared about my plebes and challenged them to become better midshipmen, but my pride and ignorance took me to rate and punish them beyond their benefit. I'm sure you could ask anyone of your soon-to-be Firsties if this was so and they'll agree with me.
Compared to the upperclass who do nothing, the fact is, it's easy to swing to the opposite, and equally irrational side of the spectrum, into being too demanding and challenging. Both sides are equally reprehensible. In the middle ground is the leader who loves his or her plebes and puts in the effort to help them become better people.
First of all, I was "mean". This doesn't equate to irrational abusiveness to plebes, but merely being an asshole. The only real benefit that kind of "leadership" gives is to teach people to learn to deal with asshole leaders. I really doubt that even the sensitive, weak-hearted people who join the military really benefit from experience with assholes. Rather, it is unrelenting insistence on meeting standards, a quality found in few leaders, that actually creates results in their people. You can be encouraging while being unrelenting. Consider your plebes as babies who haven't learned how to walk yet, or have just begun to take a few steps. Would a loving mother berate or abandon her baby for stumbling after trying a few steps? Each of your plebes will have a goal and reason for being at the Naval Academy. Appeal to that goal in them as you show them the correct way to do things. As they're falling short of the standard, make sure they know and acknowledge they're wrong as you correct them. If they don't have a higher purpose and standard they're trying to obtain, they've been failed by their leadership, or they are mistakenly in the wrong place. The latter is a very small minority.
Think about the few things that stand out about the leaders you've had and respected over your *lifetime*, not just at the Naval Academy. You're training plebes to be leaders, not just good, idealistic midshipmen. They need to be taught real skills for leading people. They need to be taught that life will give them NOTHING that they have not earned, even if they've made it to the sparkling Naval Academy (which, by the way, gives literally NO ADDITIONAL BENEFIT WHATSOEVER towards being a good Marine Officer). It is THEIR responsibility, not the Naval Academy's, to develop themselves into leaders and officers.
You're going to have to get up early and miss time with friends because you'll be at blue & gold. Don't let them ever see you look tired or worn out. Let them see a smile on your face when you can, and a look of concern otherwise. Your disappointment will be their greatest fear, because their ultimate goal will be to live up to the standard you set for them. Set it high enough to challenge and transform them, but realistic enough that they can reach it.
Last of all, you have to know yourself. Don't try to fool anyone. Be the leader God made you to be, and strive for THAT fullest potential.
Semper Fidelis
Wells
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