lessonslearned
The Right Job
On his first tour of duty, a Marine Corps second lieutenant learns that disregarding poor leadership examples can be as important as emulating positive ones.
M
y first tour of duty as a Ma-
rine Corps second lieutenant was at the Marine Corps base
located at Camp Lejeune, N.C. After pro- cessing, I was assigned to a replacement battalion that was preparing to head overseas. About 25 other lieutenants and roughly 300 men were in the draft, head- ed by a mulish Marine Corps reserve major from Ohio. It was rumored he had sold used cars before being recalled to active duty. The major assigned me the duties of
adjutant, the battalion administrative of- ficer. We soon received a classified mes- sage to send five second lieutenants to the Navy Training School (Pre-Radar) at Harvard University in Massachusetts. I took the message to the major’s tent and asked whether he wanted me to screen the officers’ jackets to determine who might be best qualified academically to attend. He adamantly rejected my advice and ordered me to send the five officers whose names appeared at the bottom of the battalion roster. Wow, I thought. It dawned on me that
I had been selected as adjutant not be- cause of any special talent or experience that distinguished me from the other officers but because the first letter of my last name — D — landed me in the posi- tion of top name on the roster. Returning to reality, I knew most of
the officers were graduates of liberal arts colleges and lacked the science or engi- neering skills their new assignment re-
7 6 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R MAY 2 0 1 0
quired. I tried a second time to convince the major that screening the candidates would help, but I quickly was admon- ished with the reply: “Hell, no! They’re Marines. They can do anything.” So I notified the five lieutenants listed
from T to Z on the roster of their selec- tion. None wished to leave the draft, and they all asked me to schedule individual meetings with the CO during office hours to plead their cases. After the CO refused to meet with them, the officers were off to the training school. Two returned im- mediately, having failed IQ testing. The other three were back in two weeks, early enough to sail with the replacement draft. From this experience, I learned leader- ship skills can be enhanced greatly not only by accepting the examples of out- standing leaders but also by rejecting the bumbling actions of untalented, incompe- tent officers, too. I never forgot the lesson I had learned. It taught me to solicit and listen to the advice of staff members, make decisions only after I had all the informa- tion needed, and think of how my deci- sions would affect those in my command. As I learned then and know today: Ma-
rines will do anything they are ordered to do and do it as well as they can. But no mat- ter how squared away a Marine might ap- pear, he or she might have trouble fitting in a round hole if it isn’t the right size.
MO
— Ed Danowitz is a retired Marine Corps colonel. He lives in Altamonte Springs, Fla. For submission information, see page 18.
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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