True Grit in the Warzone

I went to see the movie True Grit with Jeff Bridges yesterday. A great flick. I was reminded of some of the experiences I had in the warzone. You may think I'm thinking of witnessing shootouts, soldiers on the battlefield, etc. No, I'm thinking about True Grit, true resolve and the ability to survive and even thrive in a difficult environment.

Sounds great right? Like someone big, rough tough, some guy with 20" biceps and a 400 lb bench press right? Sometimes maybe. More often than not I saw "True Grit" in the most unlikely people. People that you would see walking down the street and wouldn't even give a second thought that they were made of solid titanium on the inside, could survive and thrive in the most difficult environments in the world.

You wouldn't even describe them as adventurous most likely, probably a bit boring. This is one of the true myths of this type of work, and soldiering in general. You don't know who is going to make it just by looking at their physical prowess or talk about what they like to do or could do. It's one of those great mysteries of human nature and that is the ability to reach deep down inside and find a way to go further, do more with nothing left.

So to bring this back to the comparison to the movie without spoiling it. The lead character is not someone you would expect to have True Grit or someone that you would even think of in that way. That is the way it is in the warzone, and you will find in your travels there that the guys that claim to be rough and tough and ability to survive often are the ones that wash out the quickest. Although even that could be proven wrong time and again.

As a manager / leader in that environment I made a point to not make assumptions on what each individual could or would be able to do. You have to assume that they won't make it and plan accordingly because the environment makes quitters out of winners and winners out of 'losers'.