Life lessons from my time in the military: Reflections of one who was too serious in his job

For the international readers to better understand my perspective I am a Sergeant in a conscript army. In a conscript army our Artillery Battalion is run entirely by conscripts such as myself. A batch of conscripts to comprise of our Battalion (Officers, Sergeants and men) will comprise of those from the same batch of recruits who enlisted in the army (needless to say) thus, we are often schoolmates back in our schools. I've had impressive subordinates who were accepted into Cambridge and Harvard etc. We're of the same age, with similar life experiences yet in the army we are ''different''. Conscripts often lack the motivation of a soldier who chose to work in an army. Physiologically, many of us aren't even adept to the life in the army. All in all it was a unique experience. 

1. We are capable of much more than we think we can achieve

When an order is issued we are expected to proceed in accordance to our orders. In a real combat situation lives would be at stake. There is no time for procrastination. In addition, we are expected to act as planned on our side. Thus, there are often times when I would find myself faced with feats that seemed... impossible to achieve. However, each time I think I wouldn't survive the ordeal, I eventually survived it. I've marched 24 kilometers with all my equipment, lived a week out in the forest in the mud, marched for nearly 24 hours with a sprained ankle, stayed sufficiently awake for a week to carry out artillery fire with few hours of sleep and lifted dozens upon dozens to 42 kilograms artillery shells each day as we redistributed ammunition. In other units, I've friends who marched over 100 kilometers in a single mission. The point is, when you push yourself, you can accomplish marvelous feats.

2. Effective communication across the entire body of system is critical      

As a Sergeant, I am a commander in the army with a role to enforce discipline as well as to lead other soldiers to accomplish our tasks. From where I come from, the Sergeant is considered as a junior commander whose leadership role is confined to leading the men. The plans are drafted by Officers before they are conveyed to the Sergeants. Thus I had a very unique perspective to the entire system.

As a commander I am instructed on the mission objectives in our exercises. As a junior commander, I also have first-hand access to the complains of the men as we carry out our activities, Being required to carry out the orders from those above in the command chain and deliver the mission objectives into fruition with soldiers of a fundamentally different role from any commander in combat (their primary job is to follow orders without a clue to the bigger picture often as a result of the sensitivity of the information), one must learn to address the men in accordance to this fundamental difference in perspective.

It doesn't make life any easier when one has to lead a bunch of conscripts. One has to deliver his speech in a way to cast their (the conscripts) differences in opinion aside as well as to motivate them to work towards an objective not always within their sight, a feat often met with skepticism from your comrades and once peers and fellow schoolmates. Fear tactics wouldn't work once one is out of the vocational institutes. The hard approach will usually land one with a unmotivated, hateful platoon constantly usurping the authority of the commanders with a rich arsenal of tactics as rich as the creativity of the Human mind.  

Not to mention when the plans of Officers are met with practical difficulties that renders it difficult to achieve in actuality, one has to convey clearly the woes of the men and the impossibility of the task to the Officers to re-evaluate their plans. An unexpected technical difficulty, an unexpected alteration to the terrain or even an accident will require an immediate re-evaluation of tactics. Thus, I've learnt to approach with speed tact and precision in my time as a Sergeant. The success of our missions often relies on the effective communication between the ones on top and below and are facilitated by the ones in the middle.  

3. Improvisation is an essential skill in life

In my time in school perfectionism is a virtue often pursued by most students around me. One can aim for full marks in a science test so a lot of student aim to achieve it. Take the 'A' Levels and we're all told to aim for all As in every subject. Plenty of students do achieve such a score, thus, perfectionism is viewed as a possibility. However, in the practical world one will soon realise that true perfectionism without a blemish from one's expectation is a near impossibility.

Deviations from one's plans is very likely to take place. As I've raised earlier, an unexpected technical difficulty, an unexpected alteration to the terrain or even an accident will require an immediate re-evaluation of tactics. Often, such situations do not warrant the time for one to seek someone else of a senior authority to resolve, other times such situations does not require someone of a senior authority of resolve, sometimes, our mission objectives does not warrant the soldiers with the choice for a different approach. In such situations, one simply must ''Do it'' some way. I remember the time my mechanical projectile lifter was broken when we were evaluated for our exercise, I simply lifted all the rounds myself physically to keep the mission on. Improvisation is a skill just as important as precise formulation of plans.      

Surely some, if not all, of these lessons could be learnt in some other situations. However, for myself, I had the fortune to pick up these lessons from my time in the military as a result of many capable and respectable mentors and commanders. For those hadn't the chance to pick up these valuable lessons from experience I hope this article would be of use to you. 

Artillery, the King of the Battlefield
In Oriente Primus