Besides luck, why do some soldiers survive campaign after campaign while others get killed right away? Is there a certain personality trait or personal philosophy that helps persistence?
I’m an ex Special Forces IED & Tunnel Warfare Specialist and Commander, graduated combat officers academy with highest honor (non-US).(I’m the one kneeling in the photo above)I really love the way you phrased your question starting with luck, because I do believe that if your luck is bad enough (and in war it happens quite often) no personal trait will help your personal survival.The “Don’t Worry” CultureI’ve heard countless soldiers saying “don’t worry” as their mantra, to me it always seemed the most unprofessional thing to say, and even more so - the most unprofessional thing to think. In battle and especially at war - there is a lot to worry about. So to cut to the bottom line - in order to survive you need to be an expert in resisting the “Don’t Worry, It Will be OK” culture.Several examples I’ve witnessed as a commander that demonstrate how wide and common this philosophy is:- “Put your bulletproof vest on”. -”Don’t worry! I’ve been keeping this post for weeks and nothing happened.”(While in the base) -”Clean your weapon every night before you go to sleep”. -”Don’t Worry! Everything will be OK, war won’t start tonight”.-”Take spare batteries for the radio”. -”Don’t Worry! There’s no chance we will need more than one battery!”There is a reason this happens to most combat soldiers. Being a combat soldier for a long time is super intensive and it wears you mentally. One of the main reasons for this can be seen from the examples given above - 99.999% of the time the “don’t worry” soldiers are right. Most nights, war won’t start and the enemy will not attack.Resisting the “Don’t Worry” culture will dramatically increase your chances of survival in the 0.001% of the cases when things get hot. But in order to do that you will need to stand your peers’ criticism and jokes the other 99.999% of the time.To your peers, you will look like the guy who always takes the hard way for no reason. The guy who always wears the heavy vest in the post that hasn’t seen action for years. You need a lot of self confidence, and (civil) courage to withstand this pressure.I would love to hear your thoughts about this.Follow me if you want to hear more of my thoughts.