Accountability and Being on Time

The dictionary defines punctual as: Acting or arriving exactly at the time appointed; prompt. Under the rigid and disciplined structure of military life there is no margin for error. The slightest modicum of hesitation or procrastination can result in the tragic loss of innumerable lives. There are many circumstances where a failure to be prompt could have dire consequences. Under certain circumstances not arriving for guard duty at the designated time could allow a breach of security that could ultimately end in the brutal murder of your peacefully slumbering, unsuspecting battle buddies at the zealous hands of our insurgent foes. Choosing an example from a different segment of the spectrum of responsibility, we see how a noncommissioned officer’s failure to release his soldiers in a timely manner can affect the combat effectiveness of the entire unit. If this leader’s long windedness results in a soldier consistently being released to go on shift without enough time to eat, the soldier may resort to eating junk food to prevent his stomach from reaching a painful, distended state. Over time these seemingly minor indiscretions on the part of this senior noncommissioned officer could culminate in the sum total of a malnourished, ineffectual soldier. Keeping in mind that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the callused behavior of one leader can exponentially reduce the combat readiness of an entire unit.

On a lesser scale missing a movement probably won’t result in loss of life but can easily damage one’s career. Then again even this event that seems so trivial in the large scale of things could have a tragic and unforeseen outcome. Imagine our unfortunate soldier that has missed his flight to beautiful, sunny Afghanistan. Now because he missed his flight due to fate, folly or indiscretion he has been relegated to fly out with another unit at a later time. As the rest of this hapless soldier’s comrades begin their descent towards the gritty, decrepit airstrip they are struck by a stinger missile so considerately provided to the Taliban by our own Central Intelligence Agency during the cold war. The resulting explosion and impact result in all souls on board departing this mortal plane to meet their respective makers and the judgments they have earned. Meanwhile, our almost forgotten and mostly overlooked sole survivor is informed of his unit’s misfortune and their ultimate demise. Over the next days and weeks our protagonist begins displaying the signs and symptoms of what experts like to call “Survivor Syndrome”. He becomes wracked with guilt that he did not perish with his brothers in arms. Unable to rid himself of his personal demons he may attempt to join them in Valhalla the only way his feeble, angst ridden mind can conjure up. As his trembling hands arrange for his otherworldly reunion, his mind focuses on what could have been had he only double checked the backup battery in his alarm clock. According to chaos theory a change as trivial as one extra person on an airplane could change the entire course of events leading up to this macabre finale. Perhaps by being on time and being on that plane his additional body weight and that of his bags could have been sufficient to alter the physics of that fateful landing just enough that passengers instead merely experience a near miss with that American supplied relic of the Russian-Afghan war. Even if that CIA trained insurgents missile had not missed and his aim remained true in spite of the powerful influence of chaos, perhaps that same soldier could have at least died honorably