Compromise is Mission Failure
Win or Learn
Walking Point has a pretty large Aussie following. When this email goes out, I’ll be on my way to Sydney for work. If you happen to be in the Sydney area and have a copy of Tough Rugged Bastards, I’ll do my best to find a way to meet up and sign it. Hit me up.
BTW, Walking Point just celebrated its 2-year anniversary. No gifts please.
When I was a Force Recon team leader, the mantra, “Compromise is mission failure” was beat into us.
We had the no-fail mission of infiltrating behind enemy lines and gathering information about enemy positions, capabilities, and posture to enable follow-on forces to locate, close with, and destroy them.
If we were compromised, we would not be able to provide that information, and the larger unit’s mission would also be compromised.
In the pre-9/11 days, we mostly practiced our craft in exercises against other Marines who played the part of the aggressor. Bad guys who wanted nothing more than to catch a Force Recon team.
On one late fall training mission in the mountains of Fort Lewis, Washington, my team had infiltrated by parachute to locate and report on an enemy radio relay site.
After several nights of movement and several days huddling under ponchos against a continuous freezing rain, we located the site and moved as close as we dared to photograph and document the enemy force’s activities.
We got as close as I thought safe, but we were not able to collect all of the information we were tasked with getting.
When I told my point man that I wanted to move closer he reminded me, “Compromise is mission failure.”
“Yeah, but mission failure is also mission failure. We need the intel.”
And so, we crept forward using the limited vegetation to conceal us until we could answer all of the questions we had been sent to discover.
We were well beyond the edge of what I considered safe, but I learned that you can always do a little more than you think you can.
With all of the requirements answered we slid backward to a point where we could use the terrain to hide us from the enemy and we stood and turned to return to the location where the rest of the team was holding security.
As we rounded a small hill, we walked straight into an enemy patrol we had been unaware of. They were returning to base. We made contact in what is called a “meeting engagement.” Neither of us was expecting the contact. There were a half dozen of them and two of us.
My point man immediately opened fire (with blank ammunition) and moved to cover. I followed with a fusillade of my own, and before the enemy got a shot off, we were running back to the ORP (Objective Rally Point) where the rest of the team waited.
Hearing the engagement, my Assistant Team Leader slammed a Claymore mine into the ground and had the remainder of the team pick up and assume a support-by-fire position.
The point man shouted a ‘running password’ to identify us as we entered the ORP, and the rest of the team opened fire on the advancing enemy. The ATL initiated the claymore mine, threw out a smoke grenade, and we moved as quickly as we could to the predetermined rally point.
When we reached our rally point, made sure that we had all of our personnel and equipment, and that the enemy was nowhere in sight, I was elated that all of the planning we had done had paid off. Everything went like clockwork.
My next thought was that I was probably going to be fired.
I had failed.
I did get a bit of an ass-chewing after our extract, but I made it clear that while I had failed, I had learned more from the failure than from a hundred successes.
I have come to believe that if you never fail, you aren’t taking big enough chances, and every situation isn’t ‘win or lose’ unless you let it be.
Most are win or learn.
If you haven’t read Tough Rugged Bastards yet, what are you waiting for?
If you have, have you left a review on Amazon?
On my other, saltier substack, Ruck The F*ck Up, I’m getting back into the best shape of my life. If you are interested, come on over.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, keep Walking Point.
Great advice. Failures are really learning opportunities. BTW, I’m reading through your book and I’m loving it.