once upon a time i was going through some training being taught by l.a. county swat guys. we'd long since done room clearing and were working on clearing 2 story buildings and city blocks. we were getting pretty good and so these guys were mixing things up. i was first through a room door and one of them was standing in one of the blind corners with a hand grenade in one hand, the index finger on his other hand looped the ring of the safety wire, ready to pull. i started yelling at him to put the grenade on the ground and he just stood there. i really had NO idea what to do and lowered my weapon to ask him what the right thing to do in the situation was. we talked about the scenario for a few minutes and he told me that he had no idea what the RIGHT thing to do was, but that i did the wrong thing by stopping. In his mind anything would've been better than nothing. I could've shot him, and continued through the room and out the window if he pulled the pin as he died, or back out of the room and hit the ground in the hall. or kept trying to talk him into giving up the grenade.

we frequently train and train and mess with one another. we'll never be able to prepare people for every situation. that's not our intent. our intent is to get people to think. and to expose them to as much as possible so that when things go south their intincts will lead them in the right direction. and we're repeatedly told that there is no WRONG decision when you're in the middle of it, as long as you make some decision and keep moving through the situation. outnumbered and out of ammo? fix bayonnets and charge. the bad thing is freezing under the pressure and doing nothing.

there's a song out right now that makes me think of this frequently, "if you're going through hell" by rodney atkins. the refrain goes:

Yeah, If you're going through hell

Keep on moving, Face that fire

Walk right through it

You might get out

Before the devil even knows you're there

Yeah you might get out

Before the devil even knows you're there

Yeah.

i was reading "delta force" by col. beckwith. he talks about the failed mission by delta force to free the hostages from the u.s. embassy in 1980. the ground force was on the ground and the helos had come in to pick them up and take them into iran. the spare helos had failed and they didn't have enough to lift them into iran so the mission was being scrubbed. the troops were loaded on the c-130's and were ready to take off when one of the helos hit one of the planes, catching it on fire. i'd like to share a passage:

But his surprise was nothing compared to that of the Blue Element operator who had dozed off on the C-130 just before the helicopter crashed into it. At the explosion, he had awakened and joined the line of guys exiting the plane through one of the hatches. There was smoke and fire. The engines were still running and the aircraft was shaking violently as the chopper continued to cut into it. The operator evidently thought that while he was dozing the 130 had taken off and was now airborne. When it was his turn to leave he automatically assumed a freefall parachute position and jumped. He landed spread-eagled on the ground. Afterward his mates asked, having jumped, what he was going to do next without a parchute? "I don't know," he answered. "I was just taking one thing at a time."

i don't know if i can take it to that extreme yet... but i do believe in the concept. i don't know why, but for some reason i've been the guy that a couple people are calling way to regularly to gripe about the problems in their life. and to be honest their issues really aren't so bad. they just need to suck it up and get through it. tighten the belt, kick the cheating girlfriend/boyfriend out, tell the boss to kiss their ass or get serious about the job hunt. they're in these awful situations but aren't taking any steps to get themselves out of it. sometimes it's important to distill stuff down to the basics. these are those little things i have to remember when I'M the one in the crappy situation.