Victory

(can I just say once again how very proud I am of my brother!! Enjoy another read written by him!!)
The other day the University of Utah basketball team won another close game. The win started me thinking about why some teams consistently win the close games and others loose them. What are the ‘things’ that lead to victory?

Of course, I’m interested in more than the Utah basketball team. The elements that make up victory in important endeavors are worth understanding. There is a subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) idea in the world that contends victory is not important. Sometimes you hear, ‘…it is not if you win or loose, but how you play the game.’ Reducing of the importance of victory is a mistake. If you are engaged in a contest, no matter the field, victory matters…that is why it is a contest…to determine the victor. If you are not engaged in a contest, then victory is not a factor.

If the work you do is service, there are, by definition, no winners or losers…just winners .

What I’ve learned:

Preparation

Victory requires preparation. The better prepared, the greater the chances of victory. Teams that consistently win close games are prepared to win close games. They prepare by getting in shape, practicing together, learning plays and developing an attitude of winning. However all practice is not the same. Practice (or preparation) must be focused on the actions that lead to winning. There are many examples where hard practice and long hours of preparation do not lead to victory. This is where good leadership and coaching are vitally critical – focusing the preparation efforts on the things that matter.

In combat, the ultimate contest, preparation is critical. The size of the forces, the strategic and tactical decisions, the number of men, the economic might of the opponents and the quality of intelligence are all factors in victory. Numerous studies and books endlessly debate what it is that matters in all the various types of combat – what leads to victory. One item often left out is the preparation required. Smaller armies or navies beat larger opponents when they are better prepared. Typically the military calls preparation, ‘training.’ However, just like in sports, combat preparation includes getting in shape, practicing together, learning plays (called plans) and developing an attitude and goal of winning.

Perseverance

In April 2008, Captain Kyle Walton was in Afghanistan with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group. He was on a mission in the Shok Valley surrounded by rugged mountains in an area that Taliban and Al’Qaeda insurgents had controlled since the beginning of the war. This was an ‘away game’ and the 3rd Special Forces Group walked into an ambush.

The team was outnumbered and out-positioned. They were receiving fire from all directions and most of the team had been hit, many had been hit several times. Injured soldiers were treating other injured soldiers who were continuing to fire back at the enemy. One man’s leg was shot off and he put on his own tourniquet to stop the bleeding. A 60 foot cliff was the only way out and it appeared ‘obvious’ that they were going to be overrun. But instead, they persevered. They never gave up, and they continued to shoot and coordinate air attacks while they found a way down the cliff. Their survival, and victory (the valley is no longer a safe haven for the enemy), is mainly due to their perseverance. In the heat of battle, literally, sticking it out against all odds is often the key to victory.

Of course, significant preparation occurred before they went to this away game – and that was a factor also. They were in shape, had practiced together, had a plan (which included contingency plans in case they got in trouble) and they had all spent a career developing an attitude of winning.

"This is the story about Americans fighting side-by-side with their Afghan counterparts (and) refusing to quit." -- Captain Kyle Walton.
As a naval officer I’d be remiss to not share another classic example of perseverance shown by John Paul Jones in 1779 during the Revolutionary War. On September 23, 1779, Jones was commanding the Bonhomme Richard off the coast of Scotland and fought one of the bloodiest engagements in naval history up to that point. Jones struggled with the much larger Royal Navy frigate Serapis, and although his own vessel was burning and sinking, Jones would not accept the British demand for surrender, replying, “I have not yet begun to fight.” More than three hours later, Serapis surrendered and Jones took command.
Priority

In most contests, victory goes to the individual or team where victory is the greater priority. In a close contest, it is safe to say that both contestants are prepared and not giving up. What is the intangible that causes some to consistently win the close contests and others loose them? At this point it is the “will to win.” Sometimes the phrase ‘who wants it more’ is used.

Some contests, like sports, have rules within which the contest is played. Good coaching develops the will to win, but not at any cost, because, after all it is only a game. Good coaching teaches that winning is a priority – but not at the expense of values or sportsmanship.

Combat is (or should be) different. In a life-and-death struggle rules and limits must be judiciously applied. Too many rules on combatants mean that the desire to win is not the number one priority – something else is – maybe being a ‘good’ guy, or not offending someone else. The problem with that is that if you erode the priority of winning, then the chance of winning is reduced.

A Navy SEAL once told me, sort of facetiously, ‘If you are not cheating, you are not trying.’ His implication was that winning may mean breaking rules, and in combat that should be considered. You can be sure that the ‘enemy’ will consider breaking the rules – every loosing army claims that the enemy didn’t play by the rules.

I keep the below photo on my computer desktop. It was taken in Fallujah, Iraq in November 2004. This Marine Sergeant was leading his Marines in the clearing of buildings of enemy insurgents. The enemy was fighting back viciously and stubbornly. It was a close game.

In one of the rooms, some Marines were ambushed by an insurgent who had buried himself below the home under a concrete floor with a machine gun firing armor piercing bullets. He would fire up thru the concrete floor and the Marines couldn’t figure out where the bullets were coming from. Several were wounded and the Sergeant went in to rescue his men. He saved his men, and was wounded in the process. This shot was taken as some of his guys pulled him the rest of the way out. Once he was out, he directed the total destruction of the building by a near-by tank before being taken to an aid station.

Victory matters. It takes preparation, perseverance and it must be the number one priority.