We Are the War

Vietnam veteran and author John Harriman returns to Mudville with the fifth installment of his series Warrior to Warrior, letters from a Vietnam veteran to our soldiers in Iraq. See the intro to the series here).

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THE GIFT OF FEAR
By John Harriman

Dear Warrior . . .

Never let down your guard.

Good advice, to be sure, but like a lot of good advice, it tells you what to do without saying how. How do you keep your guard up? In a combat zone, how do you ever know when you're doing the right thing, the safe thing, the alert thing?

In time, you'd learn the danger signs all on your own. You'd hear of disasters caused by men getting lax. You'd see others injured. You'd have a few close calls yourself. It's called experience. But, hey, this kind of experience is only a good teacher if you survive it.

The military uses in-country experts and old hands to teach you how to recognize dangers peculiar to Iraq. They'll tell you what safe habits to cultivate, what bad habits to avoid.

For instance, if you saw the film, Forrest Gump, you know that in Vietnam, enlisted men were told not to salute officers in the field. This was so enemy snipers could not take out the unit leaders. Enlisted men liked the idea that they did not have to salute, and as a lieutenant, I was even more fond of it. Heck, if it would have helped, I'd have worn a sign in Vietnamese for all snipers to see: Okay, I admit it, I'm a leader, but there's no need to shoot me because I'm not a very good one.

But besides wearing a sign that identifies you as a moron, what can you do to protect yourself?

I borrow here from Gavin De Becker in his book, The Gift of Fear, to tell you about the gift in each of you. You are hard-wired to recognize danger. It's a survival instinct honed by many generations of humans living in competition with other predators and prey in man's wilder state. You don't even have to think about it. Your brain will do the work for you on a kind of auto-pilot when you are at risk. Your instincts to survive will send you signals that you are in danger. Your brain will know you are at risk without even knowing why. It is a gift, this fear. It tells you to be wary, to react, to survive. You'll know it when you feel it. Learn to act on it. Above all, do not deny this feeling.

Denial will tell you to relax: Hey, don't make a fuss, don't embarrass yourself by sounding a false alarm. Denial will try to talk you out of the feelings of danger. Don't wake up the captain. He might get mad, call you stupid.

Hey, don't listen to denial messing with your mind. Act on your instinct instead. If you feel the presence of danger, get ready for a fight. If you're a sentinel, call for an officer or NCO. Sound the alarm. The gift of fear, the instinct and the book, can save your life.

Tell somebody back home to buy the book and send it to you. After you read it, pass it along. Buy a copy for every woman in your family. And one for every man, too. It'll teach them how to survive the predators in our midst back here at home.

Till next week . . .

God bless you and Godspeed.

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John is a veteran of two combat tours in Vietnam and a member of the American Legion. These columns are excerpts from an upcoming book of the same title. His current book, Delta Force #1 : Operation Michael's Sword is a fictional account of the 9/11 attacks and the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom.