Leading from Mistakes

This last week before the Christmas holidays was again spent in the less-than-cosy Estonian forest. This time, I am a sergeant, the leader of 5 other people. Leader implies that I am also responsible for the well-being and capabilities of those 5 soldiers. That being said, I think this novel responsibility is only going to improve my craft and confidence.

In the forest, we learned about survival – how to make fire, filter water and survive on minimal amounts of food. All this in cold conditions.

The week's highlight would probably be the cold plunge on the first day. The way it worked was that first, we had to save a friend who had fallen through the ice. For this, you had to find the first stick at hand, and move carefully closer to the hole i.e., crawl on ice and pull him out without falling into the same hole. The victim was simulated by an instructor in a wetsuit, who differently from us, did not feel the cold.

The second step was to jump into the water and get ourselves out. All this while clothed (of course). Once we jumped in we had to calm down and steady our breathing. Then we were asked questions to check if we were functional. For me, it went something like: "What's your name? What's your identity number? What do you want for Christmas? Do you want to get out? You sure?"

Then we are given two knives to pull ourselves out. Once you get out you slide using the skiing motion to get further from the hole. As soon as you get on solid ground, you run as fast as you can to warm yourself up. When that is done, you start changing into dry clothes. Surprisingly enough, that part went by without much pain.

The next step was to go to our hide area where we set up camp. We had to have all our clothes dried and our water supplies filled for the morning. That night, my squad got about 30 to 60 minutes of sleep each. We did not get the fire going. We got it to a reasonable size but not even close to a fire that can bring heat and dry dripping clothes. I was very disappointed in myself. I had failed not only myself but my whole squad.

Fortunately, my squad did not throw around blame and were very accepting of the situation (to the extent one can be when on 30 minutes of sleep). That being said, I promised myself that I would put all my efforts into making the next night comfy for everyone. I put all the knowledge from my father and what was taught on the spot to the test. Within an hour I had a big enough fire and within two hours four out of six people were sleeping and the nightly routine was initiated.

Success at last! We all got four hours of sleep which is the forest equivalent to 8 hours in the civil world. Most of the clothes were dry. The water supplies were filled. My learnings from the given survival experience:

1. Take a breath and start again: It is the 7th time that the fire has died out. Take a breath and start from scratch. I mean it. From the very start.
2. Trust, but check: This is a good leading tactic we were taught. Trust your soldiers, but check in to be sure. This goes for both their well-being and the work done.
3. Dry wood is (not surprisingly) better for firemaking than damp wood. This point is ironic, but in the dark, I had not realised that the gathered logs were indeed damp.

P.S. I am rather happy with the squad I was assigned. Considering I did not get to choose I was fortunate.

This Week's Suggestions:

🎶 "We'll Always Have This Dance" by KUU and remixed by Diplo:

Whilst driving home from my second cold plunge of the week (I went again on Friday) my friend put on this song. There is not much to say, it is very soothing. The beat, the melody, the vocals – everything just lines up.

Happy Holidays!