Hal Moore, Where Art Thou?

Ghastly Scenes from Kabul: Risk Management 👎👎 !! 

"Women and Children First" Known to a lesser extent as the Birkenhead Drill (bet you don't schedule this on a weekly basis at home, nor at your neighborhood school), is a code of conduct dating back to 1852, whereby the lives of women and children were to be saved first, prioritized, in a life-threatening situation (e.g., abandoning ship...abandoning a country!). This has evolved and generalized to a DoD (Department of Defense) Evac procedure that cites, among other specific criteria and objectives, "The ordered or authorized departure of noncombatants from a specific area by Department of State, Department of Defense, or appropriate military commander". Traditionally, this involves military personnel providing protection (sometimes referred to as "safe haven")  for those they are evacuating, with the level or protection theoretically proportionate to the level of risk or hostilities in the area. This, rather than simply telling those at risk to "shelter in place" while they, themselves leave the scene, without any indication or specific plan for returning (?!). At first I could not believe the latter message was conveyed by our Commander in Chief at the beginning of this escalating crisis, the overseer of all the vulnerable citizens (and legions of noncombatants from Afghanistan who were told for years they could count on "US"), and the chief risk manager, in this case. And, after I had started this post but paused for a day, further witnessed a even more bizarre, macabre scene, a "press conference" (titled as such but sure didn't look like one, with no questions asked or answered), where this same individual representing our nation, the one we all look to at at time when so many are in peril in a foreign land, not even start by talking about what was first and foremost on all our minds (here and abroad), but instead placing it third on his agenda, simply implying those that are not Evac'd by the original date for departure, may be _OL, followed by turning his back to the audience and walking off stage -- dreadful symbolic gesture for all of US and THEM. 

Studies in Contrast: All of this provoked for me some eerily reminiscent images from Saigon many years earlier, as we (the USA) made a hasty and chaotic exit from Vietnam -- with people desperately clinging to a helicopter similar to photos from Kabul..."That was four, five days ago!" the president shot back to George Stephanopoulos, when challenged about the specter of leaving vulnerable people behind and the optics from Kabul...images from Black Hawk Down, where the vastly outnumbered soldiers who were essentially abandoned due to what eventually was a political rather than a military decision, valiantly fought to protect each other, some electing to go back into battle to rescue their buddies, knowing the odds they faced...(cringed when seeing the unfolding of this disaster and the risk mismanagement, and cringed even more when reading detailed accounts of the decisions made on behalf of these young men by those insulated politically)...to the 2016 images from the Benghazi embassy disaster, where apparently "no one" was at fault, nobody stepped up to take the blame...similar to what's happening right before our eyes, on international television (minus the usual 'embedded' press), the most profound revelation we have been offered (see my August 21st post for more detailed version), has been "...I don't know how that happened..." Luckily, in stark contrast, we have had others who, despite being what can only be considered betrayed and abandoned by those who call themselves "leaders", refuse to abandon their comrades as well as others who may be vulnerable to peril, including that of falling into 'enemy hands'. Such as Army Lieutenant General Harold ("Hal") Moore who, being told via 'politic speak' by a superior officer that, despite sufficient resources, they may not have the back-up they need to deploy, went and not only faced the concerned wives, mothers, family, but eventually the enemy while looking after all the younger men, reassuring them "I will be the first to step on the field and the last one to leave...and we will all come home together..." A quote from the movie "We Were Soldiers", but apparently an approximation of real life that earned Lt. General Moore the Distinguished Service Cross, for his valor and leadership during battle in Vietnam. Luckily there have been and will hopefully will be others like him, real leaders that not only make bold statements but back them up, versus those who are posing as such but turn out to be feckless. 

Close to Home: Traditionally, when parents have sons or daughters who are deploying or are otherwise serving on the front lines, such as during this pandemic, the refrain we most often hear is "We could not be more scared; we could not be more proud". Current events and associated profiles in risk management would inform these parents that both sentiments are more than valid. Even closer to home, we all have to ask ourselves, when and if called upon, whether we have sufficient back-up when given a mission, would we ourselves follow-through? In my case, I can only hope so. A time for humility, for a gut check.