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“When its your turn to go, its your turn to go.”

Having grown up on the ocean and spending time in the Army and in Iraq I do not appreciate the rationale of this statement. A lot of people say this. It’s poison. IMO Our decisions and actions are the first 5% of everything that happens to us and frequently make the difference between life and death.

I used to do a mental calculation when rounds were impacting in Iraq. It had to do with distance, frequency, type of round, casualty radius etc. I’d made my mind up that if I hit 10% casualty chance I was out of there. Proximity of the impact was only one factor. I had many rounds come near me but only a few close enough to cause injury. What prevented injury in every one of those instances is that I followed SOPs and the practice of putting a wall between me and the source of the rounds, even when no rounds were incoming.

Contrast this with a contract supervisor who left the latrine 5 min.s before a rocket impacted killing one and injuring another. He had no rationale for it. The proximity is what shook him. He quit that morning and cried his way to the airport. Or the guy who went to take a smoke break and an 82mm mortar came in the roof and hit between his chair and work desk, perforating all his stuff. He immediately left too. I was called over to his site to ‘fix the network’. How am I supposed to fix a laptop shredded by a mortar? In both these incidences they were single attacks. For them it was just a numbers game whether they got hit or not.

Of the half dozen rounds that hit close to me if I’d had a fatalistic attitude I certainly would not have used SOPs and best practices and would likely have been gravely injured or killed. In every one of my close calls I was saved by using SOPs, alertness and action.

I’m making a point about this since I think fatalism is very dangerous to young people. Their choices mean everything for their future. In a dangerous situation they should be at their highest level of alertness, prepared to take the necessary actions they’ve rehearsed or thought out to protect themselves. Thankfully, our military does not accept fatalistic attitudes.