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unfortunately, that is true, in my experience.
I was flummoxed by it.
my primary weapon against petty prejudice was silence.
backed up by extreme competence, technical and tactical expertise, and a thorough grounding in doctrine. Confidence, not arrogance. It was important not to rise to defend against every snide comment, or attempted back stabbing.
knowing how a conventional commander would approach a problem was useful. Presenting an unconventional option, even when I knew that they would look askance at it, generally was ok, as long as it relied on surprise, timing, and other force multipliers. It had to be viable, even if it was outlandish. Sometimes the most bizarre concepts turned out to be the best ones.
conventional guys are taught to think a certain way. They are products of their own pipeline.
I remember when I went to the 18A course, I was with a bunch of guys who had all had commands, multiple commands, in conventional units. Bunch of backstabbers, top-blockers, kiss-asses and water walkers and yes-men. All that they cared about, most of them, were their careers. Making general. Most of them made me sick to my stomach. These were the kind of guys who could order a platoon to "take that hill" and shrug off the resulting casualties, as long as they did not have to lead the attack. We were planning an operation, and they were thinking in terms of standard infantry tactics.
I listened for awhile, then said, "why don't we surveil the target to determine when they change their guards, set a trap for their relief, ambush them, replace their relief with our guys, then drive up in their own vans and cruise right into the compound?"
they just looked at me, then laughed. "Nah, that won't work." Others said, "they'll never let us do it." They raised objection after objection. They told me that I thought that I was James Bond.
I said ok, then sat back, and faded back into the background.
When this light colonel came to listen to our COO, he was quiet. He did not say too much. So I seized the opportunity. I told him that we had wargamed another option, and presented it to him.
He was all over it.
And that was the option that we planned, after that.
Those fuckers, the other students, really hated me after that. Envy, I guess. They thought that I was a grandstander.
I just wanted to do the op the way that I thought that it could and should be done.
Well, we went out to the field, and actually did the op. It went pretty well.
I was surprised by some of the peer reports that I received after that op. Some were very negative. Some were very complimentary.
But they illustrated that loathing of SF, and the SF mindset, was very entrenched, and it was entrenched even in the brainpans of the guys who were coming to the 18A course to become team leaders.
SF had changed by that time....this was in '92. I had been gone for awhile, and I had grown up in a different milieu. It was more....corporate, I guess.
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