I just finished a book called The Unforgiving Minute by Craig M. Mullaney. This enjoyable read is a memoir of the author’s life as a student, soldier, and veteran. The book begins with his first day at the US Military Academy at West Point. From there he survives the challenges of the US Army Ranger School, Oxford University (as a Rhodes Scholar), falling in love, and then combat in Afghanistan as a Platoon Leader. As the book ends the author is a combat veteran teaching at the US Naval Academy. As amazing and interesting as all that sounds, the story is actually deeper than that; it’s also the story of someone coming of age, finding love, dealing with disappointment in his family, wrestling with incredible disappointment in life, and finally coming to terms with life as his own man.
The title to the book comes from the last stanza of one of my favorite poems, Rudyard Kipling’s “If.”
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
The title to the book comes from the last stanza of one of my favorite poems, Rudyard Kipling’s “If.”
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a man, my son!
The “unforgiving minute” the story builds toward is the riveting account of a firefight on a barren ridge in Afghanistan where Mullaney and his platoon are engaged with al-Qaeda fighters when a message crackles over the radio that one of his men is “KIA” (Killed in Action). In that one unforgiving minute everything changed. Doubt crept in. Was the loss of this soldier his fault? What could he have done different? As one reviewer said in the liner of the book, “Learning from his experience can help us face our own unforgiving minutes.” I hope it will help me with mine.
The lessons learned are many. Near the end of the book the author visits his brother who is now attending West Point himself. He sums up some of the lessons learned as he reflects on what he wants to say to his brother:
“There was so much I wanted to say to him that I wasn’t sure where to start. I wanted him to know that the greatest privilege I ever had was leading men in combat. He was going to be tested over and over again in ways he could never predict or simulate in training. There were going to be times when he would be afraid, but I wanted him to know that courage has more to do with facing that fear than forgetting it. His men would expect him to share their risks and stand with them in the storm. But they would also expect him to set a course, decide, act, and lead. He couldn’t afford to doubt himself. The only way to never make a decision he would regret would be to never make any decisions at all. Finally, I wanted to tell him that doing everything right might still entail heart-wrenching consequences. Gary would have his own unforgiving minutes, I feared, but what mattered was that he fill those minutes with ‘sixty seconds worth of distance run.’”
The book is full of leadership lessons, stories of military life (including an amazing account of what it's like to go through Ranger school) and what it’s like to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. I highly recommend the book. The memoir also contains some great quotes; everything from Winnie the Pooh to Napoleon and Winston Churchill. Here are a few of my favorites from the book:
In case of sudden and temporary immersion, the important thing is to keep the head above water.
- A. A. Milne, Winnie-the Pooh
Infantry platoons and squads rely on two truths:
1) In combat, infantrymen who are moving are attacking.
2) Infantrymen who are not attacking are preparing to attack.
- Infantry Field Manual (FM 3-21.8)
Do your duty – and never mind whether you are shivering or warm, sleeping on your feet or in your bed.
- Marcus Aurelius
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.
- Soren Kierkegaard
I have not been at the front; I have been in front of it.
- Wilfred Owen, 1917
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
- Afghan Proverb
If you’re going through Hell, keep going.
- Winston Churchill
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
- Tennyson, Ulysses
The Unforgiving Minute
A Soldier's Education
by Craig M. Mullaney
© 2009 by The Penguin Press
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a man, my son!
The “unforgiving minute” the story builds toward is the riveting account of a firefight on a barren ridge in Afghanistan where Mullaney and his platoon are engaged with al-Qaeda fighters when a message crackles over the radio that one of his men is “KIA” (Killed in Action). In that one unforgiving minute everything changed. Doubt crept in. Was the loss of this soldier his fault? What could he have done different? As one reviewer said in the liner of the book, “Learning from his experience can help us face our own unforgiving minutes.” I hope it will help me with mine.
The lessons learned are many. Near the end of the book the author visits his brother who is now attending West Point himself. He sums up some of the lessons learned as he reflects on what he wants to say to his brother:
“There was so much I wanted to say to him that I wasn’t sure where to start. I wanted him to know that the greatest privilege I ever had was leading men in combat. He was going to be tested over and over again in ways he could never predict or simulate in training. There were going to be times when he would be afraid, but I wanted him to know that courage has more to do with facing that fear than forgetting it. His men would expect him to share their risks and stand with them in the storm. But they would also expect him to set a course, decide, act, and lead. He couldn’t afford to doubt himself. The only way to never make a decision he would regret would be to never make any decisions at all. Finally, I wanted to tell him that doing everything right might still entail heart-wrenching consequences. Gary would have his own unforgiving minutes, I feared, but what mattered was that he fill those minutes with ‘sixty seconds worth of distance run.’”
The book is full of leadership lessons, stories of military life (including an amazing account of what it's like to go through Ranger school) and what it’s like to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. I highly recommend the book. The memoir also contains some great quotes; everything from Winnie the Pooh to Napoleon and Winston Churchill. Here are a few of my favorites from the book:
In case of sudden and temporary immersion, the important thing is to keep the head above water.
- A. A. Milne, Winnie-the Pooh
Infantry platoons and squads rely on two truths:
1) In combat, infantrymen who are moving are attacking.
2) Infantrymen who are not attacking are preparing to attack.
- Infantry Field Manual (FM 3-21.8)
Do your duty – and never mind whether you are shivering or warm, sleeping on your feet or in your bed.
- Marcus Aurelius
Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.
- Soren Kierkegaard
I have not been at the front; I have been in front of it.
- Wilfred Owen, 1917
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
- Afghan Proverb
If you’re going through Hell, keep going.
- Winston Churchill
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
- Tennyson, Ulysses
The Unforgiving Minute
A Soldier's Education
by Craig M. Mullaney
© 2009 by The Penguin Press
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