As mentioned in my previous post, there are certain qualities of character that are possessed by Veterans of America's Armed Forces. Not that these character qualities are non-existent in civilians, but in my experience, they are more fully developed and more prevalent in Veterans. I will be writing several blogs about these qualities, why Veterans seem to have them in spades and what that means for the Veterans community and the civilians that we interact with on a daily basis. Before getting into that, however, I would like to introduce these character qualities to you briefly.
The first (and my favorite) of these character qualities is Loyalty. Dictionary.com says that loyalty is, "Faithfulness to commitments or obligations," and "faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc." In a post that I will compose and post soon, I will expand on that loyalty and give examples of it in action.
Persistence/Perseverance, "Lasting or enduring tenaciously," or "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement." This is the second of the qualities of character that I would like to introduce to you today. From their/our experience as member of the military, Veterans have learned to push through and complete the task, regardless of the opposition that we inevitably face. Again, I will be writing a full post about this at some point in the future.
Another character quality that I will be expanding more on in the future is the inherent Boldness of military Veterans. Again quoting from Dictionary.com (what would I do without that site?), bold is defined as, "Not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring." Surely this is a quality that, in many cases, can make the difference between life and death (either your own or someone else's) while in the military, and something that each and every one of us take out into the civilian world once our military obligation has been completed.
The, "ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like," is another great trait that Veterans are far from unfamiliar with. This quality is more readily know as Resilience. When I was in the United States Marine Corps, I learned from day one at Parris Island that it is a waste of time to let things get you down. Every day someone or something is going to try to knock you down (figuratively and literally). Cliche though it may be, Veterans are particularly resilient because each and every one of us know that there is nothing to be gained from laying on your back once you have been knocked to the ground. Getting knocked down doesn't matter...you have to be able to stand back up and keep fighting even when it seems pointless.
If I had a nickle for every time there was some officer or higher ranking enlisted person that I had to restrain myself from cursing out or hitting, I wouldn't be hosting this blog on a free site since I would have the money to just buy my own domain. The ability to deal with someone appropriately and respectfully despite what your animal instincts may tell you to do is called Tact. It is a "keen sense of what to say or do to avoid giving offense; skill in dealing with difficult or delicate situations," (again, shout out to Dictionary.com). Find me a Veteran who has never had to exercise tact, and exercise it a lot, and I will find you someone who has never actually served in the military.
While you would not be incorrect to assume or say that Vets can be very stubborn or hard headed at times, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are not also exceptionally Flexible. Sure, it's nice when things go the way that we would like them to go (hell, who doesn't like it when that happens?), but when they don't Veterans possess the ability to quickly and easily adapt and overcome. We are "susceptible of modification or adaptation" because, let's face it, when you work in a place where you don't get to make the rules and the rules that are made are non-negotiable, you learn to adapt.
Decisiveness, that is the next of our qualities...it a quality that allows you to "put an end to controversy; characterized by or displaying no or little hesitation; resolute; determined." When we make a decision, we stick with it, and when it comes time for a decision to be made, we make it. Veterans come from a world where a moments hesitation could impact you and/or the people around you drastically and forever. We can't afford to be anything but decisive in war and since it kept us alive there, it is a quality that we carry with us into the relative peace of the "civilian world."
Last, but hardly least, is Leadership and the Veterans intrinsic ability to lead. Not to say that we all desire to take control of whatever we involve ourselves in and do things our way. That is not the case. In fact, I would wager that I know more Veterans who would rather follow than have the responsibility of leading...after all, once must be an excellent follower in order to be any kind of quality leader at all. Regardless of an individual Veterans desire to lead or desire to follow, each and every one of us have it in us to be a "guiding or directing head" for whatever group we are put into. We know how to work in a team, with a team and as the leader of a team, and we do all of those things well.
So there you have it, eight qualities of character that set Veterans apart from civilians. Over the next several weeks and months I will be posting a more detailed description of each of these character qualities and the secondary qualities that are encompassed by the "Big 8." I will work to have a new character quality blog posted by the end of the day each Friday. At that rate, this particular theme of posts will last for about 2 months starting on Friday, January 27th and ending on Friday, March 16th. Please don't hate me if I fall a little behind, ok? The spring semester starts on Monday, so my life is about to get a lot busier here in a few days. Finally, I haven't made a decision about which order I want to do the character qualities in yet. If anyone would like to hear about one or a few more than other, leave me a comment or send me an email and I will work to get those more demanded posts written first.
-w
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