OPINION EDITORIAL

THE TIP OF THE SPEAR

 by James Strauss

When Marines served in Vietnam things were different, or at least the Marines serving in Vietnam ‘thought’ they were different. Actually, the guerilla combat experienced in that conflict was preceded by the more silent war that went on in Indochina during WWII. In both conflicts, and in all wars since, booby traps were one of the main weapons of war. Today’s wars refer to those devices as I.E.D.s (Improvised Explosive Device) and the use of such homemade, easily hidden, weapons of death and dismemberment, create special problems for those charged with dealing with them. Back then the letters FNG were used to describe individual Marines, or soldiers, who were new to the conflict, and therefore unknown by anybody else in the outfit. The letters stood for Fucking New Guy. There were no women allowed into combat, during those wars of the past. FNGs were sent to the front of any unit to serve as the ‘point’ of the unit. The purpose of sending that Marine or soldier up to the front of the unit, to precede more seasoned veterans, was to assure that when that FNG set off a booby-trap, only a FNG would be lost.

Since nobody would know that new person, there would be no real grief or loss to experience, and the unit could move on relatively undamaged. The psychological condition of each member is every bit as important to a fighting unit as its physical well being and condition. Only much later, after the war, for those that survived (and not many FNGs did), the idea of ordering new people to almost certain death or dismemberment seems cold, analytical, unjust and socially reprehensible. There is no training manual that covers the use of FNGs for anything. Training manuals written for military personnel being sent into a combat situation are written by men and women who have never gone into combat. And besides, some things can’t be written ahead of time, or nobody reading them would go into the combat situation. War requires boots on the ground. Boots on the ground requires the willingness on the part of some percentage of the citizenry to go into combat. War therefore, by its very nature, requires that a good bit of deception be used to get people to participate in it at all.

That’s war, and this is life, however. Most people will only learn anything about war by watching television, reading books, or listening to those who’ve actually fought in one. In contrast, everyone lives life. Everyone participates in life. The very necessary, quiet and unfair FNG device used in combat zones, also prevails everywhere in life, except it’s not called by those letters, or the words behind them. First days on a new job and you are the FNG. That’s for every new job you start in your life. Join a club, association, corps, partnership or company and you are the FNG. As in combat, the primary rule when dealing with FNGs is that the person so designated is never informed about either the designation, or what it might mean. The purpose of having FNGs is important to the survival of the group, and many times individuals must be sacrificed to allow for, or improve, the survival chances of group.

One day a man took the real estate exam in Hawaii. He was a young college professor. He was a bright, hard-charging, and hugely qualified talent. He got his license and applied to the largest most successful brokerage on Oahu, and got the job instantly. On his first day he put his stuff into his desk, and then went around to talk to the other realtors. He was met with cold barely veiled hostility, and he couldn’t understand that. The other realtors were all women, older than he was, and they’d been around for years. Finally, one older realtor told him that there was no place for him in that office. He ignored her, went home for the day, and then was back at it the following morning until he was called into the head broker’s office. The broker looked at him and then said something strange: “I hate to mention this, but the probability is just too great. There’s been an original artwork of Diamond Head on the wall of the conference room for twenty-five years. This morning, when I opened the office, it was gone. I gave you a key yesterday. You’re the only person to get a new key in the last year. Can you help me here?” The new realtor; college professor, bright guy and Vietnam veteran, looked at the broker, got up from the chair in front of the man’s desk, went into his cubicle, loaded up his stuff, put it all in his car, and drove home. He realized that he was the FNG, and he had tripped a booby trap that had been very carefully laid in his path.

Is there truth and fairness in the universe? It depends upon the path you are following, the conditions that exist around that path, and the other beings you are proceeding down that path with. Are you the FNG? How do you know before you proceed too far down that path in life? If you play poker, then never forget that if you sit down with a bunch of players you don’t know, and can’t figure out who the “mark” at the table is (the one that’s going to be trimmed of his wad or investment), then it is most probably you.

In most circumstances, there is no way to predict when you join something whether your lack of life experience means that you are going to be selected to be the FNG. Life is about risk, and part of that risk involves trusting other human beings. You cannot withhold that trust, unless you are a reclusive hermit living on the proceeds of a lifelong trust fund. If you participate, and most all of us must participate, then you can only hope that those times in life where you are secretly chosen to be the FNG will involve things as inconsequential (comparatively) as losing one’s hoped for position at a real estate firm. Quite possibly the best advice anyone can get when they’re going down the path of life is to stay out of combat zones, and away from armed people, as much as possible.

If you lose at poker, or in the employment field, or even in the investment market, then you will only lose money, and money can be earned or made again. At all cost, avoid finding out first-hand the meaning of the letters IED, or the phrase booby-trap, by setting one off. When you walk point in anything, you are acting as the tip of the spear. Spears are notorious for their effectiveness at killing prey, or penetrating substances that need to be penetrated. But they are also prone to losing their tips, and then having to be outfitted with another.

Your Thoughts?
Are You Walking Point?