One of the appeals of military service, especially in the combat arms, is the sense of team that develops when you train, work, and fight together and do so cohesively, with an absolute trust in your buddies.
As an aside, one of the reasons the services are one of the few places left that get all knotted up about adultery is that little corrodes trust and confidence more swiftly than the knowledge that your buddy, your boss, or your subordinate is banging your spouse. Doesn't mean we don't get stupid about it, nor that it is handled consistently - but that's one reason that article is in the UCMJ.
There is also the issue of trust between units and services, where you trust other guys and gals to be there when they are supposed to be and do what they are supposed to do.
Being true to that ideal is why, albeit late, LTC Bruce Crandall was awarded a Medal of Honor. Being true to that ideal is why people kept pushing the Medal, for that matter.
Take these guys for example.
CH-53 extracts Recon team on ladder with Cobra gunship support.
Yep. All those little blobs dangling from that helo are people.
There's a lot of trust being displayed there. That the aviators would show up (they almost always do, and if they don't, it's usually because they're in a smoking crater somewhere), the discipline and trust that allowed the team members, under pressure, to get up that ladder - and trusting that they'd do it fast enough that everybody would get on before the baddies got too close. And that the pilots would do everything they could to get 'em home, *usually* without dragging the guy on the bottom through too many treetops (been there, done that). And also, that the pilots of the CH53 would, if they had an aircraft failure - do their best to get the aircraft to the ground in such a way as to give the guys on the ladder a fighting chance. Having been one of those guys on the ladder, even in peacetime when no one is shooting at you and the weather is pretty good, it's an exercise in trust.
Then, well, sometimes trust fails. The guy doesn't back you up. He's not there when you need him.
And when that happens, sometimes you just have to hold the guy accountable.
Like the Duke of Somerset at the Battle of Tewkesbury, the subject of today's Motivator.
Teamwork. It's not just a slogan.
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