The Mission, the Men, and Me

The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander Paperback – September 7, 2010
Author: Visit ‘s Pete Blaber Page ID: 0425236579

Review

”His thesis is that there aren’t that many different situations in life, and there aren’t that many different ways of dealing with them — have a few, simple principles, and, when in doubt, refer to them. He’’s a stoic with a sense of humor, and I very much enjoyed his book.” –David Mamet, Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director.

”A book about the complexities of combat that’s just as applicable for dealing with the complexities of business and our personal lives.” –Kevin Sharer, chairman and CEO, Amgen

–This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

PETE BLABER commanded at every level of Delta Force, executing vital missions across the globe including destroying the largest pocket of Al Qaeda forces to date, and helping to hasten the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

–This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Paperback: 336 pagesPublisher: Berkley; Reprint edition (September 7, 2010)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0425236579ISBN-13: 978-0425236574 Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #17,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #16 in Books > History > Military > Iraq War #18 in Books > History > Military > United States > Veterans #40 in Books > History > Military > Intelligence & Espionage
When the dust has finally settled from our involvement in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the engagements that I believe will occupy the time of many prognosticators for generations to come will be "Operation Anaconda" that took place in the Shahi Khot Valley of Afghanistan in the winter of 2002.

Several fine books have already been written describing what happened during those fateful hours in the frigid February and March air high in the mountains near the Pakistan border. Sean Naylor gives a gripping account of his part of the story in "Not a Good Day to Die." (See below for the link to my review from February, 2007.)

Nate Self’s recent book, "Two Wars" (to be reviewed here soon) adds another important perspective on what happened in Afghanistan and beyond.

Pete Blaber, the Delta Force commander who was in charge of the AFO (Advanced Force Operations) involved in Operation Anaconda, has written a compelling book that is a welcome addition to the ongoing dialogue about what we can all learn from the events of those days. Adding valuable insight into this engagement, Blaber’s book also takes a broad look at lessons he has learned along the way that are practical and applicable not just to military operations but to any situations that presents leadership challenges.

The title of the book, "Mission, the Men, and Me – Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander ," refers to the three priorities and three questions that Blaber set for himself in making decisions in the heat of battle: "What is best for the Mission; what is best for my men; what is best for me?" Any leader would be well served to adapt these priorities at decisive moments in responding to challenges and opportunities.
This excellent book is really about how to thrive out on the edge of a high-risk, high-profile career. It’s not a book for armchair experts or backseat drivers of whatever stripe, because one of Blaber’s key teachings is how to circumvent the kibbutzers and second-guessers in positions of authority, ignore their distractions and overcome their interference, and accomplish the mission.

In fact, while it’s a great title, the equation of the "mission", his "men" and himself "me" gives the misleading impression that Blaber may be a bit of a prima donna. In fact, the "Mission, Men and Me" framework is applied whenever Blaber is being pressured by a senior commander to take an action that Blaber is convinced will result in damage to the mission or needless harm to his men. When forced into these dilemmas, if the only consideration is his personal or career interests, than Blaber always puts "Me" at risk to assure the best outcome for the Mission and his Men.

The realism of the book can be conveyed by observing that Blaber needs to apply the Mission, Men and Me framework fairly frequently!

The book, which is officially divided into Parts One – Four, is thematically structured into three sections:

(1) The first section is a series of very helpful lessons and mental frameworks for handling intense, stressful and complex situations. Blaber has benefited from the kind of resources the US Government can afford to pour into its best and brightest, and an unbelievable amount of cutting edge cognitive, psychological, sociological, and other areas of research have been reduced to practical learnings and made available to the operators of Delta Force, and Blaber makes them available to readers of this book.
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Maus

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale Paperback – October 1, 2003
Author: Art Spiegelman ID: 0141014083

About the Author

Art Spiegelman is a contributing editor and artist for the New Yorker. His drawings and prints have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Maus, and a Guggenheim fellowship. It was also nominated for the National Book Critics Award. He lives in New York.

Paperback: 296 pagesPublisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK); unknown edition (October 1, 2003)Language: EnglishISBN-10: 0141014083ISBN-13: 978-0141014081 Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Best Sellers Rank: #4,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Historical & Biographical Fiction #19 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Military > World War II #23 in Books > History > World > Jewish > Holocaust
I haven’t read many graphic novels, but I am decently well-read otherwise, and my knowledge of the Holocaust would be above the average person’s, but not phenomenal. Given that background, and all that I had read about Maus, I was expecting a "tour de force" that would make at least a minor dent on my reading career. That, unfortunately, was not to be, and while I finished the book feeling that the time spent on it was definitely well spent, the book is already fading in my memory.

Maus tells the tale of an artist who decides to write a comic book based on his Father’s recount of the Holocaust, which, in fact, is what the author is doing based on his own Father’s experiences. The book spans about 4 decades from the mid-thirties to the seventies, covering the pre-WWII period to the time when the author is actually exploring the past with his Father and writing this book. There are two stories intertwined marvelously in this book: a first-hand survivor’s experience of life before, during, and after the Holocaust, and that of a relationship between an ageing Father and young-to-middle aged son who have a serious disconnect.

The two stories could actually have been written independently, but it is their excellent juxtaposition which is one of the clear highlights of the book, for it has a multiplier affect on the poignancy of both the Father’s and the Son’s situations. Each of the stories themselves is well crafted, managing to weave together a bunch of incidents across points in time to create a very smoothly flowing narrative.
Imaginative…shocking…brilliant. As the title so cleverly suggests, I could go on for days raving about this book. Having clearly thrown my objectivity out the window, let me tell you why Art Speigelman’s Maus is the best thing to happen to comix since sliced bread.

Although Maus is written in comic strip format, Spiegelman does everything he can to subvert our assumptions about the medium. There are few, if any, character `thought bubbles;’ there is little emphasis on humour and witty exchanges. This is a serious book about a serious subject: the holocaust. As Spiegelman himself notes in the book (I am paraphrIDg here), "how can a comic strip, a medium historically dismissed as nothing more than `the funnies,’ capture the horror and pathos of the attempted extermination of an entire race of people?" The great achievement of the book is that not only does it meet this lofty challenge, I honestly can’t think of another medium that could have better captured the spirit of those times. Spiegelman’s skilful use of illustration adds a layer of irony to the story, and demonstrates the pathos that underscored the rise of Nazi Germany. Particularly interesting is that people of differing backgrounds appear as animals. There is the obvious binary where Germans are depicted as cats and Jews as mice (the text quotes a disturbing German Nazi-era editorial equating Jews with the flea-ridden mouse). Among others, Poles appear as pigs, the French as frogs (problematic, to say the least, although Spiegelman tries to justify this by pointing out instances of French hostility towards Jews), and Americans as dogs. The reasons why certain animals symbolize certain countries or ethnicities is not explained, neither whether ethnicity and nationhood are essentially the same construct.
I’m Jewish–and 72 years old–but my families have been here for several generations, so I didn’t have to experience any of it, except from a great distance (and as a 5 to 10 year old). I only recently became aware that some Jews will not read any book, or see and film, relating to the Holocaust,–because they can’t stand to.

O.K. Maybe Maus isn’t the best place to start. But for those of us who are curious as to how it really was, without any sugar coating, and without having our noses rubbed in it, it is very good. We do not have to SMELL or TASTE the camps; we do not have to see rotting corpses, mice do not have very expressive faces. It is the story of a survivor–through no fault, he stresses, of his own!–told in American speech, frequently organized in Yiddish word order, frequently punctuated by Spiegelman’s own speech, and that of his wife. We learn, from a very personal story, of everything that happened to Art’s father, without having to be afraid of turning the page. It is very honest. He does indeed "bleed history." And sometimes the blood is funny as well.

There is never any question of "Well, why didn’t they get out, while they could?" You do what your country tells you to do, and by the time you realize you are a prisoner of war (Art’s father was briefly in the Polish army), and that this involves being treated like a non-human, it’s too late.

Vladek is very good at "organizing" things–eggs, chocolate, seeing his wife, finding hiding places–but had he once been caught by the wrong people, at the wrong time, with thre wrong things in his hands or speaking to the wrong people about the wrong things, there would be no Art Spiegelman.
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