Re: Failures

[OntarioVanMan]

Cmdr. Scott Waddle, USN(Ret.) gave a very inspirational speech on integrity in the South Dakota Legislature

Waddle was the commanding officer of the USS Greeneville, the Navy submarine that collided with a Japanese fishing vessel during an emergency surface maneuver that resulted in the deaths of nine people, four of them children. Cmdr. Waddle took full responsibility for the accident.
In his book, “The Right Thingâ€, he says “That there are no failures in life... only mistakes and from these mistakes... lessons.â€

 

[Dreamer]

Good point. My mother had lots of lessons for me while growing up, but some of the things I remember the most are her lessons on integrity. She always said "Right is right if nobody does it, and wrong is wrong if everybody doing"... and "Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody's watching".

My mom died a couple years ago at 80 years old.. never finished high school, but she was one of the smartest and wisest people I've ever known. Christmas isn't the same without her.



Dreamer
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[OntarioVanMan]

Good membership I put this to you as Christmas approaches and loved ones past will be missed and thought about and families gather ...Who was your most influential person in your life?

 

[arkjarhead]

I guess the most influential person in my life was my grandfather. He always believed in me. When I signed up for the Marines no one thought I would make it through boot camp, but he did. He said if the boy on my left and the boy on my right could do it then I could. He died a month before I went to boot camp. I wished he couldv'e seen me in my uniform. He only had an 8th grade education, but he was very smart.

 

[piper1]

My Dad taught me these lessons,

If your going to do it, care about the job your doing

Never think you are smarter than anyone else, but try as hard as you can to be smarter than everyone else and shut up about it

LEARN, the more you know the easier it is to spot someone or something that isn't genuine. Information is king!

LEARN something every day so you never forget how to learn

The loudest person in the room is not the smartest

Be fair, if you are and the other guy is fair back at you, you can trust him

When you make a decision, try to talk yourself out of it, if you can't you made the right call

It was all good up until he started cheering for Jeff Gordon, then I knew he'd lost it but I digress.............

:+

 

[greg334]

OVM,
I think that the message is a good one but the messenger is not in my opinion. There are far better examples than him and his words are taken from, I think they can be found in Andrew Melon's memoirs.

Cmd Waddles is not the one to speak about integrity.

When you read what happened and how things went, he didn't 'take' responsibility but rather had no choice.

As the captain of the ship, he holds the ultimate responsibility for the safety of the ship, it's crew and anyone around it. He should have taken responsibility right from the start, which he did not and punishment should have included losing his pension and being discharged instead of a soft punishment and a resignation.