If you saw the movie “Master and Commander” with Russell Crowe, you got a fairly representative peek into the world of commanding a British Man-of-War in the early 19th Century.
I recently had the opportunity to interview a modern “master and commander”. Before this gentleman retired from the US Navy, he was the commanding officer of a guided missile cruiser, one of the most powerful warships afloat. Right after the tragic events of 9/11 occurred, he was taking his ship to a position in the Northern Indian Ocean. And when the word came, his ship conducted the very first strikes of what is now called Operation Enduring Freedom.
I asked him about those days: what the atmosphere onboard the ship was like, and what was going through his mind as he conducted those attacks. Specifically, I asked him about how he led his crew in these extremely important first assaults. His thoughtful answers about “his team” reminded me about why he was one of the select few to command one of the US Navy’s ships. (3:44)
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