As for the man himself, it remains to survey thoughtfully the whole range of possibilities, to keep the mind open and receptive to impressions, to experiment but take firm hold in so doing, to tackle each new task with as much enthusiasm as if it were to be his life work, to ask for difficult assignments rather than soft snaps and to be calmly deliberate, rather than rashly hasteful, in appraising his own capabilities.
Self-study is a lifetime job. A great many engineers didn't realize that they were born to make nuclear fission possible until there was a three-way wedding between science, industry and the military in 1940. Many officers who have had a late blooming as experts in the field of electronics and supersonic speeds had lived out successful careers before these subjects first saw daylight.
As Elbert Hubbard said of it, the only way to get away from opportunity is to lie down and die.
CHAPTER FIVE
RANK AND PRECEDENCE
The regulations that govern precedence among officers of the same service and among the services in relation to each other have a very real utility not only in determining succession to command and as reminders of the authority to which all persons in the Armed Services are subject but in providing precedent for all official or ceremonial occasions in which officers or organizations of the several services may find themselves cooperating. It is easy to imagine the confusion that would result without such rules, especially if a junior commander of a senior service had to defend the right of his organization to occupy the place of honor ahead of a very senior commander with a detachment from a junior service. These regulations are also the arbiter in disputes arising between officers of equal rank who aspire to command of the same unit.
The legislation which separated the Air Force from the Army again raised the question of precedence in parades and ceremonies. Since the Air Force is the junior service, as to date of recognition, the change indicated the following parade order: (Reference, Federal Register, Volume 14, Number 160, August 19, 1949, page 5203)
- Cadets, United States Military Academy.
- Midshipmen, United States Naval Academy.
- Cadets, United States Coast Guard Academy.
- United States Army.
- United States Marines.
- United States Navy.
- United States Air Force.
- United States Coast Guard.
- National Guard of the United States.
- Organized Reserve Corps of the Army.
- Marine Corps Reserve.
- Naval Reserve.
- Air Force National Guard of the United States.
- United States Air Force Reserve.
- Coast Guard Reserve.
- Other training organizations of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, in that order, respectively.
During any period when the United States Coast Guard shall operate as a part of the United States Navy, the Cadets, United States Coast Guard Academy, the United States Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard Reserve, shall take precedence, respectively, next after the Midshipmen, United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy, and the Naval Reserve.
In any ceremony in which any or all of these components act together, the table of precedence in appropriate regulations determines their location in the column.