Further Lessons in Diverstiy Training

Here is a story pulled off the wire about addressing the need for proper communication as it affects performance during adversity….

During a recent intense conflict, a GI was running and dodging exploding shells, making every effort to survive the onslaught. Seeing an open foxhole, our brave GI jumped into it and to his surprise he found a Native American dressed in tribal warfare garb sitting staunchly, arms crossed, gazed fixed and straight ahead. Having paid the brave soldier no attention whatsoever, the soldier frantically tried to communicate with this Indian about what was going on and where he was from. Since his efforts were to no avail, our soldier had an idea that maybe he can communicate with this fellow through so kind of improvised sign language. After all, we all remember what we were taught about how Indians are especially adept at the use of such a form of communication.

The soldier thought to himself, maybe I should find out what division this Indian was assigned to, that way I will know more about what he is doing here. In his attempt to communicate with the Indian, the following dialogue was relayed to us via translation after the fact:

In trying to determine the unit this Indian was from, the soldier first established the fact that since the Indian was so far behind enemy lines, he must have come here from the esteemed 101st Airborne Division. Extending his left arm outward with clenched fist and palm facing down, the GI rose his right hand high over his left arm and made a slowly descending action, fluttering his fingers up and down quickly (like simulating rain) until the downward action stopped at the top of his outstretched arm. He repeated this action a few times, all the while the GI was asking “Are you with the 101st Airborne Division? You know the paratroopers…”

The Indian just sat there expressionless and motionless, seemingly ignoring the GI. Since the GI noticed this lack of acknowledgment, he decided to continue his line of presentation until he received some form of recognition from the Indian.

Again, extending his left arm outward with clenched fist and palm facing down, the GI used his right hand to make his fingers walk up his arm from wrist to elbow. He repeated this action a few times to make sure it was noticed. This time he repeatedly asked the Indian, “Are with the Infantry, maybe the Big Red One?”

Again the Indian sat motionless, unflinching…

Desperately, our GI now used his logic to determine that maybe this Indian was part a failed armored division incursion. Once again, extending his left arm outward with clenched fist and palm facing down, the GI used his right hand and aggressively grabbed and released the wrist of the clenched fist arm to help convey the message... “Are with the Armored Division, old Ironside or the like?”

Once again no reaction and our GI was now getting frantic, but a flash come to him, almost a revelation. As a last gesture of sign language, our GI made two circles by touching his thumb to his index finger and raised these circles to his eyes rapidly moving these two circles toward his eyes and away from them quickly, like looking through imaginary binoculars. While doing so he asked our Indian friend, “Are you some kind of scout? A lookout for the Calvary division?”

With this last gesture, the mysterious Indian screamed and jumped straight up as if wrought with sheer terror. In one fell swoop he was out of the foxhole and began running blindly, almost running for the sake of his very life. As the bullets flew and the bombs burst, the Indian finally jumped into a different foxhole and, low and behold, these was the Chief of his tribe, in full regalia. Not wasting another moment of breath, our Indian proclaimed to his Chief in their native tongue…

“Greatest pardon for this interruption, my great chief, but you wouldn’t believe these barbarous White Men. One of them came into my foxhole and frantically signed to me…” “As the sun goes down and the people go away, I am going to f%&k you in your ass until your eyes bug out of your head.”

As for the lesson learned… Be sure to adopt proper, effective communication lest your words be offensive to others. That is, of course, unless it was your intention all along to violate the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” protocol.