Calm, Cool, & Collected

"Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others"

— Anonymous

This quote reminds me of a former captain I had. When he first came aboard, my impression was that he was extremely smart, as most of the captains I served with were. It did not take long for me to look up to this man as a mentor and I learned a lot from him.

I recall being in the north Pacific evading a super typhoon. I don't recall the circumstances why we were there, but we certainly were. The seas were the roughest I had ever seen during my 20+ years in the Navy and routine work throughout the ship was secured, for safety considerations.

I was Officer of the Deck as we plowed through swells and waves that appeared higher than the bridge of this ship as it bobbled in the sea. We were looking up to see the tops of them. This was not a big ship and we were rolling, hawing and pitching all over the place. I must admit, the thoughts in the back of my mind at that moment were that men had built that ship, it was an older ship, and I really hoped it didn't break in half. That wouldn't be good.

The Captain came up to the bridge and noticed the watchstanders each had themselves wedged between pieces of equipment and bulkheads (walls). I recall I was between a radar repeater and a small table that we worked maneuvering board solutions on. We were all quiet, just watching the bow go in and out of the swells and waves. Fear was in the air and the Captain noticed it.

His first reaction upon "reading" his bridge team was to smile. As he held the wire rope traversing the width of the bridge, so he would not fall over, he stated, "Isn't this great?!!!" He said this like he was riding his favorite roller coaster. His reaction definitely put me at ease, as I trusted him, and he appeared to trust the construction of this ship.

His persona at all times was calm, cool and collected. Nothing seemed to phase him as he made the daily decisions of a successful warship captain. It was quite impressive from my perspective.

Years later I had the pleasure of meeting up with this captain again. I was on another ship and we pulled into a port where he was stationed at the time. He had never been aboard of ship of this class, so he was anxious for a tour. After the tour, we went to my stateroom and talked for quite some time. It was a great conversation, hearing his present perspective of his time in command several years ago. I was very surprised what he told me. He mentioned that as captain, he hated every time the phone rang or someone knocked on his door. He was afraid that bad news was coming; someone jumped overboard (yes, this did happen during his tour) or a piece of vital equipment was no longer working (on a 20 year old ship, this was not uncommon).

I never would have guessed these things bothered him. He certainly did not display these feelings, and believe me, I delivered plenty of bad news to him (that guy that jumped overboard worked for me).

I am pretty certain he did not panic, as he was a very competent mariner and leader, but he did mask his true feelings very well, which, for a person in his position, was vital to his crew.