Attention to detail is a very important aspect in a marine, small unit leader, and officer. Often the success of a mission depends on the amount of a detail it has. Usually it’s the small details that decide if a mission is a great success or a tragic failure. There are also larger details but every aspect should be considered as well as every situation that may arise. For instance, let’s say LCP Cortez is on a security post . LCP Cortez has been on post for awhile, long enough to know the baseline.
But one morning he notices a darkened spot on the road, instead of reporting it he dismisses it. Hours later a patrol is returning to base and are heading for the darkened spot he dismissed earlier. Suddenly an explosion erupts from the road. In this instance the dismissal of a small detail resulted in the loss Of lives and equipment. In this scenario, FPC Bridge is leading a convey on a simple supply run. It’s on a known and commonly used route. Previous conveys have run the route without any problems. But on the way to the drop off point, FPC Bridge notices a new dad barrier on the side of the road.
FPC Bridge makes a mental note about the road barrier. On the return FPC Bridge realizes that the road barrier has changed sides. Noticing the change FPC Bridge halts the convey and reports the suspicious road barrier. Turns out that the suspicious road barrier housed a large died. In both of the following scenarios attention to detail was the main factor in mission success or failure. In LCP Cortex’s scenario a little detail was changed then dismissed. Leading to the detonation of an died and the loss of lives and equipment.
Following that in FPC Bridge’s scenario an died was detected due to a positioned road barrier changing sides of the road. Attention to detail played a major role in both scenarios an because of that one scenario was a failure and the other was success. In conclusion, attention to detail is one of the determining factors on if a mission is a success or failure. And that no matter how big or small a detail may be it still needs to be taken into account in order to promote mission success.
