The Men First: Difference between revisions

A [[A Father to His Men|commanding officer]] insists that his men are the top priority.

 

 

 

He may insist on getting no help at all if his men can't be helped. Compare [[In Its Hour of Need]]; the commander will retreat if his men can be gotten away.

 

 

If he is at the top of a chain of command with several ranks between him and the grunts, he will generally insist that his subordinates follow his example -- [[Reassigned to Antarctica|or]] [[Punishment Detail|else]].

* [[A Father to His Men|General Waverly]] in [[White Christmas]], as fondly remembered by his former underlings.

{{quote|''"We ate, then he ate. We slept, then he slept."''}}

{{quote|'''Craig Harriman:''' I have twenty-four crews up there. They are ''all'' special to me.}}

* In ''[[We Were Soldiers]]'', two officers are contrasted. One wants to [[Glory Hound|win medals]]. The other is both obsessive about both detail and his men; during a forced march, he has his men take off their boots to check for injuries. On finding that the soldier he is examining has a truly squick-inducing burst blister, he tells him to report to the quartermaster for new boots. Hal Moore, the Unit C.O., approves this approach, clearly putting him in this class even before he delivers a speech that assures his men that "when we go into battle, I will be the first one to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will all come home together." Interview footage of the real Hal Moore shows that this was based on reality; while asking the American public to appreciate the strength of the ordinary fighting man, he becomes so audibly choked up that he can barely get the words out.

{{quote|''I have men wounded, I should see to them.''}}

* [[Honor Harrington]] pulls this in her own series. When trapped on the prison planet Hades, after {{spoiler|having her cybernetic eye burned out, her arm blown off in the escape, and months of starvation, humiliation, and near-torture}}, her surviving staff ''still'' have to practically force her into taking her doctor's medical treatment and taking it easy for a change

* In [[Sandy Mitchell]]'s [[Dark Heresy]] novel ''Innocence Proves Nothing'', although Drake would probably be better suited to retreat last from the mutant, Horst says that he's the leader and will be the last.

* In [[Wen Spencer]]'s ''Endless Blue'', after [[No One Could Survive That|Turk's loss]], Mikhail carefully locks away [[Driven to Suicide|his gun]] and gives away [[Drowning My Sorrows|his vodka]] so that he can ensure that he will get his men to safety. {{spoiler|There, he goes for the gun. Fortunately, he's interrupted by Turk.}}

* In Steve Parker's [[Imperial Guard]] novel ''Gunheads'', the colonel of the 98th refused to try to escape a [[Last Stand]] when the Gunheads arrive. He immediately asks if the tanks can open up a corridor where he and his men can escape.

* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Imperial Grand Admiral Pellaeon]] makes good use of this trope, in contrast to the [[We Have Reserves|usual Imperial doctrine]]. A combination of looking out for the welfare of his troops, [[Know When to Fold'Em|knowing when retreat is called for]], and a lack of grandstanding or vanity projects helps him live long enough to, essentially, become top dog by default.

** He learned most of this from [[The Chessmaster|Grand Admiral Thrawn]]. While at times he would administer hard discipline on his men (especially when they make ''stupid'' mistakes), when one makes a rather ingenious [[Indy Ploy]] in an attempt to tractor in Luke's X-Wing? He promotes him despite it failing. This causes the entire crew of his ship to follow him to the death.

{{quote|''Conan did not leave the gate until he was sure all his men who yet lived were out of the castle and started across the level meadow.''}}

* The [[The Bible|Biblical]] Uriah the Hittite sealed his fate when he took this position. You see, King David had knocked up Uriah's wife Bathsheba, and David had ''attempted'' to let Uriah to just enjoy himself in Jerusalem for a couple of days, with his wife...but Uriah refused to accept any advantage that had not been given to his troops. Put into a corner that way, David was [[Indy Ploy|forced to improvise]], and came out with this:

* In [[Adrian Tchaikovsky]]'s ''Dragonfly Falling'', after Salma meets some renegede Auxilliens, he deduces that one had been a sergeant, from the way he tried to protect his men.

* In [[Jack Campbell]]'s ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'', this is in the background, with the survivors from lost ships being heavily low ranking. Captain {{spoiler|Duellos}} makes it explicit after his ship is lost.

* In [[Elizabeth Moon]]'s ''[[Familias Regnant|Hunting Party]]'', Serrano resigned just before the story because she was told that that way, they would not punish any of her men. {{spoiler|They lied.}}

 

* [[The Duke of Wellington]] spent a lot of time looking after his men, organising supplies and the like. A biography of him tells how, in the aftermath of one of the battles of [[Napoleonic Wars|The Peninsular War]], he came across a group of officers who had commandeered a house for themselves to rest, leaving some wounded rank-and-file outside. Wellington immediately ordered that the officers get themselves out and the wounded inside. He came back a while later, found it hadn't been done, and cashiered the officers on the spot.

* According to one tale from [[World War II]], a line of sailors were waiting in the "geedunk" line (American fighting men were famous for their sweet tooth). Two Ensigns shoved their way to the front. Then they heard a [[Father Neptune|salty voice]] shouting "get back where you belong!" (with a number of sailorly words no doubt). The two ensigns turned to see the impertinent bluejacket who dared insult their exalted status. And it turned out to be [[Four-Star Badass|Admiral Halsey]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|waiting patiently in line with everyone else]].

* It is difficult to overstate how much this trope made Julius Caesar's career as a general. He was known to have lax but fair discipline in the camp, he would overpay his soldiers and would even give them part of his own personal wealth if they couldn't be paid from the senate or hadn't captured any booty. He would also engage in their hardships with them and never ate, drank or slept while his soldiers were in danger. The amount of trust and fanatical devotion he got as a result was phenomenal and it was what enabled him to (get a map) march them from France to Rome, then to Spain (in record time) to fight a bloody war and back to Italy, then engage in a dangerous winter Mediterranean crossing to the modern Balkans while running a naval blockade during which he lost a third of his men, to fight a war against Pompey the Great in which he suffered heavy losses, down to Egypt to resolve a civil war and fight another war in Modern Tunisia, back up and through Syria to Asia minor to fight ANOTHER war, then back across to Spain to fight the bloodiest war of his life. All in about 3 years.