Since
Dr. Robert L. Humphrey's book - VALUES FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM
- edited by his personal student - Jack Hoban, was
very hard to find, I had decided to dedicate some
pages for allowing you to read about some of his stories
and cases.
His incredible work and research that he had accomplished
throughout his life will amaze you. His global cross-cultural
detective work to stop cross-cultural conflicts and
violence resolution are important lessons to be remembered.
These are taken from the book itself.
Please
click on image to visit Dr. Humphrey's OFFICIAL
website by Jack Hoban.
DR.
ROBERT L. HUMPHREY'S
www.LifeValues.com
He
is sorely missed.
During
my experience in that black-sand slaughterhouse, it was always
that way. Every time someone had to die to protect the others,
there was always a casual volunteer, as if the man were simply
volunteering to go get the coffee for everyone. Yet each time,
to me, it was absolutely awe-inspiring. Each time, I would
not expect it. Then it would happen. Each time it would almost
tear my heart out. My mind would go to the boy's family back
in the States who would be crushed by the staggering news
of their loved one's death and would probably not even know
of his supreme greatness. Each time I knew I was experiencing
something spiritual. The strange, disturbing thing was that
no one else seemed to recognize the heroic, sacred, monumental
nature of those acts unless they involved a lot of flashy
action, several enemy killed, or many Americans saved. Even
then, most of the time, there were no officers around keeping
score on sacrifice, to recommend medals. Everyone was too
busy staying alive. The general self-sacrificing was appreciated
but considered routine (only natural). A story came in of
a man who had smothered a grenade with his body to protect
his friends. The grenade had not gone off. When asked about
it later, the man laughed and said he had not realized what
he had done. (Maybe so; maybe not.)
One
night, some Japanese soldiers had crawled between two of our
foxholes into our small defensive circle before one of my
only two good shooters, Mercer, shot them. The next morning,
I warned the others that while they were on guard at night
unless they kept their heads up far enough to peek out, the
Japanese would get into their foxholes and kill them. It did
not work. The same thing happened the next night. I warned
them again the same way. My best man, a Texan by the name
of Johnson, pulled me aside and advised: "You are saying
the wrong thing, lieutenant. Don't tell them that they will
get themselves killed. You have to tell them that the Japanese
will crawl by them and kill us others."
That worked.
Above
from page 166
Dr.
Robert L. Humphrey's
VALUES FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM
Click
on image to BUY BOOK
The
Confidence Factor. At that time, if there was hope of success,
despite likely death, the most able man -- the one with the
most confidence from probable top-competence in the group --
would tend to step forward almost as routinely as if he were
simple taking his turn to go get the coffee. That led to that
deception that it was no big deal in his mind.
But here is the subtlety in that situation: If that first man
failed, then the next best, and right on down through those,
if any, who thought they might have the competence. At times,
you had to stop that possible suicidal progression more so than
persuade it. The competence factor was decisive and hard to
understand because so few had it trained into them from the
mere long- distance military shooting and marching that does
not concentrate at all of teaching fighting men to fight on
the ground, up close.
Here was, to me, a stunning example: On the second or third
day while I was still back on the landing-beach, a hysterical
commotion exploded about fifty yards away. Some clean-up Marines
had unearthed a Japanese sniper. I started up out of my deep
foxhole to go check. Lt. Bill Johnson, a Texan from Wimberly,
already out, said, "I'll go" as he walked past me.
He quieted it down and soon returned assuring me that it was
nothing. However, I learned that it was a near atrocity, some
boys started to cut the ears off the helpless prisoner. My own
sergeant told me that Lt. Johnson gave the proper orders, and
then boldly turned his back on the little group of half- crazed
men knowing it would all be corrected according to his orders.
Here is the punch line, illustrating how his high competence
interpreted that scene for Johnson. Fifty years later I talked
with him. HE DID NOT EVEN REMEMBER THE INCIDENT.
That is what, eventually, I realized that I was seeing. Great
heroics out of high competence in the few among very poorly
trained men for real gun-fighting. Suddenly, I began to resent
all of that time comparatively wasted, marching around.
The Mental Self-Control Factor. The need "to have
one's wits about one" in order to act also conceals the
fact that we all more or less seem to have the natural species-preserving
inclination. The drowning man, if he cannot swim, has no choice.
He, usually, will panic. He can save neither himself nor
another.
In heavy combat, more men stress-out, partially, than
the military documents even hint, thereby becoming unable to
protect themselves (as in can't swim). In fact, this includes
most of the men to a degree in the hot gun-fights, according
to what I saw. When they stress-out, they don't decide to protect
themselves first, rather than the others. They just become defenseless
for themselves or for anyone. Suddenly they are just there,
nothing more, nothing less. It was in this situation that the
natural priority of species-preservation over self was taught
to me most vividly.
The Overwhelming Strength of the Species-Preservation Drive.
Two young "replacement Marines" had started to stress-out
and were not watching out-front or shooting. This was at night
when infiltraters were occasionally trying to crawl in on us
from out of caves and tunnels near by (seeking food and water).
That next morning, I was raging at them, threatening a court-martial,
et cetera, if they did not start shooting to at least protect
their own lives. They ignored my voice.
Another young Texan, one Clyde Jackson, from near Houston, called
softly to me: "You are telling them the wrong thing, Lieutenant.
Tell them if they don't start shooting, they will let us others
get killed."
It worked. It actually pulled them out of their on-coming
stress (shellshock) where the appeal to save their own lives
had not.
After Jackson pointed this out to me, I then started using
it successfully in other cases.
