“All You Need to Do is to Stand and Fire 3 Rounds a Minute.”

             My precious wife has told me “when one’s memories outnumber one’s dreams, one has reached old age.” My son recently told me “getting all religious is a sign of old age.” The calendar confirms the accuracy of both their statements as regards me. So forgive me this rumination on life, but I’m suddenly compelled to share it.

            Public Television in the 1980s or 1990s ran a series called “Sharpe’s Rifles” based on a series of books by Bernard Cornwell. The protagonist was a soldier, Sharpe, promoted to officer status from the ranks in the British Army fighting the French under The Duke of Wellington in the early 1800s. All but the times were probably fictional, as the British probably didn’t promote from the ranks to officer status. In any case, Sharpe was played by the British actor Sean Bean.

            In this particular episode he had been given a group of raw recruits from the slums of England and was to turn them into a special group of “riflemen”, hence the name “Sharpe’s Rifles”. Sharpe was dressed in what seemed to be an 1800s “Robin Hood” outfit. Appropriate to Sharpe’s beginnings as the son of an unmarried “lady of easy virtue” also from the slums. And since the officers paid for their own uniforms, about all that he could afford. He was not highly regarded by his peer officers as you can imagine. The scene to which I’m slowly meandering was just prior to a French attack. Sharpe had been training his troops for some time and was now standing in front of them to give them a pep talk and orders as to what and how they were to comport themselves in the upcoming assault by the French.

            The troops, (all in their early teens?), were standing at attention in uniforms about two sizes too large and with the tall British hats that were resting on top of their ears. Eyes were wide open; think of a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching 18 wheeler. Their white crossed canvas belts sagging from lack of man sized chests inside the uniforms. Shape tells them what they are about to experience. (The following words are mine as I don’t remember the actual script, but the content is consistent with the scene).

            “All you have to do is stand and fire 3 rounds a minute.” (An incredibly fast rate of fire for the muzzel loaded rifle of that day; and indication of the training they had been given and the knowledge and skill that they had attained.)

            “You will hear the French drums and see their guidons as they approach. All you need to do is to stand and to fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “You will hear the sound of the cannon firing and the explosions of their shells. The smoke will almost blind you and choke you. But all you have to do is to stand and to fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “You will hear the screams of pain and the shouts of men around you being blown apart. But all you need to do is to stand and fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “You will feel the fall of the comrade next to you as his body hits yours and his blood splays across you. But all you have to do is to stand and fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            “Your bones will shake and your bowels will loose and your heart will race and you’ll want to flee. But all you have to do is to stand and to fire 3 rounds a minute.”

            Here Sharpe pauses and looks over his men. Then he continues, “I know that you can fire 3 rounds a minute. The question is, Will You Stand?”

            That’s the question that each of us must answer, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. As each temptation arises, the question isn’t can we fire the 3 rounds a minute. Nope, we all know the right thing, the honest thing, the legal thing, the moral thing, the honorable thing (our 3 rounds a minute) that we should do. It isn’t our skill, our knowledge, our ability, or our training that’s the question.

            The question that we each face is the same as those teen-aged recruits faced; “Will You Stand?” Under the pressure, under the desire, under the fear, under the whatever; "Will You Stand" and do that which is the honorable, the required, the needed, the sacrifice of desire to duty.

            I often wonder what might have been different for me and for my family had I seen that scene when I was very young. What would have turned out different if I had only understood the difference between the skill and knowledge of  “firing 3 rounds a minute” and the integrity of “Will I Stand”?

            Yes skill and ability are important, and the world is full of those that posses them. The difference between men is those who “Stand”!

            The question for us all, “Will You Stand?”