I followed orders. Twenty years ago, in September 1989, Hurricane Hugo was coming across the Caribbean. It crashed into the Virgin Islands, leaving plenty of desolation, and proceeded to the Atlantic coast of the United States. I was a Navy Lieutenant Commander, an entomologist, a scientist, with orders to go to St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, one of the hardest hit islands. Being in preventive medicine, my team's mission was to target and initiate control measures against the disease carriers, like mosquitoes, filth flies, and rats. I wrestled with leaving my family in the path of a hurricane and doing my duty. I think this was one of the first times I had encountered this. Usually, the military man is going into harm's way, but I wasn't. The C-130 cargo plane I boarded in Norfolk VA would fly around the storm, and land me on a fairly demolished, but landable runway strip at the Henry E Rohlsen Airport, St. Croix, behind the hurricane. What of my family? I had to leave. One of the commitments of the military. Fortunately, Hurricane Hugo landed south of Virginia Beach, and went into South and North Carolina. At least that was fortunate for my peace of mind, not so much for the Carolinians.
We followed orders. We pinpointed the problem areas for mosquito, filth fly, and rodent control. We sprayed, we larvicided, we educated, and we did it in a no-power, campsite scenerio. We worked closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Navy ships were there too. I got my first hot meal from their generosity. So, we worked hard and we covered the whole island. Some of our men even went to neighboring St. Thomas island to check out the problems there. I watched the green leaves and foliage come back. When I got there, the whole countryside was devoid of leaves. Long, bare branches reached up to the sky, like boney skeleton fingers trying to touch the clouds. The leaves had been stripped off entirely. All looked brown and dead. It lived though. Greenery started returning and the trees regained their regal appearances. After several weeks we were fatigued, dirty, and out of supplies. We started making preparations to head back to the United States. Flights were sporadic, being all military. No commercial flights had been approved to come in yet.
They followed orders. My crew was composed of two men from my preventive medicine unit, and two from Jacksonville, FL. One of my men was yancy to get home, and started making plans to get aboard the first plane. In talking to the controllers it was going to be too crowded for all of us and our equipment. In addition, they weren't sure of its itinerary. My petty officer knew it was heading for the states, and that was good enough for him. I thought about it. His daughter had strep when he had left, and our communication to the states was very tenuous. I finally told him we needed to wait. I didn't want to break up the team, and I wanted a firmer idea of where in the states we would be going. The petty officer was not happy. He argued. He cajoled. He reasoned. It didn't help his case. I held my position. Unhappy, he followed orders just the same.
Before too long another plane came in. It got us to Miami, and from there we got a commercial flight to our destinations. The plane the petty officer wanted to take ended up going to Ohio. He would have lost an extra day or two had he boarded it.
Following orders. We are in submission to someone. A boss, director, supervisor, or chief is over us. We need to learn to take orders and to follow them. Sometimes it is humbling, but it is also a good character-building exercise.
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