Admiral Nimitz and the soul of leadership...

[yamiyugikun]

In an anthology on U.S. naval history I have been reading, one of Admiral Nimitz's commanders said that "leadership is the soul of all human endeavor." It is the flame that keeps men in trying times never to give up, no matter how dire the circumstances, sadness and deathness. That flame of leadership, I believe, is founded on faith, not in one's warships or equipment but the very human beings in uniform a commander serves with. I believe, in trying to understand and know who Admiral Nimitz is, that his spirit was genuinely connected to that of his men, in forming a brotherhood, based on faith in fellow human beings.


Faith in another person, I believe that is what Lord Horatio Nelson had in forming his band of brothers. Like Lord Nelson, Admiral Nimitz forged one of the strongest bands of fighting men in history. In the beginning of another book I read, in which Admiral Nimitz wrote the preface, he had in the very beginning of the book the Lord's Prayer, asking the Almighty to protect the nation's ships at sea. Except that instead of "Great Britain," Nimitz replaced it with "United States of America."

To go back to a prayer used since seafaring days in Elizabethean England, tells me that Admiral Nimitz truly knew the perils of the sea, yet at the time time, hope and optimism, having faith in one's fellow man. The faith that Admiral Nimitz had during World War II, at the Battle of Midway, we must rekindle within our hearts and not give up, may be what Admiral Mullen called the "Miracle of Midway" when referring to its brave men.

As an American, a civilian, I am trying to discover the source of Admiral Nimitz's strength, so that when I graduate, in whatever career I persue, I might bring some positive change to the world around me. I didn't mean to "deify" Admiral Nimitz, but reading the biography of him by E.B. Potter, I can't help but admire him.