[Commander Rorke T.] Denver told the story of his final training exercise as a Navy SEAL, where students in training have to plan, organize and execute a mission all "under the watchful eye of the lunatic Navy SEAL instructor." His team was behind the clock, and they were in trouble.
He recounts how his ranking officer (also a student in training) was "screaming his head off like the Tasmanian devil," and added, "The fevered pitch level of everyone's behavior was just unsustainable."
Amidst the chaos, the master chief petty officer, the senior ranking enlisted man in the United States Navy — who Denver said is a basic training "god" — came over and told all the officers to gather.
He told them:
"As officers, at a minimum, the boys are going to mimic your behavior. In our line of work, based on our personalities, they're probably going to amplify your behavior, and athletes are the exact same way. As leaders, as captains, as officers, if you keep your head, they'll keep their head. If you keep it together, they'll keep it together. And if you lose it, they'll lose it.
So I'm going to share with you the best thing I learned as a master chief when I was a new guy from a master chief in Vietnam: Calm is contagious."
And as he walked away, Commander Denver heard him say, "Because if you keep your head in our line of work, you keep your head!"
