Basil Jarrett | Unleashing the warrior spirit

THE HEARTBREAKING deaths of JDF Major Bonnie-Paul Williams and Captain Blake Roper within a week of each other earlier this month, was yet another example of this country losing its best and brightest young people. Both men, whom I served with and knew quite well, had so much to offer to this country at a time when we really need it.

Blake was a calm, respectful and humble young man, always quick to offer a salute, even when one wasn’t warranted. Not once did I ever see him throw around who his famous father was or try to get by on the military pedigree of his last name. Bonnie-Paul was no different. Quiet and unassuming. On many occasions, I had to remind myself that outside of the uniform, he was one of Jamaica’s finest young doctors who just chose to jump out of helicopters on the weekends.

THE JDF EFFECT

The circumstances of their deaths, though different, were no less tragic and my heart goes out to the grieving families, friends and loved ones who will have to soldier on with this loss.

Like most persons do when they hear of the death of a loved one or close friend, I paused for a moment to reflect on my own life and my own mortality. What is man, indeed? But I also stopped to reflect on my own time in the JDF, and those lessons that the institution has left with me, even two years after retiring. I remember that first morning when I suddenly woke up a civilian, feeling out of sorts and confused. For the first time in 12 years, I did not have to be up at dawn, polish my boots, blouse my trousers nor shave. I think I even rolled out of bed that first morning without even a thought to make it up. OK, that one is a lie. I never made my bed at home. It was the last bit of passive rebellion that I could hold onto, given the regimented and authoritarian environment of Up Park Camp.

UNLEASHING THE WARRIOR SPIRIT

But the JDF was good to me. It allowed a small boy, obsessed with toy soldiers and play-play guns, to travel from the quiet hills of Goshen, St Elizabeth, and the busy streets of Molynes Road, Kingston, to the exotic and far-flung locales of South America, South Africa and Tivoli Gardens.

It would be inaccurate to say that the JDF taught me integrity, discipline and courage. For that, I thank my grandmother, my father’s leather belt, and football matches against Kingston College – in that order. What the JDF did give me, however, was what US Air Force veteran and Native American motivational speaker D.J. Vanas calls the ‘Warrior Spirit’. Not to be confused with warmongering or misplaced aggression, the warrior spirit isn’t about being bigger, badder, tougher or more powerful than others. It’s much more important than that. It’s about living and fighting for something bigger than yourself, showing character and compassion, leading with integrity, and above all, focusing more, not on what you can get, but on what you can give to others.

TRANSFORMATIVE POWER

Throughout my years of service in the military, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative ability of the warrior spirit to build an indomitable character, capable of conquering any challenge, regardless of the odds. Whether by the rigorous training, the extreme physical regimen or the intense mental conditioning, the military cultivated in us, the resilience needed to overcome insurmountable obstacles both on and off the battlefield. That mental conditioning made us learn to embrace fear and uncertainty, steel our will and our resolve, and to transform trepidation into the fuel driving us forward.

For men like Bonnie-Paul, Blake and others who embrace the warrior spirit, service is the most fulfilling human endeavour that one can undertake on this life journey. Forget the houses and the cars and the yachts and the bank accounts and the stock portfolio – that last one isn’t worth much these days anyway – service beyond self is truly the highest calling that a human being can achieve. It is our most lasting legacy and the most important thing that we leave behind when we’re gone. When you possess and embrace that warrior spirit, you learn to hunger for, seek out and live for challenges. You become comfortable in discomfort and develop a fixity of purpose that says no obstacle is too great. You learn to stand up against tyranny and injustice, even if at times you have to stand alone.

EITHER I WILL FIND A WAY OR I WILL MAKE ONE

The tenets of the warrior spirit are embodied in the JDF’s core values of courage, commitment, honour, integrity, loyalty and discipline. The only thing I would add to this is service. Now, of course, the force isn’t perfect. It has its challenges. But to my mind, it is the only institution that embodies the warrior spirit and seeks to imbue it in each and every one of its members.

That’s why our civilian friends could never understand why someone would leave the comfort of their warm beds at two in the morning to run eagerly towards gunfire, danger and death, when everyone else with good sense is running the other way. It’s why military beings obssess over every little detail, pore over every possible outcome, and consider all 16 million ways to skin a cat. Because for those with the warrior spirit, failure is not an option, every trap has an escape, and every crisis is an opportunity to improve. The warrior spirit demands that no matter what happens, I’m going to find a way forward. I’m going to keep going, I’m going to keep contributing. I’m going to keep fighting. Those are the qualities of a good soldier, the qualities that this country so desperately needs in its people, and the qualities that we so tragically lost when we lost these two men.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Major Bonnie-Paul Williams and Captain Blake Roper of the Jamaica Defence Force. May the warrior spirit that lived in both men comfort us, assuage our grief, and inspire us to be better versions of our current selves.

Major Basil Jarrett is a communications strategist and CEO of Artemis Consulting, a communications consulting firm specialising in crisis communications and reputation management. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.