So much for the little training cruise…

Chris Zeitz
Point of Decision
Published in
3 min readAug 31, 2015
Learning how things work on a starship.

The Wrath of Khan is often held to be the best of the Star Trek movies. Like all good science fiction, it takes familiar concepts and places them on distant worlds. The film is about growing old and both Khan and Kirk are surrounded by much younger subordinates.

It is an enjoyable film to watch from a military or veteran perspective as well, particularly the slightly longer director’s cut which adds a little more depth to some of the mentor / protege relationships in the film. Kirk notes to Scotty’s closest trainee that the chief engineer has been both a blessing and a curse for a generation onboard the ship. Perhaps for this reason, engineering is the only section of the vessel to get the white glove treatment from the admiral during inspection.

What do the most human of senior officers, Kirk and McCoy, do when it’s the former’s birthday and they are stuck training junior officers? They get drunk and stumble their way through the next duty day. That is a very martial approach to mortality and less than exciting assignments.

What time do we have to be there tomorrow morning?
Rough morning for two senior officers.

At the start of the movie, training is the mission for the ship and crew. When a real world crisis interrupts that mission, the senior officers and trainees shift roles. The transition from a training mission to an actual mission has been an aspect of scheduled and extraordinary deployments for the US military in recent years. A unit confuting significant training exercises is already consolidated as well as outfitted with much of its equipment.

Senior officer experience, whether its knowledge of the ship or analysis of an adversary’s patterns, tends to be the most helpful as the crisis unfolds. But, had the most senior officer listened to a precocious junior officer quoting regulations, they might not have gotten into the mess in the first place.

Training replacements involves not only conveying your experience but also listening to their questions and insights. It also involves some discomfort — perhaps while exiting space dock — as you know they are going to make mistakes, but that is how people often learn best.

We are all fated to grow old and be replaced. This movie captures that with a particular focus on what that means for a military organization.

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Chris Zeitz
Point of Decision

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