My First Victory

I had a work-related victory today. After finishing the watch-floor shift and on 3 hours of sleep, I finally tried to do the job I'm here for. We had to review a long, proposed plan and make comments on it (based on our expertise and experience...okay). I had read it several times, not sure what kinds of comments I was supposed to make. It seemed like they wanted things that we could immediately changed and do to improve the plan, but I only questions because the air section was pretty vague. So that became my inputs, asking for specifics and asking them in such a way that 1) showed I knew a little bit of what I was talking about, and 2) guided them to way-aheads that they could/should consider. I sent my comments at the end of my 14-hour shift and went back to the tent. This morning I had two e-mails from fellow working group members saying I had made several good points and another from one of the colonels that forwarded my e-mail out as a "great example of the type of research we're looking for right now." So, that felt good. It was a classic case of not being exactly sure (confident enough) in what you were thinking, but finally overcoming the insecurity of the situation and just saying what you thought and be validating that you do have a clue after all.