I was conning a ship while the captain stood on the bridge-wing to watch our boarding party inspect a potentially hostile vessel. He was generally considered a

I was conning a ship while the captain stood on the bridge-wing to watch our boarding party inspect a potentially hostile vessel. He was generally considered a really good, competent, and gentle captain. I was good at conning. I mean, throw a ring in the water, and I could maneuver the ship so the bos'un only had to stick his arm over the side and drop the grappling hook straight down through the ring to retrieve it. Every time. But this time, I had to keep the ship in a very specific position, to make sure the captain could see his men now on a potentially hostile vessel, we had intel that they were a mother ship for the cartel's cigarette boats. 450' ship vs a 150' ship, with 6 degrees of freedom each, rough seas, sundown, and I was off by 10 feet. A rather critical 10 feet: CO couldn't see inside their bridge. He blasted in front of my entire watch team. That was 14 years ago. I will never forget it. I was in the OR with the coolest neurosurgeon I've ever seen. WashU grad (the med school's mean MCAT score is at 99th percentile for individuals). This guy could operate without disturbing the venous plexus around the spinal cord. I had a hard time focusing on the work because he was moving so little it didn't even disturb the smoke under the operating microscope. I could literally inspect individual specks of particulate smoke hanging in the air. He was moving microns at a time. He had asked for and rejected a specific pituitary in every surgery that week. This time, looking at a patient's dura mater, and trying to sneak around to the other side, seeing the wrong rongeur, his head didn't even move. But he grabbed the pituitary in both hands, bent the stainless steel, and flung it the floor so hard it bounced as high as the table and hit a wall. BA-WHONGGGG! The fact that it was this guy that did it is what everyone felt. I mean, it was palpable. That was 3 years ago. That scrub tech, I guarantee, will never forget that experience. I doubt I will. I was taught years ago to carry two bags. Put the leadership tools you like in one bag. Put the ones you don't like in the other bag. Remember. Sometimes the leader looks in the good bag, and comes up empty, or just decides that she's had enough. Was it the right thing to do? It doesn't matter. Just decide which bag you're going to put it in.