One of the side-stories from Hurricane Maria landfall on Puerto Rico is an opportunity for all leaders to pause a bit and ponder an unappreciated aspect of leadership; what happens when you find yourself the senior person and you have no orders.

Of course, most people know one of Nelson’s best known quotes;

No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.

…but how do you apply that attitude to any service, in any moment of crisis?

I would like to know a lot more about this;

Twenty-eight U.S. Army reservists answered the call of duty, left their families behind, and reported to an abandoned base on the eastern tip of the island.

Then they waited for orders.

And waited.
…
On September 21, the day after Hurricane Maria crashed into the island and knocked out virtually 100 percent of its electricity, the call to mobilize Puerto Rico’s reservists and National Guard went out over AM and FM radio. There was no other way to reach them.
…
It was one week before the soldiers heard from the outside world.
…
“We’ve been here for a week,” said one of the reservists, who had come from a nearby town. “There is no communication, nothing. We just came here.”
…
“We would have to send someone to San Juan to find out what is going, but there’s no gas, so we wait for someone to come to us. We’ve just been standing by,”

Eventually, an NCO showed up – it appears;

Sgt. Navedo appeared after he drove two hours from San Juan.
…
Navedo pulled out a list of names written by hand in a school notebook to call roll. There were 41 altogether, and 28 had arrived.

BZ to the 28 who answered the call … but did they really just wait a week? Simply because they did not have orders? Who was the senior Army officer on NSRR? Heck, the senior uniformed officer?

“Today is the end of fiscal year 2017,” Navedo said. “I need to make sure I get my soldiers paid. Tomorrow, October 1st, is the start of fiscal year 2018.”

Navedo would be leaving almost as soon as he got there.

“I’m just the runner. I go to Ft. Buchanan and make sure the financing is up to date. Then I come here and take care of my soldiers,” he said.

Navedo said his small team of diehard reservists, the 390th transportation battalion, will unload supplies from FEMA, the Air Force, and Marines, and ferry them to the hardest hit areas. But that won’t happen until each of them get to the station and set up their own logistical bases.

“We’re standing by for missions,” Navedo said.

There is a lot to say, but I’ll keep much of my commentary to myself, but everyone should ask themselves what they would do if they found themselves senior.

Is an absence of orders a sufficient reason for inaction when the enemy (in this case Mother Nature) is all around you? What should take priority, admin or mission? A padlock or the people?

It is still too early to get many lessons identified out of Maria, but this one story sure gives a discussion point for any leadership talk.