Unshakable commitment can carry us forward when everything around us says retreat.
Few people demonstrated that better than Brigadier General Norman Cota on D-Day.
His courage under fire offers three enduring lessons about commitment, leadership, and success.
1. Commitment builds deep roots for success
Norman Cota led men through extraordinary danger by doing what leaders sometimes forget: he went first.
While many were dying and succumbing to German firepower, Cota charged.
On D-Day, the 51-year-old brigadier general confronted a group of soldiers pinned down by enemy fire and said…
“Let us go inland and be killed.”
— Norman Cota
Cota asked the commander of the group, ‘What outfit is this?’
“5th Ranger Battalion,” someone muttered.
“Well, Rangers lead the way!” shouted Cota.
No one budged.
They wilted because the first soldier through the German fence was blown away.
So, Cota ran through the breach.
He led them through the gap and up a sharp ridge to a German bunker.
After running ahead, Cota twirled his .45 on his finger, coaxing the men.
That moxy opened the door for men and supplies to pour in.
2. Commitment turns conviction into action
German fire rained down everywhere from…
- farmhouses
- barns
- walls
Cota approached soldiers taking cover in a farmhouse, and he asked the captain why his men weren’t attacking.
“Sir, the Germans are in there shooting at us,” said the captain.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, captain,” as Cota unbuckled grenades from his belt. “You and your men start shooting at them. I’ll take a squad of men, and you and your men watch carefully. I’ll show you how to take a house with Germans in it.”
Creeping close to the house, Cota raced with the men, tossing grenades in the windows, and kicked in the front door. After tossing more grenades and waiting for the explosions, they attacked inside, and the surviving Germans ran shrieking out the back.
“Well, I won’t be around to do it for you again. I can’t do it for everybody.”
— Excerpts from Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers
Cota goes back to the captain, “You’ve seen how to take a house. Do you understand? Do you know how to do it now?”
“Yes sir,” replied the captain.
Commitment thrives in the service of a meaningful purpose.
Purpose is the reason behind our work and our service.
Without it, we can spend our lives reacting instead of advancing.
But when we are in touch with our core conviction, we move forward with unshakable resolve.
Before he died, Norman Cota watched Robert Mitchum play him in the 1962 Academy Award-winning movie The Longest Day.
3. Commitment creates habits for success
Thinking about Norman Cota fires me up because we need real heroes to…
- teach us how to draw lines in the sand
- remind us that patience ignores the short term for the long term
- motivate us to move even when everything is not working
Commitment doesn’t guarantee an easy path. It gives us the perseverance to keep moving when the path gets hard.
Who’s your favorite example of commitment?
Stories like this are part of the lessons I write about leadership, resilience, purpose, and making life count. You can explore more on my About Stephen Blaising page.
Steve, my favorite hero from WW2 is my father. Russell Howard Looney. He was with the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion and was in the second wave at Utah Beach on D Day. The 299th was the only unit to land men on both Utah and Omaha beaches that day. He was later awarded a Bronze Star with V device for valor during the breakout from Normandy during the battle of the Falaise Gap. After the war he became a dentist and lived a quiet life never speaking about his war experience.
Mark, thanks for sharing these details about your dad. We salute him. My first thought was the unimaginable intensity and close calls he confronted. Ron Hall, in the sequel to his New York Times best selling book, “Same Kind of Different as Me,” quoted Denver More about this, “Every man should have the courage to stand up and face the enemy.” Your dad along with all the brave men and women who served did that for all of us.