On my second tour in Vietnam, I was assigned as an

infantry battalion executive officer, second in command, in

the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). I was very pleased with

the assignment. As it happened, I had just graduated with

honors from the Command and General Staff College at Fort

Leavenworth, Kansas. Shortly after I arrived in Vietnam, a

photo of the top five graduates appeared in Army Times. The

division commanding general saw it, and I was pulled up to

the division staff to serve as the operations officer, responsible

for coordinating the combat operations of a twenty-thousand-

man division. I was only a major and it was a lieutenant

colonel’s position. I would have preferred to stay with my

battalion, but wasn’t given that choice. It turned out to be very

demanding and a stretch for me, but it marked a turning point

in my career. Someone was watching.

Years later, as a brigadier general in an infantry division,

I thought I was doing my best to train soldiers and serve my

commander. He disagreed and rated me below standards. The

report is still in my file. It could have ended my career, but

more senior leaders saw other qualities and capabilities[4]in me

and moved me up into more challenging positions, where I

did well.

Doing your best for your boss doesn’t mean you will

always like or approve of what he wants you to do; there will

be times when you will have very different priorities from

his. In the military, your superiors may have very different

ideas than you do about what should be your most important

mission. In some of my units my superiors put an intense

focus on reenlistment rates, AWOL rate, and saving bonds

participation. Most of us down below would have preferred to

keep our primary focus on training. Sure, those management

priorities were important in principle, but they often seemed

in practice to be distractions from our real work. I never

tried to fight my superiors’ priorities. Instead I worked hard

to accomplish the tasks they set as quickly and decisively as I

could. The sooner I could satisfy my superiors, the sooner they

would stop bugging me about them, and the quicker I could

move on to my own priorities. Always give the king his due

first.

What TWO key ideas of the memoir are illustrated in this passage?

Read the passage. excerpt from "why equal pay is worth fighting for" by senator elizabeth warren, april 17, 2014 i honestly can't believe that we're still arguing over equal pay in 2014. when i started teaching elementary school after college, the public school district didn't hide the fact that it had two pay scales: one for men and one for women. women have made incredible strides since then. but 40 years later, we're still debating equal pay for equal work. women today still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, and they're taking a hit in nearly every occupation. bloomberg analyzed census data and found that median earnings for women were lower than those for men in 264 of 265 major occupation categories. in 99.6 percent of occupations, men get paid more than women. that's not an accident; that's discrimination. the effects of this discrimination are real, and they are long lasting. today, more young women go to college than men, but unequal pay makes it harder for them to pay back student loans. pay inequality also means a tougher retirement for women. . for middle-class families today, it usually takes two incomes to get by, and many families depend as much on mom's salary as they do on dad's, if not more. women are the main breadwinners, or joint breadwinners, in two-thirds of the families across the country, and pay discrimination makes it that much harder for these families to stay afloat. women are ready to fight back against pay discrimination, but it's not easy. today, a woman can get fired for asking the guy across the hall how much money he makes. here in the senate, sen. barbara mikulski (d-md.) introduced the paycheck fairness act to give women the tools to combat wage discrimination. it would ensure that salary differences have something to do with the actual job that they are doing, and not just because they are women. senator warren states that the effects of pay discrimination are long-lasting. is this a valid argument supported by accurate evidence? no; warren weakens her point by claiming that the paycheck fairness act would "give women the tools to combat wage discrimination." yes; warren supports her point by noting, "for middle-class families today, it usually takes two incomes to get by." yes; warren supports her point by noting, "pay inequality also means a tougher retirement for women." no; warren weakens her point by noting, "today, a woman can get fired for asking the guy across the hall how much money he makes."