The Wedge principle is a time-honored military mantra; while it may be present in a wide variety of career fields in the military, the high-visibility nature of the fighter pilot profession has made the Wedge principle a strong and lasting tradition.

The Wedge principle has nothing to do with lever arms, inclined planes, or any other form of engineering.  It is also not to be confused with the callsign “Wedge,” which is given to those who resemble the “simplest tool” ever invented.  Instead, it is a time-honored, unwritten principle that basically says 

The last person to screw up, or the one who screws up the worst, gets all the attention.

Imagine, for example, a fighter pilot taxiing out for a mission who inadvertently scrapes his wingtip against another airplane.  The damage isn’t significant, but his error causes much consternation.  Taxiing near other aircraft becomes a high emphasis item, and every pilot mentions the fighter pilot’s error as an example of what not to do.  Everybody knows his name, and no one remembers anything else that has recently gone wrong (or anything that fighter pilot has done right).  He is the Wedge.

By screwing up, that fighter pilot has drawn all attention to himself, basically creating a bow wave behind him that “protects” others whose lesser mistakes are overshadowed by his.  In that respect, the Wedge is “out front,” making the initial blow or “breaking the ice” with respect to public errors, and setting the tone (in a punitive way) for all that follows.

In another way of thinking about it, that fighter pilot’s foul up causes him to be “wedged” at the bottom of the pile.  His folly becomes the story of “did you hear what happened” around the unit.

Either way, that fighter pilot is the Wedge…until someone else screws up.

You see, the Wedge is the person who has done the worst thing that has happened recently.  Once someone commits a greater foul (or a lesser foul, after enough time passes), they will fall to the bottom of the stack…and “wedge” their way underneath the former victim.  (And someone always will.)  Once replaced, the former wedge is forgotten; “wedged,” if you will, from memory by this latest scrape.

Obviously, no one wants to be the Wedge, nor does he necessarily wish it on others, but after a particularly public screw up, it is not uncommon for a pilot to take consolation in the knowledge that he probably doesn’t need to wait long in order to be “wedged” away from the bottom by someone else’s buffoonery.

Because there’s almost always some foul-up to point at, a Wedge normally scrapes the last guy from the bottom and replaces him (much to his relief).  It is possible, however, to have a pre-emptive wedge.  In the case of a pre-emptive wedge, someone at the beginning of a long mission, TDY, deployment, or other discrete event may screw up to such a level that, to a point, the rest of the unit is “immunized” from repercussions due to minor indiscretions.  To a point, they can “mess up” so long as they don’t do so as badly as the Wedge.

A recent public example of a pre-emptive wedge occurred just prior to a NASA shuttle launch.  After getting all the way to the top of the tower, at the end of the gantry, with a foot in the door of the Space Shuttle (for the second time, following a scrubbed launch)…a crewmember realized he’d forgotten his mission binder:

Monday morning’s countdown ended up being uneventful, except for a last-minute run to the launch pad. Astronaut Stephen Robinson forgot the binder holding all his flight data files, and the emergency red team had to rush it out to him, just before he climbed aboard. The launch team couldn’t resist some gentle teasing.

Robinson’s folly highlighted him for the rest of the mission, making him the Wedge for the entire flight.  If another astronaut had, say, dropped a multi-thousand dollar tool bag during a spacewalk, their greater and more recent error would have overshadowed his, making them the Wedge.

Obviously, the concept of the Wedge plays out in many places in everyday life.  News headlines last only as long as it takes for another catastrophe or scandal to bump what was a front page exclamation to a below-the-fold afterthought.  A politician’s gaffe lasts far longer in the press on a slow news day, or may be completely overlooked if overcome by serious world events.

As mentioned above, the cost, risk, publicity and danger of the fighter pilot profession cause the Wedge principle to live on.  While it may seem easy to Monday-morning quarterback a fighter pilot’s actions that made him the Wedge, or it may seem fun to mock him for it, it is important to remember one thing:  Without fail, every fighter pilot will spend some time at the bottom of the pile or in the penalty box for some mistake or error.  Every fighter pilot will at some point be the Wedge.

That may be why, though fighter pilots stereotypically abhor failure, a Wedge will most often be met with a slap on the shoulder and the advice not to worry about it.  After all, it’s only a matter of time before it’s someone else’s turn.