I was recently talking with the mother of a young soldier
who is losing his interest and faith of the Army. She told me his dream of a
lifetime was to become a soldier, train and serve his country. His recruiter kept
him excited through his last year of high school, explaining of the quality
training he was going to receive, all while serving his country. A few weeks
after graduation, he shipped off to basic training and fell in love with the
Army. He got his first choice of duty stations and soon upon arriving, his unit
went to the field and his excitement grew even stronger. Then reality set in
after returning from the field, doing maintenance on the equipment and then
nothing else happened. Winter set in and it seems the training stopped, and the
long days of boredom have set in. I have seen this all before from units I have
served in. Training schedules posted and not followed, NCO’s sitting around in
B.S. meetings, telling war stories or hiding at home between formations, all
while their soldiers sit around in the day room playing video games or watching
movies. We spend thousands of dollars recruiting young people into our ranks,
spend thousands of dollars molding and training them just to send them to units
where lazy NCO’s fail to do their jobs of taking care of their soldiers. There are
no reasons soldiers should be bored or idle during the duty day. The job of the
NCO is making sure their soldiers are trained and given meaningful tasks for
their future development, counseled on what they need to be doing to gain the
next rank and develop points to become an NCO. The problem is, they do not want
to become like their NCO. Leadership is about setting the example, giving guidance
and developing our next generation of leaders. My next step is going to be
writing a letter to the young soldier and giving him the advice he needs to
hear and not follow in the footsteps of the typical barracks rat private. I
will give him guidance about the educational opportunities awaiting him and how
he can use his idle time to gain college credits and a future degree he is
going to need when he ETS’s. If he continues at his current rate, chances are
he will spend four years serving our country in a job he now hates, with
limited skills and four years behind his peers back home. My advice for those
NCO’s; do your damn job so I don’t have to do it for you. Be the leader and
take care of your soldiers, train them, give them guidance and above all; get
off your butt and do your job!
