When Leaders Fail

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!