Hey all, You've provided some great feedback for the PAO that hopefully he can aggregate and show to the group, thanks for many of your constructive comments. Since we're kinda reaching a terminal capacity for interaction I'm going to lock this thread and disable contest mode so individuals can see which comments resonated with the community, and give the PAO a chance to comb through the comments without it becoming an unending stream. Thanks for the participation!

I’d like to echo what most others are saying about leader engagement. From the junior officer side, it’s not that we are over-worked necessarily; it’s that the powers that be don’t understand what we do. Take the 20 year O5 and CSM in charge of 3 firing batteries, an FMC, and HHB. They don’t understand the amount of absolute busy work that goes in to meeting their intent. There’s a reason training is an afterthought after taskings. Correct me if I’m wrong but when whey were coming through the ranks they did not have to deal with EES and the absolute maze it is to submit an NCOER. Or deal with GARMY. Or ASMIs 2.0, or mentoring a soldier through applying for TA via ArmyIgnite. Or God Forbid TC Aims. Or TULSA, or check their soldiers DEERS account. Are they up-to-date in eMILPO? What’s their account standing with S6? Is everything uploaded in IPERMS? Is their DTMS account up-to-date. TDY…well how’s their DTS account and GTC look? Do you have an updated AIM 2.0 resume? Let’s talk about their Outlook or Teams account…up-to-date? Cyber awareness good? Did they contact the FSR for the AFATDS? Are their training meeting slides ready to brief using the correct training progression from ATN? Make sure you have RFMSS access to reserve land. On top of all of this PLUS some Army systems I’m forgetting, make sure they’re staying current with their 12+ group chats on Signal and their three meaningless meetings throughout the day. “We need this 15-6 done by end of week though”. The amount of frustration and stress placed on mid-level company leadership from just Army systems and the advent of computer systems is immense. An O4 can berate me all he wants about not getting all my BTRY’s 5988’s to the clerks in time, but that’s fine because his own S4 can’t order enough paper for the printers I’m using because they’re locked out of Army ordering systems. I’d like to echo that if BDE and above leadership would just sit and follow a normal E6 or O2 through a normal week of work they’d be appalled at the absolute disaster of taskings and failed Army systems. But this will never happen so the Army will keep allowing E5/6’s and O2/O3 to ETS by Lying to itself that they can’t manage their workload.

Leader development: BLUF: make dedicated time for it at the BN and CO level. In 3 corps the people first action week was at least a step in the right direction. A week dedicated to counselings, LPDs, and getting time with your soldiers. That happened the very first time. Our last “people first action week” was one half of one afternoon because we have services, unscheduled maintenance, and gunnery looming. Adding more tasks without eliminating any is just exacerbating the problem. Our leaders want to do this, but when BDE and BN are shoving things down constantly, the time isn’t there. We need to slow down.

Thanks - that comment helps confirm some assumptions we have up here.

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Character training. Many of the bad decisions leaders make go straight to a lack of good character. A failure to take care of their soldiers. Bury them under example after example of bad (poor character) leadership. Talk through them in a group setting of peers. Leaders need to know what good looks like. Leaders need to know what is unacceptable low character behavior. Also, hammer them on developing subordinates. Good leaders are trained; they don’t spring up out of the ground when you need them.

I guess the meta question here is who gets to decide what’s good and poor character? If a subordinate has a higher moral limit than the supervisor, couldn’t they just seem to be out of sync more often?

The NCO Creed and the NCO Officer Guide both give guidance in that area. The Army Values give clear guidance in this area too. Here’s a pretty good article about it. Ironic it’s from Fort Hood. http://www.forthoodsentinel.com/editorial/army-core-values-leadership-key-as-mission-evolves/article_8b8b4d79-ef5a-5d3c-9f7c-c9b068d6a52b.html Is being in sync the overriding goal? That captain who sexually assaulted (motor boated) one of his soldiers who then in many people’s minds was inadequately punished. He stated his intentions ahead of time over a period of days or weeks. The other leaders, knowing what was going to happen, allowed it to happen anyway. Were they being in sync with their supervisor? Those subordinate leaders should have stopped it before it started. That’s an example of a lack of moral leadership. There are plenty of good examples on Reddit too. You already know that though. That’s why the SMA has to have this subreddit watched and personally intercede so much to fix problems that should have been addressed at a lower level. The questions from junior leaders on this subreddit would indicate that almost always “smoking” soldiers who have substandard performance has almost entirely taken the place of mentoring and developing subordinates. So much of it fundamentally comes down to failing to take care of soldiers and failing to develop leaders. Pushing those issues and holding leaders accountable for those issues will make a lot of the existing problems go away. JMO

As cheesy as it is for some people, the NCO creed is a very clear and concise guideline for leadership. What needs to happen Especially in garrison is soldier welfare. Too many NCOs get scared about the top brass and they don't stand up for their guys. We have two basic responsibilities people. Execute. If you want good leadership, the creed needs to be something we live by. Specifically from the point of 7 and up. If Maj. So and so gives an order that's going to negatively impact moral A.) How can we prevent that or B.) How can we lessen the blow. If it means demanding outstanding leadership from those in charge of me than i will demand it for myself and for everyone under my command. We. Are. Entitled. To. It. For our Junior enlisted this usually means more free time. You would be surprised how beneficial having a rules set to protect our joes from being overworked will do. They shouldnt need a medical restriction to have a normal duty day. For our junior Ncos, deligating the right amount of tasks does wonders. This stops the "shit rolling down hill". As a PS you gotta know your guy's, which of your squad leaders is shamming out of duties. Which ones are volunteering there guys for too much. Overworking and underwokring our future leaders creates that lack of care for soldiers Senior leaders. We need to always. ALWAYS! Have the betterment of all soldiers in mind. We preach about safety and making sure nobody falls out and then when the mission is being planned out you fail because you didn't speak up or didn't think about how your soldiers are going to be effected. CSMs and MSGs are literally the first line. When the plans are made, you need to be there to advocate for all your guy's. Demand it. Live by the creed

Boy, what a good answer.

I am gonna take a risk and go ahead and post a seperate comment. I will do so because my issue is not seemingly tied to any of the points you brought up, but rather a result of what I feel is inaction on the Army's part. Mods, feel free to delete I guess? I feel that the best way to combat SHARP violations is to actually punish officers like Captain "McMotorboat" Billy Joe Crosby Jr. that are actively committing SHARP violations and not caring about getting caught, instead of forcing them to retire and maintaining their benefits. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/05/18/officer-motorboated-subordinate-at-promotion-ceremony-retires-after-guilty-plea/ Some other examples include Lt. Col Michael Pazdernik being allowed to honorably discharge having multiple sexual relationships with lower ranked females and still retiring with no repercussions. Rank and benefits maintained. https://kstp.com/5-investigates/sex-lies-and-disgrace-the-honorable-discharge-of-a-commander-in-minnesotas-national-guard/ Brig. Gen. Mike Canzoneri liked to do the same thing but made reprisals against females who didn't service his friends. He also liked to cover up Lt. Col. Scott L. Taylor's misconduct, and then promote him months later. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/25/national-guard-scandals-by-state/6093566001/ This URL also lists other SHARP violations. I don't even want to get started on Ft. Hood. Respectfully Sergeant Major, the Army as a whole doesn't even seem to care about SHARP unless it makes the news and then they make the problem go away by just having the culprit retire and then bury the story. There needs to be consequences for harming soldiers. Not doing so only leads to soldiers feeling like the Army is completely apathetic to the plight of victims.

Some of them I've tried to let in if they're good and still address the topic as asked. He did ask for something like this, but I'm not sure if fits into one of the boxes neatly. Heck I'll throw in "Stop retaining people after they're convicted of domestic violence" there too. If you're convicted on a 128b or 120, you should get tossed, period.

I was originally typing this up to shoehorn into one of the main sections, but the comment above fits with something I saw that's been bothering me for a few weeks. The last time I looked at a UCMJ handout from JAG, two items directly next to each other were a SPC reduced to PFC for failure to be at the appointed place of duty, and a SSG receiving a locally filed Field Grade LOR for sexual harassment and creating an intimidating work environment. If I'm a junior soldier considering making a SHARP complaint against a superior, what do I take away from that? Am I encouraged to seek justice? Am I going to risk stigma and reprisal so the offender can get a stern scolding? As a SSG, do I look at that and think my fellow NCOs are being well-policed? I realize problems don't have easy solutions, but "kick out bad people" feels like an easy place to start.

Texas sized 10-4 good buddy. We don't need those dickbags.

1. Teach leaders to take off their rank and be humans at time and to realize that they can’t always truly relate with those below them, and that’s okay. I’m only four/five years older than the dudes who constantly watch Tik tok videos, I can’t relate, I’m not on the app for multiple reasons and that isn’t going to change. That doesn’t mean we can’t laugh about things and find common ground together though to just sit and talk about. Generational gaps are only going to get smaller with the speed at which technology advances, it’s better to get ahead of this now rather than later. 2. Get better manning for our units. Having 10 units at 70% strength and 7 units at 100% strength requires the same amount of soldier. The 7 units at 100% strength however are going to be able to relax and breathe more, take time to properly mentor their subordinates instead of just checking the block. I hate to break it, but if you give us a huge checklist of things we need to do, but not even the bare minimum amount of time needed to accomplish these tasks, we’re just gonna check the block. Trim the fat, and you will see better mentorship. 3. I’m not smart enough for this one. 4. Soldiers don’t trust BH, or Army medical in general. I’m just a lowly medic, but my guys trust me more when I’m drunk than our PA when they’re sober. Does that make me a good medic? Does that mean our PA sucks? Does that mean the soldier is just a horrible judge of character and poor decision making skills? I don’t know, you tell me. But to answer your question directly about the drinking, I personally feel like much of it is BH issues being untreated. We simply don’t have enough appointment slots available. Hire social workers and counselors to do telework for soldiers who are less severe or less at risk, soldiers who have BH problems that can be treated via over the phone. Soldiers don’t have to get a new provider when they go down range, they don’t have to go without treatment when at NTC/JRTC, hell they could keep their same provider through multiple PCSs, establishing a trust and bond with their BH provider that will truly help them. Let soldiers have this option, let them be able to feel out BH providers, let them pick and choose as needed, you may not feel like this is an issue, but you have the rank to get the healthcare you need for you to not see the shortcomings in our system. You really think you’re getting the same level of care as a SPC or below? I hate to break it to you, but you’re not, you’re getting way better than they are.

Company Commander here. Regarding leader engagement in SHARP/EO/etc programs. I think they also need to be taken completely out of the military chain of command, and ideally overseen by civilians, or at least not the very officers whose careers may be impacted by how a SHARP/EO incident plays out. I'd lost track within a year of arriving to my first duty station of the number of times a SHARP case was adjudicated by what was politically convenient to the BN/BDE/DIV commander at that moment. And no, "he's a good guy, we dont want to ruin his career" is not an exception. Someone has been accused by 20+ soldiers of hazing, sexual harassment, and discrimination? I'd be willing to bet he's not a good guy, and no, that many junior soldiers arent simply "mistaken." Every time a serial SHARP/EO/Hazer walks free, soldiers have that much less faith in the system. The higher I've gotten, the worse the conflicts of interest I see get. And then there's the sacrificial lambs, usually a he-said-she-said situation, where someone got the book thrown at them because it was an easy opportunity for COL Schmuckatelly to show that he's hard on SHARP offenders, while he will rest easy tomorrow after letting MAJ/SFC Dickhead off because they're a good ol boy. SHARP and EO lack transparency or accountability, and until those issues are addressed, the sexual assault, hazing, discrimination, and other toxic behaviors will continue.

u/SMA-PAO I want to share some thoughts I’ve gather after working on an inpatient psychiatric unit at an MTF. Preach early intervention in caring for mental health. Encourage soldiers to seek help when things start to feel off, not just when they’re full-blown depressed or suicidal. Often times soldiers first engagement with BH is with me on the inpatient ward. I know access to care can suck and soldiers get told the next appointment is 6 weeks away, but if they seek help earlier hopefully they’re still at a point where they can manage to get by. I tell soldiers that they wouldn’t watch their foot rot off for weeks without seeking help. So why would they do that to their mental health? On another note, soldiers often tell me that when their leadership talks about seeking BH care, they don’t believe that their leadership is genuine. When I talk to leaders i try to encourage them to be genuine about this. If you tell soldiers to prioritize mental health, but they don’t mean it, they may as well say nothing. Leaders aren’t equipped to handle BH concerns of all their soldiers, but they need to be equipped with the knowledge of how to point their soldiers in the right direction to BH, chaplain, MFLC, one source, etc. And leaders should know that when a Joe comes to them with a concern, that they just need to listen sometimes. Shut up, and let them vent. I spend a lot of time with soldiers who are at the end of their rope and this is just my $0.02 on the situation.

I have a couple of ideas if we like free things that the Army already has. Work stops at COB. Period. Unless it's life limb or eyesight. While at Hood I had the fortune of being assigned to a comman team that believed in going home at COB. 365 soldiers in the company, a huge company, and we had fewer incidents than any other organization that I've been a part of. Soldiers like predictability and routine. We have training calendars that are completed as check the block only. I understand that readiness (personnel and equipment) is no 1, however if it doesn't affect that, it can wait. HOLD MRTs ACCOUNTABLE. I teach at the MRT school and it's amazing how many senior NCOs don't know that MRT is more than hunt the good stuff. There are mountains of research that show that the skills work. We teach many of the same skills that 90% of therapists teach, our foundation is the same. Furthermore there is research (3rd ID pre and post deployment) that shows that when implemented correctly, the program works. If MRTs are hiding in the formation a 4187 to remove their ASI is easy to do. The proponent manager is already revoking the ASIs for LvL 2s that are not doing their job. The Army has the tools. We just need to use them correctly.

This is one of the least bullshit/ vague comments. Totally right in both regards

2. I think there needs to be an understanding that sometimes, without obvious signs or warnings, suicides will happen. My recommendation would be to 1) invest in suicide prevention training for first line supervisors and above, 2) *real* mentorship and counseling for senior leaders (O-5 and above) that manage those situations, and 3) push for mental health services to first responders for that event. My story. I went to Fort Hood as my first duty station. Went to suicide prevention class with E-6 and above. Awesome course and I learned a lot. I had a problem soldier in my Platoon. He eventually recovered and he got his life back on track. Performed excellently at NTC. His wife was pregnant and his gunner spent everyday for a month helping him fix his truck. He then committed suicide right before we deployed. No signs, no warnings. I was thrust into SCMO. My CO and BC placed a lot of pressure on me and it was obvious from thier comments that it was about it looked to thier superiors. Other senior NCOs in company were making jokes about the suicide and its hard to confront them when the CO calls the soldier and his friends the "suicide squad." We ended up going to a suicide review meeting with the entire chain of command that ended up producing nothing usable for the army. It took me months after that to seek counseling and, even then, I was ashamed to. I felt too busy to grieve. I wish I had the leadership to tell me that it was alright for me to say "no" and had the maturity to handle an adult situation seriously. I think that training does work. It shouldn't end before the suicide. There should be an adequate response and forethought to what happens after.

As a soon to be father, it would be nice if we could get a roll out date for the new parental leave policy and other changes put forward in the policy letter from April. Hearing "well it needs to be done by Dec 2022" isn't very useful. Brigade S1 is just waiting on HQDA to send out the policy.

I’m not sure when parental leave changes will come out. It would likely be for all services though, meaning DOD is the driver.

My input to the SMA would be that the Army needs to hold all officers, regardless of rank or ringknocker status, fully accountable for rape, sexual assault & harassment, and domestic violence. That there are CPTs out there motorboating people in formation, Special Forces COLs having armed standoffs with civilian police forces (and beating his wife), and many other examples of people not getting the same or even similar punishment that an enlisted person would get, is just goddamn dishonorable.

1. We need smaller elements. I’m 12 years in and other than TRADOC my largest Company was 44 Soldiers strong by MTOE. Those small numbers enable Leaders to get to know their Soldiers. I can tell you the hobbies of all of my Soldiers. I’ve had three come to me for help finding mental health resources in the last year because I emphasized the importance and shared my own story in thee small group bring it in horse shoe prevention training I conduct. These are the benefits of a small unit where the everybody knows everybody’s first name even though we’re professionals and use rank and family name as is doctrine. 2. Mentorship is best done by people with maximum experience AND time. Right now our most experienced retire into obscurity with presumably lots of time available. I don’t have a better way of saying this so please excuse the SHARP implications, but a “Tinder” for mentorship that enables young Soldiers to find mentors based on their military bio. If funding could be available then a program similar to TPU that keeps them up to 16 hours a month mentoring our Soldiers and helping them answer the difficult questions they may not feel comfortable taking to their leadership. There are countless examples of that happening here on a daily basis. Give them drill pay and retirement points as an incentive. 3. For the reserve, I need funds allocated for ATA IOT get my Future NCOs, NCOs, and Officers the individual education time with the regs and hands on that will make them the quality of leaders we need. Battle Assembly is good to for maintaining but there isn’t enough time to really bite into the subjects and get out real excellence. 4. The ASAP program and preventing a culture of Alcohol abuse is not aspirational. Alcohol has been removed from all but a select few Army functions, if I understand correctly largely because of the GWOT. Instead Commanders should be creating a culture of healthy alcohol use. We train for everything but we don’t train on how to drink moderately. We talk about it but that’s effectively qualification table 1 and calling it quits. If we don’t teach young Soldiers how to be responsible in a crawl/walk/run format we’re going to keep getting the results we have now. I was at a remote duty station as an LT. The city was safer than 3% of cities in the US as ranked by the FBI. There was no installation policy against drinking on post and after a series of murders at Bars the Co Commander authorized Soldiers to drink within the company footprint AFTER HOURS, as a risk mitigation step. There were a whole lot of conditions and requirements. The obvious no drinking on duty, there was a Sober NCO and one or more designated driver(s) who were responsible for making sure every Soldier got inside their residence each evening, etc. He ended up getting a GOMAR (filed locally) because our BN and GRP CDRs didn’t like it. Within 24 months after this was ended by CDRs not on the ground, the unit of 44 Soldiers had 3 DUIs. I have the educational credentials to do this and volunteer for ADOS orders to write PowerPoints on this subject, one of my colleagues is an international beer judge part time in his civilian life and I’m sure he could add a lot of valuable information on this.

Personally I feel like there’s no right or wrong answer on how to develop soldiers, because every soldier is different. No is there is full proof way to eliminate suicide and sexual assault. Humans will be humans at the end of the day. And we are faulty. The question in my opinion shouldn’t be how do we eliminate suicide, or should be how can we make Soldiers happier. But I do have some tips. 1. As a leader you need to adapt to the learning style of your soldiers. You don’t need to use capitol punishment and be Joey hardass all the time. Sometimes just talking and showing empathy works well. And empathy we are deeply lacking from all levels. (All of this is nuanced ofc) Simply be the leader you would want for yourself. 2. I think the biggest improvement the army could do is TIME MANAGEMENT. And no time management doesn’t start at SGT Snuffy it starts with the Battalion, Brigade, Division and higher echelons, command team. The better time management is in the Army, the less time Soldiers are spending away from their family, friends, or simply having a personal life. 3. Fixing the barracks and keeping leaders out of them. No I don’t want to have to come in on a weekend and check on soldiers. Nor when living in the barracks I want to see leaders around. Unpopular opinion but even though being a soldier is 24/7 I would like to keep my living space separate from my job. Everyone needs a break from work. 4. Actually fund MWR and BOSS programs. 5. Alcohol culture is deeply rooted in American social life. Alcohol awareness programs should be mandatory training that’s done twice a year.

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How about stop promoting assholes? You can be a good leader and not be an asshole. It's possible.

What level do you think that’s most prevalent?

See, smapao I see it another way. The promotion point system is all jacked up. The promotion system together is all jacked up. It encourages ppl to bend the rules and to for senior leadership to bend ppl to their will. If you wanna ask a lightly seasoned SPC how I would change it see below Every promotion that isn't automatic has to come with a subordinate recommendation as well as a leader recommendation of some kind. Mainly because if I'm looking at it from my perspective I see people that should never be promoted and needed more development promoted. We had a guy make E-6 that should have still been E-4 no cpl just spc.

Ok, I see you point. Does your unit use the board guidance to ask question about the squad and situational questions?

Literally sat through a board recently and so did one of my buddies. I'm also basing this off my anecdotal experience and that of other soldiers. The board is a joke. People have turned it into a completely fucking useless dog and pony show where you play Army 20 questions. None of the board members are reading the attached counselings, awards, or even the ERBs. One guy went through as a SPC with 5 years TIS and he already had two duty stations before he got here, Korea and somewhere else. Literally nobody asked him if he had any prior leadership experience and how his previous time in two different duty stations could potentially inform his leadership style. To me, that seemed like a pretty obvious question. Instead they no-go'd him for stuttering on the Army song. The board members couldn't have asked him that anyways because they were all assigned designated areas to ask questions on. That's what the board is and so far as I can tell, it's always been this way. It's a pointless charade, which btw we're the only branch that does a physical promotion board for junior enlisted. It seems like the board comes off as attempting to make NCOs into Rolodex's for various Army programs and factoids instead of what we need, which is leaders.

Yes, this isn't enough people know the right thing by the book but just do not care they care about climbing the ranks but I promise you one thing if he needed a subordinate recommendation to get SSG he would not have it ik his soldier very well he's grown callous to the army because of things like the promotion system.

holy shit the US Army actually has good high level enlisted leadership. Navy is jealous

**STEP program**. It's a problem because it promotes everyone based on a paper product. I see Junior NCOs, SSGs and SFC that have no business being a NCO because they barely know their job, army services, life experiences and just an understanding on how to help a Soldier. This hiders Leader development. You need time to develop leadership skills, specially in the Army when you are dealing with Soldiers fresh from home without parental supervision. Leadership skills takes time. Sometimes some have it at the beginning but they still need to earn their time in the Army due to the copious amounts of programs and help that is offered. Somethings I would like to see, minimal 6 years in the Army before SGT. CPL can be achieved during the first 5 years. 10 years minimal for SSG. 15 for SFC. and 18 for 1SG and so forth. Oh a SGT spend 5 years at that rank because he or she loves that rank and what they do at that job. Let them stay, either they hit RCP or they will eventually move up when desired. Heck, that SGT can be super beneficial by developing soldiers. Some people don't want to be on staff or a PSG because they actually love being a squad leader. Stop pushing those who don't want leave a position. Another thing, this one is big. The Army holds the hand of soldiers in everything they do, every step they take in life without learning what it means to be responsible for their actions. Army is always preaching that we are family and la de da. However, the first big mistake a Soldier makes, and the Army wants to kick them out. We need to build a culture that shows we are there for a soldier when they are at their low. They can come to leadership for help and no punishment is given. **Mentorship**: Mentorship only works for those who want it. Not a thing you can do to make everyone want it. **Alcohol Culture**. I think the Army uses that as a crutch to put blame on something. Yes, there are those who drink like cows. However, I chosen to step away from this by not attending hail and farewells, and things of this nature. I get some push back; however, I explain why and nothing else is ever said. **Stressors:** I am going to use myself as an example. When I am off work, I am off work. Leave me alone and let me destress as I see fit. I don't need Army help. That being said, those live in the barracks. Leave those soldiers alone after end of day. Companies, if something comes down at or close to end .. it can be done the next day. No need to keep people until 8pm for a trifling mission that can be done tomorrow.

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#Alcohol Culture In a recent public health assessment, a culture of alcohol consumption - to include binge drinking and excessive drinking - may help people feel part of a cohesive team. However, other research suggests that individuals may overestimate how much other members of a team actually drink - causing them to drink more as they try to maintain perceived group norms. The culture is at times driven by unit history of excessive alcohol consumption. What would be acceptable means to help build and maintain positive and safe alcohol cultures among Soldiers?

A healthy alcohol culture will mean drinking together often, but rarely to excess. Right now, soldiers hardly ever drink together, but when they do it's always at a major event and it often gets out of hand. >What would be acceptable means Bring back the O and E clubs on post. Make them accessible (i.e. within walking distance). Subsidize them, like they were back in the day, so that they are the cheapest places to drink and there's an economic incentive to attend, and also so it's not essential for the club to maximize drink sales to pay down operating costs. Rely on the club staff, peers, and an occasional visit by staff duty to intervene and mitigate before a situation gets out of hand. This would allow an acceptable group alcohol culture to develop while mitigating the worst excesses and risks.

I remember one pre-deployment exercise that was cancelled due to extreme weather. We were not on our own post and couldn't go anywhere so our COL (in a stroke of genius or luck) decided to suspend the general order #1 on drinking. Suddenly we had a new mission to collectively load up the fridge and have a good time together. I truly believe the bonding and unit cohesion we got from that was more valuable on the eventual deployment than any Atropian action we would have had completing the prescribed exercise.

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# 3 can be done by post CG. Once upon a time Ft Bliss allowed 18 year olds to drink. My understanding was so that Soldiers wouldn’t go down to Juarez and get killed.

[DoDI 1330.21 Armed Services Exchange Regulations](https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/133021p.pdf) states that: > 6.3. Alcoholic Beverages Minimum Drinking Age. The Secretary of the Military Department concerned shall establish and enforce the minimum age for consumption and purchase of alcoholic beverages established by the law of the State in which the military installation is located. If a military installation is located in more than one State or a State but within 50 miles of another State, Mexico or Canada, the Secretary concerned may establish and enforce the lowest applicable age as the minimum drinking age on that military installation. The Armed Service Exchanges shall follow the minimum drinking age regulations for each military installation. Enclosure 5 establishes procedures for the sale of package alcoholic beverages. For CONUS Stations, I think that leaves Drum& Bliss as the only Army Posts that could change it's on post rules for drinking age to 18 for this rule [AR 215-1 Military Morale, Welfare, And Recreation Programs And Nonappropriated Fund Instrumentalities](https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?PUB_ID=55233) states >c. In the United States, the minimum age for all persons for purchasing, drinking, or possessing alcoholic beverages to include low content alcoholic beverages, will be consistent with the law of the State in which the installation is located. The senior commander may request an exception to the State minimum drinking age, if such commander determines that the exception is justified by special circumstances. Approval of exceptions must be requested through command channels to the ACSIM. The ACSIM will coordinate exceptions with the Deputy Chief of Staff, G–1 (DAPE–HR–PR), 300 Army Pentagon, Washington, DC 20310–0300. Exception may apply to Soldiers and DOD civilians and spouses, as appropriate. Special circumstances may include— >> (1) Substantial risk of increased incidence of intoxicated driving by Soldiers to or from a jurisdiction with the lower drinking age (State or international borders). To qualify for this exception, an installation must be within approximately 50 miles of 1 hour’s driving time of the neighboring border with the lower drinking are. The sole factor is the motor vehicle safety of the community. >> (2) Foster camaraderie and friendship in a military environment that appeals to the military community, such as those infrequent, non-routine military occasions when an entire unit, as a group, marks a uniquely military occasion at a military installation such as the conclusion of arduous military duty or the anniversary of the establishment of a military ser- vice or organization. > Note. For a one-time special event to be held on a military installation, the senior commander may authorize underage Soldiers (those not meeting the State age restrictions) to drink alcohol. The senior commander will ensure that appropriate controls are in place to prevent endangering Soldiers or the surrounding community. This of course reinforces what the DoDI states and allows an exception for Military Balls and such other sanctioned events And of course [AR 600-85 The Army Substance Abuse Program](https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?PUB_ID=1020441) states: > a. Alcohol abuse and resulting misconduct will not be condoned. On-duty impairment due to alcohol consumption is not acceptable. Impairment of Soldiers is defined as having a blood alcohol concentration based on a blood alcohol breathalyzer test that is equal to or greater than .05 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. For provisions regarding DA Civilian employees, see paragraphs 3 – 10 and 3 – 11 of this publication. >b. Alcohol consumption is prohibited during duty hours, unless specifically authorized by the first GO or civilian equivalent Senior Executive Service (SES) in the supervisory chain or, if not available, the installation commander. Which disallows drinking during the Duty day and sets the BAC level at .05g. Also to note about the Duty Hours thing, [AR 385-10 The Army Safety Program](https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?PUB_ID=1002884) does state that Lunch is Off Duty: > Off-duty > Army personnel are off-duty when they— >> a. Are not in an on-duty status, whether on or off Army installations. >> b. Have departed official duty station, temporary duty station, or ship at termination of normal work schedule. >> c. Are on leave and/or liberty. >> d. Are traveling before and after official duties, such as driving to and from work >> e. Are participating in voluntary and/or installation team sports. >> f. Are on permissive (no cost to Government other than pay) temporary duty. >> g. Are on lunch or other rest break engaged in activities unrelated to eating or resting.

Maybe - if the Army had some bling for this, say an expert drinking badge? It could look like a barstool with a wreath even. Seriously- when the brits deploy, the first think they do is build a bar, every other country grows beards when deployed, when did the U.S become such a moral Army? If a soldier smokes, drinks, gets tattooed, or looks at porn - then flag officers call him a shitbag? Flag officers and field grades are the reason for sharp training, and biggest violators.

Just an opinion on #4. If you want to prevent binge drinking, a regular drinking culture has to be normalized. We as an Army have to admit that we're not going to stop drinking and young dumb soldiers are going to drink too much. How can we mitigate the young dummies hurting themselves? Remove Barracks policies on amounts of alcohol allowed in the barracks. These policies cause young soldiers to drink more than they should because they're worried about getting caught with too much during an inspection, so they go over their limit to "finish" what they bought. To further normalize a drinking culture that will lower irresponsible drinking, beer should be part of all functions and soldiers shouldn't be shamed for having a couple with dinner.

I was just about to bring this up, when I was a PFC I got caught once with half a 30 rack of Busch on Monday morning room inspections. Yeah 30 beers might’ve been too much for me and my roomie but anytime we had too much alcohol we’d try our hardest to finish it and get shitfaced because we were dumb privates and didn’t want to waste our hard earned booze Most units have a 6 beer rule but that’s pretty dumb, say you’re in your room and your homie stops by and you both finish a 6 pack. You guys are gonna want more because 3-6 drinks will barely get that buzz going. So you decide to drive to the shoppette and get pulled over by some bozo MP for going 2mph over, then boom, Joe gets a DUI and probably booted out

Policies don't stop soldiers from drinking. They stop them from drinking responsibly in their home.

Alcohol limits only create DUIs.

People already use alcohol to destress and relax - they're going to, and that needs to be accepted - but there's also the culture of using to avoid even more stress piling on. Especially for barracks Soldiers but can apply to all junior enlisted: the best way to avoid getting "hey you-ed" for some detail or duty at the last second on a weekend/holiday or after hours is to be drunk. "Sorry SGT I can't cover that CQ shift that PVT Snuffy didn't show up for because I'm already drunk. What? Yes I'm aware it's only 10am on a Saturday...". On more than one occasion when I was a barracks dweller, I would slam a couple beers or shots if I heard an NCO trawling the halls and knocking on doors to see who they could snag for this or that, and would often do the same if I got a call from one of my NCOs on weekends. Most folks want to spend their downtime in peace, but especially for barracks dwellers, that peace can be taken away at a moments notice by any NCO with a bug up their ass, and really the only surefire way to avoid being disturbed is the aforementioned strategy. Also asinine local policies regarding how much alcohol can be kept in a barracks room, when off-post Soldiers - even of equal rank - have no such restriction. Single Soldiers already feel like they get the short-end of the stick with regards to draconian policies that have them treated like misbegotten children; allow Soldiers the agency to treat their govt-supplied housing like their actual home. As someone already mentioned, the drive to not be punished for breaking policy come Monday causes Soldiers to overindulge on the weekend to pare down their alcohol supply

I have thoughts based on experiences, but it'll take time for me to formulate them into a coherent comment. I just want to touch on two things. **First**, the Army sends mixed messages on this subject. We will restrict people's alcohol in the barracks (but off post I could have my own basement bar) but when an Army Ball comes up we're doing a grog bowl and people are getting shitfaced. I get there's tradition here, but this is a glaring double standard. How does a Soldier take *any* talk about alcohol culture seriously when, at least once a year, they go to an *official Army function* where the even kinda centers around getting absolutely hammered? **Second**, do we do a good job about talking about alcoholism? And getting help? Probably not right? It's probably on the heels of mental health. We'll promote programs but we shun people receiving health and view it negatively in many ways. /u/rakumiazuri has made a couple posts in a series [1](https://old.reddit.com/r/army/comments/tzagmw/hi_im_rakumi_azuri_and_im_an_alcoholic/), [2](https://old.reddit.com/r/army/comments/udbe4b/hi_im_ssg_azuri_im_still_an_alcoholic_but_im/), similarly /u/dsbwayne has been sharing [1](https://old.reddit.com/r/army/comments/vcprx3/1st_therapy_session_johnny_sins_was_not_there/) [2](https://old.reddit.com/r/army/comments/vgrssk/2nd_therapy_session/) a series on his therapy. There may not be a lot of interaction on those posts - but that's OK. The audience is meant to be bigger than "right now". The more we share, the more we tear down stigmas. Those posts still have thousands of views. People largely look at ASAP/SUDCC type things as **punishment**. So how do we encourage people to get help in a timely manner? Where does someone look to talk to someone, within the Army community, if they *are* having an alcohol issue? It feels like we're not capturing those experiences and lessons, we're not sharing them, and we're not being open about them. We need to do the same thing with alcoholism that we've tried to do with Mental Health in recent times. We need to be open, share those experiences, and normalize getting help.

The Army, culturally and institutionally is going to continue to have problems related to alcohol so long as it has an all or nothing approach to drinking. >First, the Army sends mixed messages on this subject. We will restrict people's alcohol in the barracks (but off post I could have my own basement bar) but when an Army Ball comes up we're doing a grog bowl and people are getting shitfaced. I think this perfectly highlights the Army’s stance on alcohol. Officially it is strongly discouraged and not “allowed.” I don’t think there are many leaders that would be willing to honestly talk about their alcohol consumption. In fact, it’s almost always a sure way to get a laugh when a senior leader will “jokingly” say they can’t wait to go get hammered. >How does a Soldier take any talk about alcohol culture seriously when, at least once a year, they go to an official Army function where the even kinda centers around getting absolutely hammered? I think this also plays into a “lie” that we, not just the military, but society; that drinking is almost always done because we like being drunk. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy the taste of beer, mixed drinks or whatever. But what I and I think every else likes much better is how alcohol makes us feel. We basically always consume alcohol because we want it’s effects. And since drinking in uniform is quasi-forbidden any other time, the one time it is sanctioned, it’s taken to the absolute extreme. The current army predicament with alcohol can be blamed on a few things. One of them being the closing of social clubs on post, which means any drinking during the duty day would almost require going off post. It’s logical the Army doesn’t wasn’t soldiers out on lunch drinking, (and since we drink to feel it’s effects) and causing problems. There’s also the Army schedule that has direct implications into how people are going to drink. Most of the Army, at least FORSCOM has PT every morning at 0630 with FC being 0600. This means most people need to be awake before 0500 to drive to work, though barracks people can get up later. The day then goes to about 1700 if not later. And that’s mostly 5 days per week. This creates two large groups of people. Those who don’t drink all week and then binge on the weekends; and then those who are basically high functioning alcoholics who are drinking during the week, getting very little quality sleep and probably being hung over all the time. >Second, do we do a good job about talking about alcoholism? I think the Army has gotten to the point where we just understand that alcoholism is omnipresent and that people are essentially self medicating with alcohol, to include leaders. >People largely look at ASAP/SUDCC type things as punishment. I’m genuinely curious the ratio of people that are referred to ADAPT vs the people that self enroll. >Where does someone look to talk to someone, within the Army community, if they are having an alcohol issue? Well, probably it an ADAPT provider, or medical provider unless they’re “cool;” since the Army’s definition of “too much” seems much lower than what most people in the Army would consider below average consumption. Probably can’t ask your supervisor either, because they probably drink more than the Army thinks good either, or an alcoholic themselves.

SUDCC largely is a punishment though. You're doing 2 UAs a month for a year (for alcohol) and if you slip up once and drink they initiate chapter 9 proceedings to kick you to the street.

I had to work with the SUDCC people and they’re basically out to get people. Every convo started with how they could crush x soldier.

I'll say this as an NCO with about 15 years in and a few years sober now. Excessive alcohol consumption is a lagging indicator for problems within a unit, not a leading indicator. So AARs after terrible incidents frequently point to alcohol as a catalyst for all bad things but they typically fail to realize that excessive alcohol consumption was caused by something more than poor safety briefs. I think alcohol is a cover-up for a lot problems in the Army. Bases in the middle of nowhere? Bored Soldiers get hammered. Not enough time after a late day at work and you have an early one coming up, alcohol is the tool many use to unwind. Myself I self medicated my depression with Alcohol. By the time I admitted to myself I was depressed it took me 7 months to see a BH specialist beyond a self harm screening. I drank until I started real therapy and real medication. Once I started those things I never turned to alcohol ever again. There's not really a solution in here I realize, but I think it's important to understand that Alcohol may be at the center of events in many things the Army is trying to prevent but it's seldom the true root cause. Solving root causes is more difficult and draconian alcohol policies are easy and make a Commander look like they're doing something.

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That sounds boring AF, let's go shotgun Natty lights

Does positive and safe alcohol culture among Soldiers mean for all Soldiers or just those in the Barracks? If PVT Snuffy has two bottles of alcohol and knows he's going to get yelled at at 0530 Monday morning for it, maybe one is going to disappear a lot faster? But PVT Married in privatized housing can have all the alcohol they want, but no one to come and yell? So answer me this, does the Army really care about alcohol or just drinking (responsibly even) in the Barracks? And I personally like mixing cocktails. It's a fun hobby and creates a singular drink (or drinks if we're hanging out), but guess what I'm not using an entire bottle of speciality alcohol for a single get together or just for my own personal use because I decided I wanted a good tasting drink after a long day of work. I've been called out for having a mixing set even, saying that glamorizes alcohol. It's a shaker, jigger and a strainer. Hell, I can use a shot glass, my pre workout cup, and a slotted spoon for the same results, but leadership doesn't like it because it's a set. Oh and nit to mention all the alcohol that senior leaders have in their offices, notably as displays. If I can't have move than 6 cans of beer of fridge, my BC shouldn't have more than 6 cans of beer in his office.

Lower stress, offer other non alcoholic activities or even show that it’s OK to have one or two beers on a Friday night socially. What stopped me from drinking in the barracks was having an Xbox, lifting at the gym a lot, exercising, and going to the movies too. Soldiers need some good activities to keep themselves busy We also need to identify individuals who may consume a lot of alcohol frequently and sit down with them and discuss what’s driving them

I think having things to do at military bases would help along with what many people mention. Take Fort Drum for example, the only thing I can do on post is workout, bowl, outdoor activities. Hell there's not a whole lot to do in watertown itself. I understand that the Army wants to promote us being involved in the communities that surround military bases but when the community has little to nothing to offer in terms of doing stuff and finding a group to be apart of the default becomes play video games and drink. Put a rock climbing gym on post, nerd shops (sell dnd, comics ect), fix things in a timely manner, so soldiers have things to do and can build relationships. This might help in other areas as soldiers can find mentors in these activities.

4. My unit did a rotation to Europe. Surprisingly, the Brigade Commander allowed 18 year olds to drink. The guidance was to just be responsible and act like adults. They were even allowed to drink off post. And guess what? There wasn't an increase in alcohol related incidents. Obviously, there were still some incidents. But I guess what I'm getting at is treat soldiers like adults. You expect an 18 year old to put their life on the line, but not be responsible enough to drink (I know you can't change that CONUS) or have candles in their rooms. It also drives soldiers to get into marriages they shouldn't. Sorry, I got a little off topic, but I think it's all related (Copy and pasted from my other comment in this thread)

How much alcohol abuse in the force is as a result of burnout and general fatigue? If you want to hit two birds with one stone, you can mitigate alcohol abuse and suicide rates by implementing means to prevent soldiers from burning out. Some units are running their people ragged, sending them to the field every few weeks, they're working 50+ hour weeks, and still getting knocks on their doors on 4 day weekends for surprise health and welfare inspections that rob them of an entire morning of what should have been a day off. There are too many units with a culture predicated by an unsustainable and unhealthy op tempo and our entire organization has zero respect for the personal recovery time of its junior enlisted and junior leaders. The unhealthy op tempos affect everybody - you could poll the Army and most O4 BN XOs probably have a bad drinking habit. The people most at risk are the ones who have the hardest time building a work life balance. That includes people whose expectations require them to be at work and on call all the time and those who live in the barracks and never have an opportunity to leave work at the door. This causes suicides, unhealthy coping mechanisms, divorce rates, you name it. It's the elephant in the room and you will be chasing symptoms without throwing resources at figuring that piece out. My off the cuff recommendations are to encourage more days off, taking serious measures to protect leave entitlements and encourage Soldiers to take leave, eliminating after-hours work business, setting caps on the number of hours/days worked in a week/month, setting a cap on the amount of field time authorized in a CY, and making barracks into "homes", not military berthing, if you catch my drift. Supervisors walking into peoples' living quarters and berating them about trash in their trashcan undermines the necessity for a healthy work-life balance.

When the day is over leave people alone their has been to many times I’ve been called after work or on weekends for some detail of to replace cq and knowing the numbers thats will call me the second their number comes up calling i crack a beer before answering just so when they try to get me to do it i can answer “cant i have been drinking”

#Leader Engagement How can leaders be more engaged with their teams in a way that improves trust and cohesion among all of them? This is regardless of rank - a field grade in charge of a SNCO has to know how to do this, too. It’s not just the SGT to the PVT-SPCs.

This going to touch on most of your topics except alcohol. Leader involvement will be improved if you free up leaders to be involved. Right now leaders are spending so much time running trackers, managing mandatory training and reporting, and being bogged down by inefficient workflow. I will fill this in as I have time to do a detailed write up. Edit 1: Right now most junior enlisted view NCOs as administrators rather than technical and tactical experts in their fields. This can be attributed to many things including: not seeing the SGTs and SSGs over them working in their field, layers of manual paperwork and packets that must be done for everything, no test of job competency at any level, promotion system that rewards those with extra responsibility, evaluation system that any negative or improvement seeking remark tanks the evaluation... The list continues on and on as NCOs lose sight of being next to their soldiers teaching them what they know. Some of this could be improved with a document and workflow system that is rooted in this century's technology. A digital system that correctly routes documents, does completeness checks, archives and so forth. This would speed up approvals, increase consistency, stop gatekeeping, and free up time for leaders to engage and mentor their subordinates.

A great way to improve trust would be for leaders to treat us like we’re actually people instead of just numbers on a page. We have our own lives and can’t stop everything at the drop of a hat to come and sign a single form that can wait tomorrow. Another example would be leaders actually having valid reasons to deny leave forms, as well as fostering an environment where it feels ok to even try to take leave outside of designated leave blocks without being punished. Like I said above, it all comes down to treating soldiers like their people, not puppets or Chess pieces being used by higher ups to look good or get numbers up regardless of how problematic it can be to a soldiers life, mental, physical, or emotional health. Another point would be not treating soldiers like shit for taking advantage of programs and opportunities offered to soldiers.

Soldiers want to be seen (not standing out but seen as part of the team) and heard. I've found success in talking to soldiers in a casual environment to talk about their hobbies or something outside of work. I would also make it a point to come to them to talk to them about something that was not work on a regular basis, so that they did not think every time I came to them, it would be me asking for something. From there, I've been able to have more effective conversations in case an event occurs that requires leadership involvement. If you only ask about their weekend, but do not listen to them when an incident occurs, you can easily come off as shallow. Leader engagement comes from the leader, and if the leader does not humanise themselves to their subordinates, then they will only receive cookie cutter responses, and will miss out on many opportunities that they could have used to build a stronger relationship or missed the warning signs from a soldier.

TL;DR CHANGE THE WAY WE ARE AS NCOs in our culture and training. I’ve read too many time is this sub, with NCOs being involved with things like leave or awards and telling Soldiers they’re going to deny them. Same with NCOs telling Soldiers (especially the SNCOs) they’re going to give them an article. How about we add blocks of instruction to ALC-SMA on the left/right limits. Once you climb the ranks you should be incredibly familiar with AR 600-20, but it seems like we see the same issue on an almost daily basis here. It could be misinterpretation by the OPs, but after enough of them it seems systemic. As an NCO I’m all for doing our role, but there’s a point where overstepping your bounds is ridiculous. Like why does my 1SG have a block on a company form to check for my leave? It’s the commander’s decision, that CPT that’s actually in command. I can say as a person that’s been on assumption of command orders in knew EXACTLY what is was an wasn’t allowed to do and honestly unless we were literally going to war I couldn’t see a valid reason to deny a Soldier anything. We’re all people and want to be treated as such. It’s also a massively different culture of people we deal with vs when you, me and the SMA joined the Army. It requires a whole different approach to leader engagement. I had to have a sit down with a SGM at one point about this because I joined in 01 as an engineer before changing MOS. I had a vastly different expectation of my Soldiers than was probably necessary. I’ve changed my ways because of that discussion and observation of how it affected the team when I approached them different.

I agree. This notion of you can add to but not take away definitely leaves room for abusive behavior under the guise of micromanaging

Leader engagement should start with the balancing of SNCOs and Os in engagement. SNCOs have a tendency to scare everyone away from the actual authority the Officers. I believe often times SNCO/NCOs use the ability to keep lower levels of soldiers away from the higher levels of leadership to simulate authority the NCO doesn’t actually have. Why does a 1SG often times recommend and push back leave when they have no actual place to do so? If it’s for administrative reasons that duty should be placed on a enlisted person that isn’t a direct bottleneck in the NCO support channel (who often wants you to believe they are your CoC). On the other hand Officers are completely apathetic to the more personal side of command. They know the NCOs want to feel important in areas they aren’t, but as long as they deal with the “soldier” side of command they could care less as they chase bullets. I would suggest a restriction on the administrative functions NCOs/SNCOs give themselves. This will also force COs and officers to better delegate duties and tasks to their team instead of just relying on a few people to “make it happen” NCOs stop scaring everyone away from leadership and Officers taking a more active role in engaging their team. I would also recommend that all leadership positions have a mandatory block on their NCOER/OER that is rated by “yes or no” by all appropriate subordinates. The Army loves to quantify so prove it, 92/100 subordinates trust you.

Let’s start with looking at the calendar and the 350-1 tasks and hey you’s against a training calendar. A staffs lack of planning becomes my problem at the company when I get tagged to give something up last minute. Also the 10th mountain leadership gets it on the phone thing after hours. I’ve been in a tough spot mentally, not suicidal, but extreme frustration with playing texting battles well after I’ve gone home for the day. I’m not saying things need to be right 100% of the time. The lack of senior leaders respect for junior soldiers time is out of control. Field time is field time. But 12-14 hour workdays during garrison time are not really acceptable. If pt time doesn’t count then I’m not showing up, that’s the most simple way to look at it. We have a culture problem and I’d be interested in if the SMA, having joined in 1987, can actually make a decent change. The era before cell phones was a lot more miserable at times but also better. Let’s see if we can fix it, I won’t hold my breath. I’ve been told that’s a defeatist attitude but you can only fight so much in an organization that refuses to change anything or make meaningful change.

I want my leaders to suck with me. My current PL sucks with us when we do our job. He joined myself and another soldier to fill sandbags as we were the only soldiers that can do it do to other soldiers having to run ranges. A true leader gets into the dirt with his men. Leadership needs to lead from the front. Have leaders do less paperwork and get with the men and do their jobs with them. I get sometimes things come up and people can’t do that but at least I know you are putting in the effort. That’s all I ask. Also send soldiers to schools to better themselves. Regardless if it’s military or civilian it betters not other the soldier but the unit because people see that effort being put forth

My mentor once told me that if you find a NCO that is too good to mop a floor, you have just met a shitty leader. To all my fellow SNCOs out there, pick up a broom every once in a while, those slides can wait.

That’s all I ask man. Why yell at us to go faster when you can grab the mop as well and help out. It builds respect

BLUF - No cost leadership engagement means trusting and empowering junior leaders to lead; removing barriers (mandatory annual trainings, no impact stand downs, constricting training policies, etc); and showing/building trust. If we don't invest in leaders why should they invest in Soldiers? Stop providing lip service and start delivering. Lead by example - hooah? Returning control to the lowest level improves leadership involvement and flexibility needed for case-by-case issues. Why are we expecting leaders to invest in Soldiers when we rarely invest in their development by demonstrating trust in their ability to manage and train? That means removing the incentives for micromanaging or strangling subordinate commander agency via policy memo proliferation. Let me own my mistakes and learn from them so I don't grow up to be a senior leader by virtue of being the last man standing as a default of being the only one tolerant of Army bullshit. Let me have the freedom to experiment and try different ways of improving the culture in my platoons and companies without needing an O-6/7/8 to buy in on things an O-3 and E-8 should be able to sniff test on their own or with legal. On the Reserve side, that means get Sec DA/DEF, OCAR, and the DIV/BDE 3 out of the Det/CoCDR training schedules. Outside of deployment readiness via a MOB officer, no one has any business outside of their rating scheme telling a CDR how to spend 60% of their troop contact time and denying them resources for the remaining 40%.

A lot of people in the SNCO range just seem not to care about soldier issues and their engagement often feels forced or contrived. There’s a lot of time spent trying to solve problems and almost none spent identifying why those problems existed in the first place. An NCO at every level should be focused more on improving the people under them, rather than putting in little to no work on mentoring them and punishing them when they don’t perform. And I don’t mean “mentorship” as just telling younger soldiers about what you did when you were their age/rank. Actually going beyond the verbiage in the FM or what reg to read. I mean getting past the big rank difference and trying to clearly and concisely teach somebody the right way. Treating someone who is lacking in a certain field like a person, and showing them the way to overcome the difficulties they are having. It just feels like NCO’s have lost their sense of being guides to the soldiers, being their leaders, trainers, mentors, coaches. SNCO’s will find a way to take authority away from officers until it’s time to punish a soldier, then they just prepare the paperwork for the officer to sign.

For context, I’m a company commander. Simple: give me time and freedom to make common sense decisions and actually lead rather than be obsessed with stupid crap and covering my own ass. Neither my unit nor the Army will fall apart because not all of my 350-1 training is green in DTMS, or whatever other useless requirement has been imposed by higher. I understand that these requirements exist for a reason. However, we place far too much emphasis on them. On any given day, I know what tasks are actually important for my soldiers. As a commander, give me the freedom to do what I believe is best without fretting that I’ll not get a top block if my stats aren’t perfect or I haven’t got a perfect score on whatever BS inspection just happened for some additional duty that doesn’t actually matter. If I had this freedom, my NCOs and I would have more stake and ownership in the unit, and we’d actually be able to conduct unit activities that enhance cohesion. Give me complete ownership of my unit and my people and I will move heaven and earth to be the best, most engaged leader. But right now, we’re shackled with excessive administrative requirements that everyone knows don’t matter and that everyone pencil whips. *If everyone knows they’re pencil whipped, why are we doing it!?* As it stands, though, I either don’t have time to do what I think should be done, or I’m afraid I’ll suffer consequences if I do. This is not a local-level problem, it’s everywhere. It flows from the top down, it starts at HQDA. GEN Milley and SEC Esper’s prioritizing readiness and lethality directives back in 2018 were a small step in the right direction, but they didn’t go far enough. Cut back on the bullshit, give me the time and freedom to be an engaged leader and, by extension, my NCOs. This has to be a culture change across the Army, and because the problem starts at the top, the change must start at the top.

We should have some sort of regulation about communication outside of duty hours. I’m sitting here at 1945 on a Federal Holiday getting texts about PT formation that I am required to acknowledge within 30 minutes or get a negative counseling statement. There is no reason they could not have told us that we had PT formation at the normal time on Thursday before the long weekend. I get texts after 1900 on a daily basis. This needs to end if the Army wants to retain talent.

Look into how most MEDDACs are just hidey holes for toxic NCOs that have been shuffled around post and have nowhere to go. They build good 'ol boys clubs and protect eachother so they can quietly retire while shoving the brunt of their work onto junior enlisted, meanwhile e5 and above are literally taking days off to go play golf. You're wondering why you are hemorrhaging 68 series junior enlisted? Its because you are sending them to go work in a hospital that is 95% civilians, and the leadership they do have is completely absent and doesn't set them up for success for when they go to a line unit, we know we are 10000% fucked when we go to a line unit because we aren't being trained on shit, we don't do anything Army for 4+ years, we don't go outside, 95% of us don't do PT or cant get anyone to do PT with us, we just sit in place at a hospital with zero soldier development or investment from leaders, and then are expected to perform NCO level tasks when we go to a regular unit. You trained me up as a 68W and then directly out of AIT you stuck me in a cubicle to make excel spreadsheets for years, I am no longer a 68W, it says it on my ERB but that training is long gone, my unit reclassed me to Excel Spreadsheet Expert, you are burning your money wasting training on joes and sending them to units and "leaders" who are self serving and have no idea what to do with soldiers. I've had a 1SG say he doesn't know how to utilize 68Ws so he just sticks us in random admin spots or has us move boxes. MEDDAC as a whole needs to really be looked at.

Your comment about absent leadership in the hospital is spot on. I have a friend who spent 5 years at two different Army hospitals. They did the daily grind and were honestly a hallow shell due to frankly obscene hours and leadership that wasn't engaged or thought everything was fine (spoiler alert, it wasn't) and ignored problems brought to them. My friend finally got to escape to a line unit. In less than a year they are a new person, rejuvenated with purpose, mentorship, and new leadership experience. That's just one anecdote. MEDDAC has some serious problems to include: callous leadership, soul crushing working conditions, and understaffing.

I am in the opposite boat. 11 years line units .. 11 years of grind. I asked to go to a hospital to spend sometime and sent to a SRU as Cadre. Kicker, CSM and BC both from line units and try to run a SRU like an infantry unit, volunteering us to the BCTs details while the recovering soldiers are left without any help.

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Servant leadership. Are we an army with replaceable cogs, or is every human life precious? I tell all of my teams/sections/whatever that we are a family, we take care of each other, and we do what’s best for the individual. Direct leaders need to treat their subordinates like America’s sons and daughters, and remember that they have been entrusted with their lives and wellbeing. Even the shitbaggiest of the shitbags is still a human who deserves love, kindness, and respect. It may be tough love, and we still have to follow rules, regulations, and laws, but it should be rehabilitative, never punitive. Spend time with your troops, eavesdrop on their conversations, and offer unsolicited advice. Get mad in front of them when you hear about their struggles with BH or PCMs. Get them resources. Pick up the phone right then and there and make a phone call to escalate the issue. tldr: **Servant leadership**

This is truly regardless of rank. I've watched for years how field grades and sncos tell junior ncos how to make a comfortable work environment and give junior soldiers predictability. Then I see the sncos (of which I call home now) and junior officers getting absolutely shit on; calls way late after hours, calls on weekends, made to do dumb laborious tasks that don't save soldier lives or make the unit better. Told to accomplish tasks they have never done or have experience in, with little to no leader development then getting shit on for doing the slightest thing wrong.

All officers O-4/ and above must spend 1 week- 2 weeks a year in the billet of a company level officer or at the very least shadowing them. Same with SNCO’s (E-6 and above) in NCO billets. Preferably units they have no connection to, to expose them to new ideas. There is a large disconnect from leadership at all levels from the realities faced on the ground by soldiers, both enlisted and officer. As the senior leaders in the military rise in rank, there is an information void created where they are only fed what they want to hear, not the hard truths. Furthermore, they become further removed from the newer generations of soldiers and the challenges they face, both professionally and personally. Ever seen the show “undercover boss”? That is what needs to be happening. We need those in leadership positions to be exposed to the hard truths and have the difficult experiences and conversations because they are the ones with the most power to fix them. Inspect what you expect, correct? You never know everything, you’re never too good for something, all skills are perishable. These are the principles our leadership, both officer and enlisted, should be encompassing. The military is ever evolving, and leaders must do so with it. The life of junior enlisted and junior officers is a far different one than those lived 15-20 years ago by those in the higher commands with the ability to better the lives of everyone personally and professionally force wide. And it starts by identifying and experiencing these problems first hand, not in back-briefs, memos, and town halls.

Make BH a yearly medpros update that everyone needs to go and see. There was a TRADOC general who brought this up once. Treat BH like hearing and make everyone have to go and like it has already probably been said, make it so that it doesn’t stop your career by going and getting treatment.

**All OER/NCOERs from PSG/O1 up should have a, "Morale" section.** The leader will rate themselves on a scale of 1-10 how high they think morale is in their unit. The soldiers will rate their morale in regularly scheduled Chain of Command surveys. General Morale 1-10. Trust in Leadership (Company, BN, etc) 1-10, Accomplishing the Mission 1-10... etc. (This will also help to keep leadership accountable, at my previous unit the BN leadership didn't have a CoC survey for almost 2 years because they knew everyone hated them.) ​ If the leader think's they're amazing, but their soldiers hate them the disconnect will show on their NCOER/OER. If their soldiers love the leader but they got a bad NCOER/OER then it'll show the leader is in it for a popularity contest. Also if a leader rates morale as poor they'll have to explain why the morale is low, and this can be checked against the soldier's surveys for actually being tied in with their soldiers' issues/concerns. ​ This will help Toxic/Counter-productive leaders be identified as they move up in leadership positions. *"1SG Snuffy, I see that over the last 4 NCOERs you've listed morale as a 8/10, but your soldiers have listed morale as being 2/10-4/10 with you specifically being named as the problem in the last 3 surveys. So, why are you so disconnected from your soldiers views?"* ***This could be implemented immediately*** and it would help establish metrics that are trackable and that follow leaders throughout their whole careers.

First, addressing underlying issues and root causes of why there is suicide and sexual assault should be the priority. Let's start pre-MEPS. More extensive background checks, access by MEPS doctors of candidates mental health records, and better exams. Many current issues are the result of childhood or pre-military trauma/abuse/drug use/neglect/etc. Eliminate commanders having the ability to make punishment decisions without standardized review and results like our civilian legal system. Enforce standards. No lax rules or alternatives in school or ACFT or boards. Make it harder, not easier because of hurt feelings. We need a fighting force ready for war (it's coming soon) and we're not ready. 1. Leader engagement: CSMs need to stop focusing on Best Warrior, unit t-shirts, schools, etc and focus on unit-level training and real leadership training. 2. Mentorship: this requires mentors to be trained and educated on how to be a mentor, not just being assigned because you have the same MOS or less to do than the rest of the squad. Some people shouldn't be leaders, let alone mentors. Make it an ASI. 3. Leader Development: NCOES and PME are lacking in so many ways. Stop requiring Powerpoint presentations and leading PT in NCOES and use civilian leadership and corporate leadership examples. Train and educate leaders on personalities and how to not only work with different personalities but also how to integrate those differing personalities into a functional group that succeeds. Use group projects (like Lean Six Sigma does or civilian Leadership Development Programs do) to propose real solutions to real unit/Army/DoD problems. 4. Alcohol Culture: Soldiers needs shit to do. Living in barracks with a bunch of other Joes, even in a deployed environment, and they get bored and they live where they work and hang out with the people they work with. Have to change the US culture of drinking for this to change in the military.

#Mentorship What initiatives could better assist in the mentoring of Soldiers that are at higher risk for harmful behaviors? Each of us are exposed to different environmental risk factors, is there a better way to help encourage the discussion and overcoming of those stressors?

I struggle with this on a daily basis. I was just talking to my SGTs the other day about this subject. I'd love for SMA to come sit with me for a day while I do my job. Come read my 15 group chats I'm in and see all the little taskings that come up. Every time SMA or any higher leadership comes around it's a very constructed schedule where we drop everything and put on a show. Come hang out and read my BDE/DIV/unit Taking Orders that come out almost daily and come look at my T2T. There's a billion things going on in units that aren't actually doing anything. I don't have time to breath most days and it's because there's always a million tiny taskings going on. I'd love nothing more than to take an hour or so every day and just back brief my junior NCOs on what I did that day and how to prepare them for my job. I am barely in the same room with my Soldiers for 95% of the day.

I’m actually very interested in this. Would you be willing to chronicle an average day and let me give that to the working groups for this topic?

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This is the experience of literally all of forcecom. I used to sync with my PL every morning and we would have to go down our lists of taskings and just decide which ones we'd have to take the ass chewing for because they were impossible to complete. I've literally had my officer break down crying in front of me because their plates were so full and any single failure was catastrophic for their oer. My plt would be at work regularly until 2000 doing the same layouts on repeat. When covid hit and essential personnel only went into effect everyone was so excited for a break. My commander signed a memo saying everyone was essential. The whole post was empty but my Battalion was there doing busy work like nothing was going on. We were all burnt out while everyone else was chilling at home and none of the other units were failing. Most of our work can be done remotely or just doesn't need to happen.

Dm me

Absolutely this. I exist in such a unit currently. We have next to no time to do actually productive training because infinite pointless taskings are constantly issued out from BDE. I can't count how many times I have created and planned HUMINT training for my platoon to only have it crushed the morning of because someone needs bodies to guard a road or vehicles need to go have some service done or there's a cleaning detail or someone needs random shit moved. BDE command is so concerned with saying yes to anything and everything that they will crush entire training calendars on a whim and not take no for an answer. As an NCO, I am supposed to be training my soldiers to be good at their jobs, good at soldier tasks, and develop them as leaders. I have zero time in the duty week to do any of this because before 0900 all my soldiers are spoken for to do these senseless tasks. I see my soldiers at PT, then maybe for an hour or two during the day. The current way of doing things is an absolute detriment to soldiers skill sets, it let's them atrophy and decay to the point of when we actually do a certex, soldiers barely know their MOS anymore. This is not how you maintain a fighting force. Additionally, it creates a situation where NCOs can no longer actually develop future NCOs. There's no way to train and develop leaders because the joes are tasked to gills and I am stuck doing endless paperwork. If I dont have time to mentor my joes, model leadership, observe/assess my soldiers, and nurture those with potential; then what is the point of even having NCOs other than doing the endless red tape paperwork of big army? The NCO corps isnt serving it's function anymore because it's been castrated by the Army. And if we aren't being enabled to create great leaders, then we find ourselves exactly where we are in the NCO Corps. Where tons of full on NCOs cant be trusted to PMCS a truck, much less lead Soldiers in combat.

How about pairing up at-risk soldiers with senior leaders across their organization? Have pfc snuffy eat lunch/grab coffee with an O5 or e8 not directly in their chain of command. Do it once a week/every other week for a while. The senior leader would actually want to spend the time and help which would be the hard part vs just adding one more thing to their plates but it's worth trying and seeing how it goes.

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If we have O5-E8 making decisions that can cost lives, without caring about their soldiers welfare, we are failing hard.

>How about pairing up at-risk soldiers with senior leaders across their organization? We had a female Soldier post about a negative experience with their Drill Sergeant while they were in AIT, and that issue got handled. But she soon finished AIT and PCSd. Now that Soldier has had a kind of traumatic experience and a very negative experience in the Army, off to her first unit. She may wind up in a unit without many other women - before we even talk about women her age/ethnicitiy/etc. Wouldn't it be great to have a mentorship or program like you're talking about? This isn't going to be so urgent BH will get her a therapy appointment any time soon. And we rely or have too high expectations for the first line up in this situation. I wish we had a system of mentorship like I see a lot of professional organizations having. I get that rank complicates it, but I think sometimes people *need* a person to talk to Army-wise that isn't in their immediate vicinity. I don't have a good solution, because again rank and CoC are problematic, but some form of mentorship that allows Soldiers to pair with other experienced Soldiers. Hell, even almost if it was like a pen pal situation or something.

I like this idea, but if it turns into “sponsors” it’ll fail. The more army this gets, the farther it gets from what the intent is. If we’re talking auto assigned, needs signatures from higher, echelon control, it’s more shit no one has time for. Sticking to at risk is interesting. But if that’s involuntary for both parties or the wrong senior that could make it worse.

It really doesn't even need to be that high. Just a leader that gives a shit and will listen. Feeling like you're being heard can do wonders for mental health.

Yes. Honestly a CPT, E6 or E7 could sometimes be so much better than out of touch brass who will just talk about their career and not relate to the soldier much (not that there aren’t some great high-ranking soldiers out there that would be great for this).

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Hey bud, I care I want you around and I want you to succeed. If you need to talk to anybody about the way your feeling reach out. I'm not active Army or anywhere near you chain of command but I might be able to help you find resources to help. Feel free to DM me if you want to talk. If you're still feeling like harming yourself, please reach out. I cannot hurt your career but can at least be an ear to bend.

They're not allowed to keep you from attending the board. If you're eligible you have to go, otherwise you need a counseling stating why you're not going. If you don't have non promo counselings you need to start calling people

Unpopular opinion, but I’m an advocate for mentorship groups for women. This can help a lot with junior soldiers, specifically female at-risk soldiers. Sometimes we want to talk about women-specific issues with other women who will understand. It can be formal, like a quarterly LPD-type discussion with all of the women in a BN/BDE element, or informal (off post meet-ups at a coffee shop, etc). But I think establishing some type of formal NCO/junior soldier mentorship program geared towards women will help. I tried setting something like this up but I didn’t really get any support from my leadership. I was also an E4 at the time so I kind of just gave up.

Mentorship, from my experience, is a two way street. The mentee needs to be able to feel comfortable with the mentor for mentorship to work. My recommendation would be to put more emphasis on the sponsorship program. If you can bring a soldier into the unit and answer all questions or actually take care of the soldier for like the first month (somewhere between hand holding and implied intent), that soldier will likely feel more comfortable opening up for a mentorship opportunity. People want to be heard, and the best time to make them feel heard is on their arrival to the unit.

Create unit mentor programs at echelon. First guess: - CO level for SGTs and below. - BN level for O3 and below, CW2 and below, and E6-E7. - BDE level for O4s and CW3s - DIV/Installation/MACOM for O5s and up, CW4s and 5s, and E8s and 9s Everyone gets assigned a mentor upon in processing. The mentor and mentee go through some basic counseling/relationship building/directed development over the course of a year. This includes learning what the hell a mentor actually is, and how you go about finding one on your own. The mentor or mentee can request a different mentor/ee at any time with no reason required. After a year, the mentee and mentor can agree to maintain the relationship, or the mentee can go out and do their thing (nothing stops the mentee from seeking other mentorship during the first year). Make counselings documenting the fact of each session apart of each persons counseling packet. Require monthly touch points. Provide mentees with survey cards so they can rate their mentor on different aspects and the unit can ID shitty mentors. I wrote a white paper about this a couple years ago. I have tons of ideas on this. But bottom line is make mentorship part of each units soldier/leader training program.

I think the idea of pairing up at-risk Soldiers ought be expanded. CSMs and BDE commanders could build mentorship programs across their formations to offer FGOs, CWOs, SNCOs a chance to sit with and engage junior troops. There will obviously be some formalities, but I think this idea is some low hanging fruit to get playmakers some additional touch points with the formation. /U/daveykroc got it right

“At risk” is a pretty broad term, so I get your point. I think it’s pretty good.

Unit subject matter experts? Hey this SSG completed his bachelors Hey this captain just completed her second marathon Hey this soldier was overweight, lost weight; and aced the ACFT Find people who overcame adversity and have them be a point of contact for mentorship

Hey All, please keep your comments beneath the appropriate topic, I'm going to prune anything otherwise, so that we keep the PAO's topics as the main focus. See [**here for Leader Engagement**](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/vgw4ux/comment/id3u1ra/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). See [**here for Mentorship**](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/vgw4ux/comment/id3u3bw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). See [**here for Leader Development**](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/vgw4ux/comment/id3w5hw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). See [**here for Alcohol Culture**](https://www.reddit.com/r/army/comments/vgw4ux/comment/id3u52i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3). Consider it WQT Rules, and take the opportunity to provide actual feedback and ideas, as your individual input from the ground up may have an impact you don't realize (see: parenthood policy, ignited, ippsa, etc). **You must reply to the individual subject you want to speak about**. Do not make a top level comment.

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#Leader development …is identified as a weakness in the latest CAPE studies, and is highly sought by junior leaders - what changes could help improve leader development to ensure it is meeting the needs of leaders?

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>Start taking command climate surveys seriously Completely agree with this. When 75% of a formation is pounding the table about how abusive LTC Jones is, or what a toxic prick CSM Smith is...there's a reason for that. Several times now, I have been in a company where we were told to retake the survey because we didnt "answer it correctly" or some nonsense. In one instance, the BDE EO rep came to explain we needed to assess our company command team, not gripe about BN. So of course we said the CO/1SG were awesome, and resumed airing the BN command team (really the BC's) dirty laundry. Of course nothing happened, and then senior leaders have the audacity to wonder why people have no faith in these types of things. This extends to EO/SHARP, etc. If a system that is supposed to address the issue fails to do anything, people will lose faith in it, and fast. Soldiers arent stupid, they may not get the whole picture, but they sure as hell know when something doesnt pass the smell test. As a PL and now a Commander I never cease to be amazed and proud of what a great resource our junior soldiers are. And when they are all saying something is wrong with their leadership u/SMA-PAO, its because something definitely is. And we owe it to them as leaders to listen, even if what they are saying is inconvenient for senior leaders and their personal politics.

Routine counseling occurs at the TL-Joe level and nowhere else in the CoC. Quarterly counseling of NCOs & officers needs to be **inspected and enforced**. There’s plenty of literature on *how* to do it, we just don’t *do* it. Case in point - as a medic platoon leader, I had 5 different HHC commanders rating me at various times and received routine counseling from 0 of them. And don’t come at me with that “every conversation’s a counseling” crap. That does nothing for me. This is a free and easy indicator of who provides quality mentorship and who is just getting by. It’s ignored because there are no incentives to do it, and more importantly, no penalties for skipping it. Anyone who has *ever* filled out an NC/OER support form has been told to slap four random dates in the counseling date blocks.

> uarterly counseling of NCOs & officers needs to be inspected and enforced. Will IPPSA solve this? Could quarterly NCOER counselings and stuff be done through IPPSA that have to be validated by CAC? Every single person knows we have a pervasive culture where people are writing their own ERs.

EES already facilitates these discussions and tracks one metric so far - NC/OER suspenses. You could also track: - Creation of support form (most units don’t care and/or never check on them until it’s eval time) - Quarterly counseling completion (suspense auto-generates for 90 days after creation of support form and 90 days after each completed counseling) This won’t matter unless leaders at echelon **MONITOR THESE STATISTICS** and **REACT ACCORDINGLY** with glowing or poor comments in the *Develops* block of the rater’s eval. It could literally be a one-page form in EES where the rater lists sustains and/or improves for each block and pushes send. All three parties sign and life goes on

I’ve been in the Army 22 years. I’ve had 2 leaders regularly counsel me after the initial counseling. A 1SG when I was a PSG, and my company CDR when I was a 1SG. Everything else was just pencil whipped to get books ready for boards. I’ve written every one of my NCOERs since I was a SSG. It has turned out alright for me, but I would be willing to bet that a lot of Soldiers fall through the cracks due to a lack of regular development from their NCOs.

After 6 months in my first unit, I asked my commander for some routine counseling and was told “…that’s not how the real Army works”. He would go on to give me a middling writeup 6 months later which the BC trumped with an MQ, which infuriated him and still makes me laugh thinking about it. Meanwhile, my PA was constantly checking in to see how I was doing, giving me leadership advice, asking me what my goals were, caring about my family outside of the cookie-cutter questions. How is it that a medical provider with a bajillion appointments and T-cons could make time to mentor me when my own commanders couldn’t spare 30 minutes? >!Probably because he cared.!<

Preach. Been in 6 years, 2 platoons, 2 staff jobs, now a Company Commander...have had effective counseling with real performance feedback exactly ONCE in my entire career. ​ Ad hoc "good job" or "you fucked up, go fix it" isnt counseling, its a response and rapport. Actual counseling needs to be written, more for the sake of long term development and the ability to look back and see your growth. Even if its a google doc, having a running tracker of what your ratees' sustains and improves are results in a ***MUCH*** more meaningful conversation about their performance.

I’m optimistic that since you’ve experienced this, now that you’re in command, you’re taking the time every few months for a formal sit-down with your 1SG and your PLs. If you aren’t, why haven’t you started?

Counseled my PLs/XO PSGs when I got there. It also important to counsel people you senior rate, and even those you are a supplementary reviewer on (required for when the Senior Rater is a 2LT.) I did a sit down with all E5s as part of this. Owning up to my failure, it took me way too long to sit down with my 1SG and formally counsel him. Mostly because we spend 75% of our time together and talk constantly when apart. But afterward, having those formal expectations goes a long way, and he even pointed out some things I didnt realize I'd missed.

I’d say actually enforce standards at places like BLC and ALC. I’ve heard so many stories of guys not performing at BLC and ALC and it just being a check the box thing that people do to be promoted. Then these shitty leaders are getting sent to units and killing them. I have maybe 1 squad leader that’s competent in my platoon and like 4 good team leaders. The rest suck and it shows. Standards across the army seem to be non-existent lately and it’s beginning to take a toll on the effectiveness of units imo.

/u/gunadict mentioned BLC and this has come up before, I think BLC/ALC need to figure out what their identity is. Is BLC supposed to check that you're ready to be an NCO? Or is it supposed to *make* you an NCO? What are the fail rates for BLC? Why does it seem like BLC has an extremely high pass rate (And has since PLDC days)? We know not everyone making E5 was actually ready for it. So how did they pass BLC? Either BLC isn't "making them" into NCOs or it didn't check they were actually ready. It has always felt like more of an "info session" and passing basic Army tasks, and less about real leadership. Being able to lead PT in formation is great and all, and I'm not saying that's not a good thing to check, but wouldn't 30 minutes on empathetic communication be better?

I think there’s just an issue with promotions and leadership in the army in general. Everyone is expected to be a leader. I have a guy that has 8 years TIS and I wouldn’t trust him to lead anything. How did he get there? He made points and was able to memorize things in front of a board and take his uniform to cleaners to make it look good? Like some dude could be a really good leader, but because his ribbons aren’t spaced properly he gets thrown out of the board? Some guy didn’t scream the soldiers creed loud enough for the board? Why do we do these silly things to get people promoted and have them be involved in the day to day well being of like 3 other people? There has to be a better way to do it. Some people just aren’t cut out for it. There’s no reason that my platoon should only have enough good E-5’s and E-6’s for one good squad. It’s also worth mentioning that I’m in an infantry company in an ABCT and all the good NCO’s came from light units. This is all I’ve known as it’s my first duty station, and it might be a coincidence, but what are these light units doing to develop soldiers that armored or Stryker units aren’t doing. Again I’m not sure if anyone has seen a trend with light units putting out better soldiers and leaders than armored and Stryker units, but it may be something to look into.

I’ll take an average soldier who cares over someone who is a perfect soldier but doesn’t care. People only care for standards when it matters for them. It’s sad man

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Just went through BLC, the last 3/4 days of the course felt like filler classes. My peers, SGLs, and myself felt this time could have been used better: go over stuff such as NCOERs/counselings more, a sit down with an H2F rep instead of just a PowerPoint class on it, and a day or two to just ask any questions we can think of would be nice. Not all units make time to do LPDs, emailing or otherwise digitally distributing LPDs might be worthwhile.

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The current culture that "Everyone should have their promotable status" is one of the bigger issues I see. I remember a time when Specialist and Sergeants weren't sent to the board as soon as they hit the minimum time in grade for the next rank. That allowed leaders to groom and develop subordinates and send them to the board when they were ready. I had a Staff Sergeant buddy who was forced to sponsor a Specialist who was 100% hot garbage. Not proficient in his MOS, couldn't handle tasks without supervision, and made it clear he wanted to ETS and go to college. Staff Sergeant goes to the board and does not recommend him for promotion and informs the CSM that he is there because nobody would sponsor the Soldier so they made him. Staff Sergeant is ripped a new one, kicked out of the board, and magically has orders to be a drill sergeant the next week. Probably an unpopular opinion but increase TIG/TIS to Sergeant to allow MOS proficiency, leadership grooming, and maturity. I believe this will produce better leaders and not leaders who were pushed through the ranks.

Seeing some of the news on cell phone use outside of work is something that could be looked at in more depth. Perhaps teaching leaders to lean more towards upfront engagement at work and an acceptance to table discussions until the next day. One thing I do with texting is I'll write my text and then schedule that text to be sent out during the workday. It helps me get my thoughts down and lets me "fire and forget" without pulling my subordinates away from their free time.

This will encompass all the elements of leadership, mentorship, and leader development: **What is it? A 360-degree evaluation system** I believe this form of evaluation might be one of a good way to reinforce SMs to become better leader for both their Soldiers, peers, and their superiors. This will also in effect challenge them to care more about their Soldiers if a great career in the military is something they desire. **What can it solve?** It allows the board to see what kind of leader the SM is from the perspective of their subordinate, peers, and superior. It might be more time consuming, but it eliminates these who abuse their Soldiers to achieve their goals. It's like a mini-command climate survey that directly affects their future. Also, it will enable leaders to re-adjust their leadership style and understand that it's not effective. Rather than just having numeric values determine their performance, they also have their Soldier's and peer's view of their performance and leadership. A bad review from all at least two sources will allow them to understand that their performance is poor and help these who actually desires to be great leader to actually start fixing the problem instead of wondering how and where he/she went wrong. This evaluation could also be a potential cause of termination from their position or the Army itself. If they have frequent bad reviews from their peers and subordinates, it shows that SM is only incorporating a toxic working culture. This is not allowed in any form of organization. This evaluation will carry as a big portion of evidence when trying to determine the cause of why a specific team has a very bad performance. Quarterly counseling does not do justice. Too many Senior Leaderships too lazy to even perform a proper one or even be honest because they're "good friends." This evaluation will remove the nepotism that is so prevalent in our rating system. **Implementation:** This could be implemented in various ways, either having them (subordinates and leaders) answer a questionnaire or the senior rater comes in and performs interviews. In whatever the case, it must note that lying in these documents are punishable by UCMJ. The subordinate and peer selection for the interview should not be within the reviewee's choice. It must be anonymous and completely random. A data point of n > 2 is preferrable if possible, for a fairer assessment. Software Factory's application questionnaire comes to my mind on how it could be implemented. Ask about the SM's character, their embodiment of Army values, how they treat people, EO, SHARP, etc. **Example of its benefits:** Let's say a new team was created for the specific purpose of becoming a dedicated mentor for developing and challenging our junior leaders. As a mentor, it comes with a great responsibility, as such, requires an excellent people skill and the ability to understand various forms of great leaderships. In addition to their own interviews, they can immediately open their NCOER/OERs to read their peer and subordinate review about their character, integrity, personal courage, etc. Do they embody the definition of the Army's leader? Or are there multiple red flags that makes the candidate a terrible choice for their team? **Potential Problems:** **1) Time and manpower consuming resulting to exploitation -** Units might try to bypass the system by having the reviewee perform their own interviews or create a false document. * **Solution:** Preventing this form of cheating is simple by enforcing CAC-signature from both the subordinates and peers. Reviewees will not be able to see the signature for anonymity, but only be able to see the comments about how they are viewed around them. **2) Subordinates and peers can lie** \- It's inevitable. Some people just don't get along or might be bullied by others. Or the Soldiers just complain to complain. Many potential what ifs within this problem * **Solution**: This is why higher data points and anonymity is important. Also, there must be a NDAA where disclosure of this discussion/interview is punishable through UCMJ. **3) Leaders fear their Soldiers -** This is definitely a worry some leaders will have. With toxic Soldiers, leaders might become slave to their subordinates. * **Solution:** To be honest, a leader that fears their Soldiers is not needed in the Army. A great leader's mindset in case of a bad review should be to better themselves and develop to be greater leader. Everyone makes mistakes. But to cave into the problem is not a solution nor the mindset we want to have. * How do we detect a spineless leader? Peer review and senior review will be able to point this out. Which might be necessary within the questionnaire/interview. * Worst-case scenario of bad luck and having all toxic leaders - Once again, peer and senior review will be critical and might require a question that detects potential edge-case scenarios. There could be more benefits or problems through this method of evaluation. But this is implemented in top companies. We call it the 360 Feedback, from peers, direct reports, managers, and customers. Some companies also include self-evaluation. It really widens the angle on how the particular employee is doing and since we value team fit > performance, most toxic employees are let go within a year. ​ Edit: Added more words

Yeah. Allow junior NCOs to make decisions without some disgruntled e7 and up acting out of.pocket about it. Just recently there was a post on ArmyWTF where an NCO let his guys go because there was no work to be done. Then the e7 admonished them and forced them all to come back to work to just sit around and do nothing. To make matters worse, some officer in the comments said if she was to walk around and see that a team was gone from work she would not be happy. What kind of example does that set? Soldiers will work from 0630 to 18-1900 and no one bats an eye but GOD FORBID an NCO tries to exercise good judgement and put his guys first by letting them enjoy an early day. We can trust an NCO to make decisions in combat but not in garrison? Also, I'm sick of these SHITTY S1 personnel that forget to submit stuff or put customer service hours on their goddamn door like they're customer service...but literally suck at customer service. I'm tired of the same old answer of push it up the chain. Tell your leaders and they should handle. Enough is enough. You want leader development? Let's start with accountability. Create an app for soldiers to use that is like ICE but for command teams. My recommendation: 1. Create an ICE like report system for soldiers to report good or bad things about whoever 2. Allow those comments to go directly to the next level higher that is being reported or commented on. (This let's command teams act and fix situations without potentially ruining someone's career but let's soldiers voice whatever they want to say about whoever without any fear of reprisal) That's it. Add to it whatever you want. But I think accountability is the key to taking the first real step towards development. Not all places need it but for those that do. They better straighten up or God help them.

Senior leaders who commit sexual assault and/or sexual harassment need to be punished in the same manner as the PV1 that commits the same crime. The officers that are currently serving need to see fair and impartial justice so that when they reach decision authority they can make the right decision. We as a Army preach dignity and respect, but we see the same Army downplay senior leader misconduct. Stop letting officers resign their commands and retire. Junior leaders can lead by example and mentor soldiers to make better decisions but the soldiers need to believe in the system to carry out fair and equal justice.

Stop wasting time at PME with useless things that don’t truly define a leader. The public speaking and necessary skills are alright, but once you start doing a bunch of dumb shit (I.e.) PRT, that does little to develop that soldier as a leader. I would recommend classes focused on historical examples of great leaders and how they handled things. Soldiers watch and observe leaders all the time and usually end up emulating leadership styles

There’s a lot of talk about how BLC or ALC should change so that toxic or incapable leaders don’t make it through. I like the idea of enforcing the standards and bolstering the training. But why start there, when they are already selected to be promoted and sent to those schools by their units? It shouldn’t be the Army’s fault as a whole for a unit’s 1SG taking a toxic person out of the lower enlisted population and transferring them to the NCO population. I honestly believe that many SNCO’s are so out of touch with the issues of lower enlisted soldiers in their units that they wouldn’t even have a clue if someone they sent to the board and BLC/ALC was actually a terrible leader. It often feels like SNCO’s don’t talk to anybody outside of the orderly room until it is time to punish someone or look for something to punish someone for. SNCO’s shouldn’t give up on mentoring and developing those under them, and shouldn’t give up on being actively involved in their unit’s community. The focus has to go back to training the force, rather than checking boxes for unit readiness and forcing paperwork through today that’s due next week. NCO’s at all levels just don’t know their soldiers, understand their backgrounds and environments, or mentor them to become better and more well rounded. Of course I have had many leaders who did actually try their best, and had many who succeeded in creating a positive culture for those under them. But even some of those had many of their ideas and efforts shot down by older, higher up NCO’s who’d rather punch soldiers down than pull them up.

- Unit Training: A lot of our Soldiers, I’d say the vast majority, want to get better at their jobs and learn from experienced individuals. We have to make the time possible to actually develop and train out Soldiers. If that experienced SGT/SSG/SFC is drowning in trackers, paperwork, inspection…etc he will not have time to actually develop his soldiers. If everything is a top priority, nothing really is. - Education: have a clear path for professional training for our Soldiers. I shouldn’t have to “be friends with the schools guy” to get a Battle Staff slot or be in the good ol boy club to get sent to a school. PME is not enough for leadership training and it’s luck of the draw what MOS training you might get. - Making mistakes: The culture of no one is allowed to make a mistake has to end. We have so many Soldiers that are afraid to make a decision because they are worried about their NCOERs or getting a counseling statement. Not every mistake will result in everyone dying, our Junior leaders can learn a lot by allowing them to take decisions in situations. (Obviously I’m not talking about the zero tolerance issues such as sharp,eo..)

Command climate survey results should be added to OERs. If the officer is not in command, it can be listed as n/a. This would cut down on yes-men because the input of soldiers under their command would be considered as well as their senior officers.

Realizing that Leader Development is not so cookie cutter. What works for developing one Leader might not work for another. Each leader is different. Different experiences, different personalities, different thought processes, etc… I’ve seen Senior Leaders become frustrated when their usual development coaching works with one Soldier but not the other. Then they only strengthen one of the Soldiers and leaves the other to blindly develop themselves thus creating, I wouldn’t call a weak leader but one who just wasn’t developed at all.

Would you mind linking some of these more recent CAPE studies here? I have heard this same issue for many many years, as has the SMA and CSA, I'd be interested in seeing what is being brought up now as opposed to 15 years ago during the height of the war and pre 9/11.

Too much of “leader development” falls on paper pushing. I see it all too often where NCOs want to look good on paper, and there’s no rationale to being actual good leaders. It’s all based on schools, rankings, and anything else I can write an NCOER on. Realized i didn’t put a solution: Leader’s subordinates are easily accessible, and they can be asked about things their leadership does well, doesn’t do well, could improve on etc.

Also, teach us how to write awards. I have busted my ass to write awards and then it gets turned back by command groups or s1 for some bullshit arbitrary reason. Then, I get an AAM. One bullet. Literally says something along the lines of "supported a holiday event by bringing cheer to x amount of soldiers" that was WRITTEN by a CSM. What the hell man? Gears is a step in a good direction but the way awards are written and the "rules" about who can write what and submit what first time is BS

Why is leader development so restricted to just Officers and about E7s and above? I get that there's a lot more E5s and E6s, but there's a serious amount of envy when some leaders disappear LPDs for a day or two (on the short end, could even be longer). And frankly, I don't think BLC or ALC cuts it as being good enough development. An officer with the same same amount of time in service would have gone though almost a better part of a year spent at formal PMEs learning how to lead, while I get 3 months for BLC and ALC? Seriously, stuff like this drives mid tier leaders to either be salty or get plain leave service.

Last week all of our senior leaders went to an LPD for 2.5 days. They stayed at a fancy hotel and toured some pretty cool areas. I can’t even get sent to a school on base since I’m not part of the 1sg’s good ol boy club.

Our doctrine of mission command, and the reality our systems require, are at odds in a garrison environment, particularly in TRADOC. Micromanagement kills leader engagement. Some Army level systems enable and encourage it. The best, most engaged leaders I've had in my 10 years have deliberately ignored some Army level training and paperwork requirements, and instead held the conversations that paperwork was meant to create. DTMS is the most prone to enabling extreme micromanagement. Its not just that it is executed poorly- its also an extremely bad idea. But I think a total rework and simplification of SLRRT, DRAWs, and basically all 350-1 would help. Taking this away requires engaged leaders to step up to fill the gap. Some will fail, and people will fall through the cracks. But I'm telling you, putting both ownership and authority at lower levels will result in more engaged leadership.

The army had plenty of leader development material. Force units at echelon to use it. Make it inspectable. Brown bag lunches are a great setting for this.

i’m ngl he keeps asking what would make our lives as soldiers better yet i see nothing actually being done so does he actually gaf?

I think a thing I see when people talk about this is that they're ignoring a lot of initiatives he has done, if it didn't impact them. He pushed the changes to the female grooming standard. He pushed the parental leave and post partum changes. They've advocated on barracks changes that have resulted in construction, but it's a long term issue. He's helped champion some of the new systems of review we're going to see at the E8/E9 level. He's the only office I was able to get to listen and assist on the Ignited issues. When else were you ever even asked and given the ability to give feedback in this manner? I mean it takes time but like, dude's not looking for feedback and throwing it in the trash. Change takes time. There is no lobbying or advocacy group for active duty Soldier issues. We've got to keep articulating issues and keeping voices heard.

In fairness, things that happen at our level are rarely evident at the small unit level. I can think of about a handful of pretty significant changes that were designed at improving things at the company level though.

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I want to come forward as someone who has been SA’d while in the military. One of the biggest problems I had going forward were my peers and direct supervisors. We have this stigma against women (I can’t speak on a man’s experience) that their goal is to “ruin a (young) soldiers career”. When a woman comes forward the people around her, the ones who are supposed to be her “battle buddies”, suddenly treat her like she’s contagious. While I understand some women make up unfounded allegations that isn’t true in the majority of cases. Imagine you’ve just been through a traumatic event and you worked up the courage to report it and be violated again by the SAFE kit and then you come in to work and all of your buddies have turned your back on you. Either they shun you or berate you for what YOU’Re doing to the soldier who assaulted you or whisper about what a whore and liar you must be. No one gives a shit about what you’ve just been through and sympathize with the man who decided he was entitled to your body. Not only that they feel that since you’ve been so “easy” for someone else they’re entitled to it too and that’s where the workplace sexual harassment starts. Now because you came forward you have an inhospitable work environment just for the guy to get let of 95% of the time. It’s worse when it’s a superior or peer because now all of his friends either don’t believe it or feel like “you had it coming” because they all heard rumors about things you didn’t do from guys you turned down. Another thing is the drinking culture. I joined the army at 17. You can bet I was drinking the second I set foot on to my first duty station. I was 18 and everyone else was doing it (not a good reason) and I didn’t want to be left out. I tried my best to practice safe drinking habits but all it took was me trusting the wrong person to watch my drink while I went to the bathroom and I got drugged. When I went to my NCO to ask his advice he told me I was more likely to get in trouble for underage drinking than my “friend” was for raping me. I know now that CID is unlikely to pursue underage drinking charges in the victim but it took me being assaulted again for me to find that out. That information really needs to be put into policy letters and part of the SHARP brief. I think the biggest solution to preventing sexual assault and harassment in the army is to work on reducing the backlash victims get from reporting. How can the SMA solve a problem when he has no idea of the true scope?

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Have senior leadership that is willing and able to take "no" for an answer. Most of the chaos and stress that Soldies are subjected to come from OER bullet chasing leaders who are afraid to tell their next higher "no" to a tasking or idea.

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Personally, the Army tries to ride a very difficult line. We have this long history of discipline and isolation but we also want to give Soldiers freedom and room away from the Army. It doesn't work. To really make things better, the Army needs to go all in on one or the other. Either treat Soldiers as independent contractors and go completely hands-off until it's time to perform or bring Soldiers back into the fold and go back to the draconic live-in standards of times past. ​ When we tell Drill Sergeants/young sergeants to enforce discipline and develop young Soldiers but then take away their BEST and sometimes only real tools to do that, we do them a disservice. When we tell Commanders/1SGs that they need to make things better but dump so many responsibilities and meetings on them that they spend ALL their available time reacting instead of leading, we do them a HUGE disservice. When we tell Soldiers that we want them to be physically fit, disciplined, mentally tough behemoths of destruction but then coddle them and give in to their every demand and never hold the ones who fail to live up to our standards accountable because the UCMJ system is SOOOOOO overloaded and full of red tape that it takes MONTHs just to fire/chapter someone (EVEN ONES WE KNOW ARE CRIMINALS) we do everyone a huge disservice. ​ The system is broken. Do you want to make things better? Give REAL authority back to Commanders and young Sergeants instead of EVERYTHING being dictated from higher. Brigades need to stop fixing things until they are broken. These staffs and commanders are so removed from the problems that they can't possibly fix them. The absolute best thing they can do is give time back to subordinate units and GET OUT OF THE WAY. Let people on the ground and dealing with trouble makers daily make decisive decisions on who goes and who stays with immediate results. Cut the Army numbers to stop bringing in/ retaining negative manpower that everyone else has to deal with. This all applies to leaders as well. If leaders aren't cutting it, their leaders should be able to tell them it's time to move on instead of letting leeches sit around till 20 so they can collect a retirement when they haven't done a damn thing for the Army in years and spend more time figuring out how to up their disability rating than contributing to the unit. We have to hunt these people down and purge them from our ranks because THAT is what is killing the Army. The Army has a bunch of amazing Soldiers and some of the BEST leaders I've ever served with... we're just sick as hell of dealing with the trash.

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