Eli,

Thanks for your post and thoughtful effort in shaping the next generation of military leaders!

A number one book pick from several bosses is “The Road to Character” by David Brooks- he filmed a great 5 min TED talk as a thought provoking prep.

For more military applications- John McCain’s book on “Why Courage Matters” offers many examples…[Read more]

Some of the best advice I can offer are the following:

1) Get an example of what the approving authority is looking for. Some BDE CDRs accept 4 achievements on an ARCOM written as simply as “Joe did X, X helped the unit Y amount.” Then again, some BN CDRs want full, multi-sentence write-ups in each achievement block to justify an AAM. Know what…[Read more]

Hello!  My best recommendation is to get the templates for each level of award from your higher headquarters so that you have a correct “shell” to work from.  Admin data is usually standardized by the S1/G1 and you can easily ensure that fonts, spacing, signature blocks, etc. are right to cut down on the correction cycle.  Many units also have sta…[Read more]

Hello!  My best recommendation is to get the templates for each level of award from your higher headquarters so that you have a correct “shell” to work from.  Admin data is usually standardized by the S1/G1 and you can easily ensure that fonts, spacing, signature blocks, etc. are correct to cut down on the correction cycle.  Many units also ha…[Read more]

Tiara,

Sorry this took so long.

Ray is correct.  Subscribing to a topic is the way to go if you want to receive notifications for ALL additional comments and replies.

Also, there is no way to “like” a discussion just yet, however, I’m working on that.

Tom

Coins are awesome.

This is cool too though 🙂

Giving people something to invest in and be proud of is also valuable to camaraderie and mission success.

Jkramer0309- I would not underestimate your platoon meal celebrations or see them as a small gesture. That is HUGE for people. Bringing in lunch speaks volumes because you’re showing your Soldiers that you care about them. And food speaks to everyone’s hearts. You wouldn’t believe how many people stop me in the hospital and ask where I’m going…[Read more]

Me? Because I was once an Aide, I hate coins. I mean like, vehemently, HATE coins. However I understand their value as far as morale. Sometimes there just isn’t time or justification to write up an award or positive counseling. So what I did was come up with my own “ata-boy” type device, a velcro backed patch. Like a coin, it can be given right…[Read more]

Me? Because I was once an Aide, I hate coins. I mean like, vehemently, HATE coins. However I understand their value as far as morale. Sometimes there just isn’t time or justification to write up an award or positive counseling. So what I did was come up with my own “ata-boy” type device, a velcro backed patch. Like a coin, it can be given right…[Read more]

Nate,

To be honest, I try to prepare with everything we do. An important mentor of mine once said “everything is training,” so I look at it just like that. I stress every opportunity to learn to grow and to correlate what we (my unit) are doing to our war time mission. We are currently preparing to move out to Fort Lewis to train and assist…[Read more]

Nate,

To be honest, I try to prepare with everything we do. An important mentor of mine once said “everything is training,” so I look at it just like that. I stress every opportunity to learn to grow and to correlate what we (my unit) are doing to our war time mission. We are currently preparing to move out to Fort Lewis to train and assist…[Read more]

Nate,

To be honest, I try to prepare with everything we do. An important mentor of mine once said “everything is training,” so I look at it just like that. I stress every opportunity to learn to grow and to correlate what we (my unit) are doing to our war time mission. We are currently preparing to move out to Fort Lewis to train and assist…[Read more]

When you use the search function (ie I used it to look for code words to make sure I wasn’t duplicating a topic discussion), it pulls up topics and says they don’t have any “likes” or “comments”. I thought none of those topics by JOs had been answered by anyway. Turns out, they DO have replies- those numbers just aren’t showing under the search…[Read more]

When you use the search function (ie I used it to look for code words to make sure I wasn’t duplicating a topic discussion), it pulls up topics and says they don’t have any “likes” or “comments”. I thought none of those topics by JOs had been answered by anyway. Turns out, they DO have replies- those numbers just aren’t showing under the search…[Read more]

Haha. This is helpful because I just created a topic for discussion. Thank you for that, Ray! *Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe*