@charles.hood I’ll echo your comments on “whatever they tell me to do”. There is a difference between disciplined initiative (also disciplined disobedience, see GEN Milley’s comments on that matter) and insubordination. For this argument, I think you need to neglect orders that are illegal or immoral, for a moment.

There have been more than a…[Read more]

@ae_rollinson – this is my first unit with an OPCON/ADCON split in the chain of command, and even though those terms were defined in BOLC, it doesn’t appear we’re actually operating that way. There’s actually a spaghetti-looking graph showing which teams are OPCON to which command, yet most of them are ADCON to this command. On the personally…[Read more]

@ae_rollinson,

Digging into my upcoming annual training period (my company has been designated SIM Cell and OPFOR… yes, I bought a special uniform) I wanted to throw another point out another thing that would greatly help out commanders and PLs; go to your local Training Support Center (TSC). Walk around, get their catalog, see what they have…[Read more]

@ae_rollinson I know it might be a little strange for a Reservist to switch to RA. Thank you for your help and I look forward to hearing from you!

@ae_rollinson: Indeed, it is my “can opener”, my “hook”, and hopefully it’s interesting enough to get people to think.

And yes, these are short versions of my notes. Definitely guilty of not fleshing out the entire argument. For instance, “commanders brief red” was essentially the main point of an OPD I received a while back (likely BOLC) which…[Read more]

@adam.szczypka – all great points. I agree with @ae_rollinson that I think the point (I think) you are trying to make is that our officer/enlisted system is successful and contributes to winning wars,  I feel like some of the Soldiers might take the “Officers win wars” point the wrong way, as if diminishing the enlisted and warrant…[Read more]

@ae_rollinson @spatelis : I’m not just trying to answer why an officer billet exists in different MTOEs or TDAs, but why we commission lieutenants straight out of college, often with no prior real world experience. Of the nations that have ever had officers, I’m sure not all of them created an officer corps exactly like ours. One of my Soldiers…[Read more]

@ae_rollinson, thanks for the additions and AG perspective.

For those interested, check out the post/tools for Letters of Introduction. These should absolutely be sent before every new assignment. Templates are provided in this discussion thread. Definitely a best practice!

Letter of Introduction to CO

To echo @ae_rollinson, check the JTR or even check out MilSuite/book.

@ae_rollinson

I’ve encountered two situations within the past twelve months where two Soldiers (one PFC and the other SSG) that wanted to ETS. The solution in both cases was communication. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations and forget to talk to people. I try to make it a point to learn what people are thinking to help them…[Read more]