as troop commander, a nice coin went far. taking breaks, bbqs, team-building events like paintball using mwr funds and using FRG for fund-raising to throw Halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas parties was always nice. look at it this way – you just trained hard and waiting for you is a bbq’d burger. that burger doesn’t cost much but it leaves a…[Read more]

@Patrick-d-moore1, Now there’s a word we don’t hear a lot of.  However I agree it is something that can have a massive impact, positively or negatively, on our careers; “politics.”

How do you navigate the waters of a system that in some States can be as much “who” you know, as “what” you know (and whether or not they like you)? Do you have…[Read more]

@leromt,

A message, a story, a funny anecdote of “that time in (insert foreign land),” I think we agree that it’s important to have something prepared, even if only a couple of key points.

Besides a personal “Army” story, why a person joined, and the benefits of service, what are some other points that Soldiers should have in the rucks, ready to…[Read more]

@cptchristopherprice, regarding your #2 and #4.

Can having good mentors who are outside of the those chains of command help off set those developmental challenges?

Great topic! I will offer two things I did as a commander. First, we did a troop-level dining out, which took dedicated planning and coordination but the Soldiers and their families really enjoyed the event. We were fortunate to conduct the dining out a few months after returning from a deployment, so it gave us a chance to recognize outgoing le…[Read more]

Can we add images yet to out posts/replies? I see the insert/edit image button on the bar, however when it pops up there is no way I see that I can upload or chose a picture to include in the post anywhere.

I’ve attached a screen shot of what I’m looking at.

@gary-m-klein, I totally agree!

@cptchristopherprice, Great topic and absolutely relevant. Morale is one of those combat multipliers that leaders, especially in the Guard and Reserves, overlook because they are so slammed with the avalanche of tasks and suspense items that inevitably make up every drill. Morale matters even more when going into a mobilization. What I did…[Read more]