Birthdays and Anniversaries
Last week I turned 45. I was able to spend it with my wife and daughters. It beat the birthdays that I’ve spent in foreign countries and training all over the US. I turned 18 in Basic Training in Georgia, 19 in Florida training with the Rangers, 20 in Egypt on a peacekeeping mission; I had a twenty year reprieve before I spent my 40th birthday in Iraq. At least there I was able to celebrate it with a friend in the same unit. Next year, my “Birthday Brother” will be spending his 38th birthday in Kuwait as a Battalion Command Sergeant Major.
My birthday is on August 18th, the day that the last combat unit left Iraq. I will now celebrate my birthday on the anniversary marking the end of a war that claimed over 4,000 lives and left over 40,000 wounded.
The end of combat in Iraq isn’t the only anniversary that falls on my birthday. This year was the first anniversary of the death of Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, killed in action on August 18, 2009 in Afghanistan. SSG Bowen was 29 years old. I met him when he was an 18 year old Private at Fort Lewis, Washington. Bowen was a typical Private… full of unfocused energy and cockiness. He was also a natural Leader. I regret that I never served with him when he was an NCO, but I’m fortunate to have seen his potential and contributed to his professional development.
SSG Clayton Bowen’s service and sacrifice are frozen in time, and his memory is reliant on those of us that knew him. It is the same tragedy for all of the fallen. I will continue to age. I will age, and I will begin to forget. Some memories I will be grateful to lose, others will be missed. I can only hope that by sharing my memories, the memories of good men and women are granted a longer life span than me.
Bad NCOs; Good Lessons Learned
Most NCOs that I have served with have believed in sacrifice and selfless service. They live the Army Values and breathe the NCO Creed. They inspire their Soldiers with personal courage and moral strength. These true NCOs far outnumber the poor. Not every NCO is a competent Leader. But, even the bad ones can serve a purpose.
I have also served with NCOs that possessed absolutely no leadership ability. They took care of themselves; not their Soldiers. Others were lazy, some were illiterate, and some were cowards. The most detestable NCO I served with is serving a life sentence in Leavenworth for committing the rape and murder of an 11 year old girl in Kosovo.
A rapist and murderer is an extreme example. Most bad NCOs are just worthless, not criminals. The most worthless NCO I served with was my 60mm Mortar Section Sergeant in Hawaii. I was an E-4 in charge of one mortar squad; he was an E-5 in charge of the other. We each had a Gunner and Assistant Gunner with more equipment than any other squad in the company. A 60mm mortar section has lots of equipment and very few Soldiers. It takes teamwork and mutual trust to make a cohesive section. He fostered neither.
He refused to invest in a large ruck, so he never had enough room to carry his own squad equipment. He divided it among his gunner and assistant gunner. They hated him for it and it poisoned everyone else in the section. In Hawaii, we constantly trained. If we didn’t train off island, we trained in the mountains surrounding Schofield Barracks. We trained with a hundred pounds on our back. Most field problems, we trained without him. He found every excuse not to go to the field. The 1SG recognized his shortcomings, so he was never recommended for the E-6 board.
In the meantime, I was promoted to E-5 and transferred to the 81mm Mortar Platoon in another company. Of course he felt slighted; he thought he was a better 11C and deserved to move up to the 81mm mortar platoon. Another reason was because there were vehicles in the 81mm platoon and the lazy bastard hated walking. Ten months later, I was promoted to E-6. He stopped talking to me altogether after that.
He doesn’t know it, but he taught me just as much about being a good NCO than any other NCO. I used him as an example of what not to be and what not to do. He taught me to bear more weight than my Soldiers and to be willing to do anything they had to do. Leaders lead from the front, not the rear.
Bad NCOs serve a purpose. A fat NCO can motivate you to stay fit and be an example of physical fitness standards. An NCO that has no clue on how to write an NCOER or read a regulation can inspire you to learn how to write effectively and how to read and implement regulations and policies. Lazy, ineffective, selfish NCOs can teach you the importance of being tactically and technically proficient.
I have known thousands of NCOs. Almost every one of them has taught me how to be a better NCO. I’m fortunate to have served with NCOs that went on to earn Silver Stars, and a few have been promoted to E-8 and E-9 positions. I have a very good friend whose stellar career was cut short from an IED, and I mourn other friends that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. The greatness of the NCO Corps isn’t just found in these men; it is found in every NCO that is dedicated to accomplishing their mission and caring for their Soldiers.
Not every NCO will be a 1SG or CSM, or earn medals in combat. But all NCOs are examples for all Soldiers. NCOs should strive for improvement. And that improvement can come from every other NCO. Look at all the other NCOs you come in contact with. Learn from them all; even the few bad ones.
Promotions
Last month, one of my Team Leaders from Iraq was promoted. Six years ago, he was just a newly promoted Sergeant, and now he is a Sergeant First Class. This month, another NCO I know will be promoted to Sergeant First Class. Six years ago, he was a Staff Sergeant.
Both are excellent NCOs and well deserving of their promotions. Each travelled a different path and had a different timeline in reaching the same point in their careers.
I spent 21 years in the military. Nine of those 21 years, I spent as a Staff Sergeant. Yet, I was able to retire as a Master Sergeant with 33 months Time in Grade. Those long nine years of being a Staff Sergeant were a mix of mistiming and misfortune. But, those nine years were invaluable in developing my leadership skills and personal leadership style.
While at Fort Lewis, I met up with a Soldier I went through Basic Training and AIT with. I was just a Staff Sergeant, but I was an 81mm mortar Platoon Sergeant. He was a Master Sergeant teaching ROTC at a university. We each started our careers in the 82nd Airborne. I left as an E-5 after three years; he left as an E-6 after eight years. He left to be a recruiter, where he was promoted to E-7. He was reassigned to a university ROTC department as an E-8. The most Soldiers he ever led were three Soldiers when he was a Squad Leader eight years earlier. I had 27 Soldiers in my platoon.
He was a successful recruiter and ROTC Instructor, so he deserved his promotions. But, he would never have the experience of leading Soldiers like I had. I felt bad for him.
Not every quality NCO will be promoted to their full worth. Promotions aren’t necessarily fair. Easy for a retired E-8 to say. I have known many exemplary NCOs who have retired as Staff Sergeants. I recognize my fortune and their misfortune. I wasn’t a better Soldier; I was more fortunate.
My advice: Don’t get caught up in rank envy. Do your job to the best of your abilities. Look out for your Soldiers. Earn the respect of your subordinates, peers and superiors by being a Subject Matter Expert in your MOS. Whatever rank you leave the military as… be proud of your accomplishments, not what rank is on your jacket in the closet.
Yes… easy for a retired E-8 to say, but my jacket is collecting dust too.
Don’t Ask… Don’t Tell… Unanswered Questions
I have been assumed to be a conservative just as often as I’ve been accused of being a liberal by different friends. Being an NRA instructor and a supporter of the ACLU can be confusing to some of them. I am neither a Republican nor Democrat; conservative nor liberal. I lay claim to be a realist; believing in no set ideology. Every circumstance and issue can’t be pigeon-holed; each has its own pros and cons that determine the correct course of action.
The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy (10 U.S.C. A. § 654 - Policy concerning homosexuals in the Armed Forces) is such an issue. I listened to the State of the Union address last week, and later this week the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will present an “implementation plan” to a Congressional committee. I can’t wait to hear what they have to say. Reported by the news agencies, neither has made known a public opinion of the issue. Other than, “Congress makes the laws, and the military follows them.”
The military has been at the forefront of social changes before; specifically, Truman’s desegregation of the military. On July 26, 1947 Truman signed Executive Order 9981, establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services. It still took decades for the military to fully implement that order.
Whether the President signs an Executive Order eliminating discharges for homosexual conduct or whether Congress finally passes the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (it failed to leave the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel in 2005 and 2007, and the 2009 attempt has been back in committee since March 2009), the action may leave many unanswered questions.
The realist in me says neither will be actioned until after the mid-term elections. Struggling Democrats do not need another social wedge issue to contend with. They are all ready in survival mode to stop the political bleeding that comes during every majority party’s mid-term election. And, Republicans have not shown any support for the repeal, and would be committing political suicide if they did.
As they prepare to speak before the Senate Armed Forces Committee, I hope Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen have considered the following confounding variables:
1 – Educating service members on proper conduct toward homosexual/bisexual service members. HR 1283 calls for the Department of Defense to implement sexual orientation discrimination training. Easier written then done. When Consideration of Others training was implemented in the mid-1990’s it was treated as an inconvenience. Sexual Assault Prevention and Response training in the early 2000’s was considered as another pound of mandatory training in an all ready full bag. Adding another mandatory training block of instruction will probably start with leaders receiving the training and then tasked with instructing their subordinates; the Train the Trainer concept. The more layers training has to flow down through, the greater the chance for a degradation of training value. It becomes a “Check the Box” for commands.
2 – The Manual of Courts-Martial, Article 125 – Sodomy will have to be re-defined by an act of Congress. The current definition is: “Sodomy is the engaging in unnatural carnal copulation either with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal. It is considered unnatural carnal copulation for a person to take into his or her mouth or anus the sexual organ of another person or of an animal; or to place his or her sexual organ into the mouth or anus of another person or of an animal; or to have carnal copulation in any opening of the body, except the sexual parts, with another person; or to have carnal copulation in any opening of the body of an animal.” ENOUGH SAID; I’m leaving that one alone.
3 – Previously discharged Soldiers. HR 1283 allows re-accession based solely on the discharge for homosexual conduct. It doesn’t address the Soldiers that were discharged on Patterns of Misconduct or similar other adverse discharges that were purposely used instead of a discharge for Homosexual Conduct. The fear was that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would eventually be repealed, so commands discharged Soldiers under other reasons to avoid having the discharges automatically overturned. What provisions will be in place for these Soldiers?
4 – Changing Dishonorable Discharges to Honorable Discharges. Service members discharged within the past fifteen years will have to petition their service’s Discharge Review Board. If discharged over fifteen years ago or discharged under a court-martial, they would have to petition the Board for Correction of Military Records. What stress would these petitions place on the system? Especially Soldiers with discharges based on homosexual conduct but not specifically used as the final Separation Program Designator code, Re-enlistment Eligibility Code or narrative reason on their DD214.
5 – Wrongly discharged Soldiers re-enlisting. Would re-enlisting Soldiers be eligible for back pay and promotions? Should a discharged E-6 have to come back into the service as an E-1? Should they be given credit for time in service and should they be given a reasonable promotion? Prisoners of War are promoted in accordance with their peers, should the same be allowed for these Soldiers? What if discharged Soldiers no longer meet other enlistment criteria such as age?
6 – VA benefits. If a Soldier elects not to re-enlist, but still has a dishonorable discharge upgraded to honorable; what VA benefits are entitled? What if the Soldier has a service-connect disability? Do the payments begin with the awarding date of a new claim, or is there a legal right to have the payments back dated?
7 – What happens if Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is found to have been unconstitutional? Civil lawsuits by discharged service members would be prohibited under HR 1283, but there are current lawsuits against the government claiming Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was unconstitutional to begin with. In Lawrence v. Texas, the most cited precedence, the Supreme Court ruled sodomy laws fall under the protection of the 14th Amendment and are a violation of a right to privacy. Would an unconstitutional ruling against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell negate any and all laws relating to it? Would it be a basis for civil lawsuits and punitive damages?
8 – What happens if public opinion changes in favor of gay marriage? HR 1283 denies dependent benefits to gay service-members. If the Defense of Marriage Act is amended or repealed, what benefits would gay partners receive? On-post housing? TriCare coverage? Federal employment preference?
I have served with gay and bisexual Soldiers (men and women). What they did on their own time was not my concern. All I cared about is that they knew their jobs. I would rather have a homosexual Soldier that can accurately engage targets at 300 meters, then a straight Soldier that can’t hit the side of a barn. I cared less about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell… I cared about “Can Soldier, Can’t Soldier”.
This issue will never go away; whether it is sustained, modified or completely repealed. It will take more than Congressional or Presidential actions. Acceptance will take the actions of gay Soldiers focusing on their professional accomplishments, and the recognition of open-minded Soldiers in acknowledging that gay Soldiers are competent, courageous, and are not detrimental to unit cohesiveness and readiness.
I’m a realist. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will be repealed in 2011. But, acceptance of openly gay service members won’t happen for decades.
Hearing what we want to hear
What is it about a Presidential speech that enables people to hear what they want to hear?
After President Obama’s speech at West Point last night, I watched the post-speech analysis on two different cable news channels. It seems that half of the talking heads heard an emotionless, vague narrative explanation of why we will be nation-building for 18 months before we quit abruptly and leave America open for renewed terrorist attacks. They complained that there wasn’t a Churchill-esque rally to war. The other half heard an intelligent, rational approach to solving a problem created by a previous administration. They heard their prior condemnations confirmed and validated. I didn’t hear either.
I caught an exchange between a pundit and a former political advisor as they commented that the President was not “comfortable with combat.” I agree with them.
But what they criticize, I appreciate. I don’t want a President “comfortable” sending Soldiers into combat. I want a President that struggles with that decision. I want a President that develops different courses of action for complex problems. I want a President that makes decisions based on facts not assumptions. To do anything less is an injustice to the men and women asked to bear the burden of war.
It is easy to criticize from the “comfort” of a TV studio. Neither of these two men has served in the military. Neither has been “comfortable” in Iraq while wearing IBA’s in 120 degree heat or walking through snow-covered mountains in Afghanistan. Neither of them has said “Good-bye” to their families with the uncertainty of ever coming home again. Neither has seen death within an arm’s reach or visited the grave of a friend killed in action. They will never be able to comprehend the discomfort of combat: physically, emotionally or mentally.
And it wasn’t just these two that pissed me off with their nonchalant dismissal of what combat means. There were numerous politicians lined up to spew opinions. From dithering to dip shits.
Former politicians passed partisan judgment days before the speech while current Congressmen vowed to vote “NO” on any funding for the troop increase.
Arguments about this strategy weakening America are subjective opinions. Any opinion from “authorities” that have failed at their own strategies and who avoided serving in the military themselves is laughable. Opinions are certainly like assholes: everyone has one. BUT, some assholes are paid attention to more closely when they have an inflamed, painful hemorrhoid that just doesn’t go away.
And, any Congressman that doesn’t vote “YES” on funding increases might as well pack their office the next day. They won’t be back in 2011. I am not a “Support the troops by supporting the war” type of person. If you want to support the troops… enlist and become one of them. Political suicide is a Congressman denying funds to Soldiers engaged in a war. Whether they support the war is of no concern.
I fully support the eighteen month timeline. In my house we called it the 18/30 rule. When my daughters turned 18 years old, they had 30 days to be enrolled in college or they were out of the house. The standard was set and they achieved it. They knew the rewards and the consequences.
Eighteen months is more than enough time. My platoon spent a frustrating year in Sadr City, Baghdad training Iraqi Police in basic survivability skills. I never heard the pop of their heads coming out of their asses. Hopefully, another unit did. I will never know if my platoon made a difference in creating an effective Iraqi security force. Four years later, I couldn’t give two shits about the Iraqi’s security. I barely cared then. We trained the Iraqis to the best of our abilities, but not for the Iraqis sake. We trained them so other Soldiers wouldn’t have to be in Baghdad ten years after us.
I didn’t serve in Afghanistan, but I have friends that have. One friend served there in 2002 where he fought the Taliban. How does he feel when he hears that the Taliban has remerged? Another close friend was medically retired two years after being hit with an IED blast. He was lucky; a friend of his died in the blast. How does he feel about 30,000 more Soldiers going into harm’s way? Both of my friends felt the pain when SSG Clayton Bowen was killed in action over the summer. All three of us knew him as an 18 year old Private when he came to our platoon in Fort Lewis. I know that we don’t want any more friends dying while the Afghani’s learn to pull their heads out of their asses.
I listened to the speech last night as a Soldier. I heard that 30,000 more Soldiers were going to be ordered to shed blood, sweat, tears and body parts. Using the 2009 casualty trends in Afghanistan, over the next 18 months approximately 2,700 Soldiers will be wounded and 450 Soldiers will return in flag draped caskets.
From what I heard last night; my head tells me it’s the right thing to do, my gut tells me it won’t work, and my heart just breaks for 30,000 families.