Of Pens and Swords

First, what is an AAR. It is just what is says, a review of the actions taken after the fact of . It’s a note for the chain of command to take that documents what the leadership felt was successful, what was not, how to improve upon what was not, and how to sustain what they did correctly. I say this unit wouldn’t have one because the whole chain of command and upper NCO support channel is delusional, and they think everything they had done was a complete success. Of course it is, it’s going to benefit them next year.

I’ll try to stick specifically my shop. There are other sections I couldn’t do justice to, and a couple I know have tried to do the right thing. Either way, I don’t have much to make a decent AAR on either wing.

SUSTAIN:
Communications: We had decent commo between 3/4′s of us, and had a decent idea what each other was up to.
Accountability: We also had decent accountability for 3/4′s of the section.
Motivation: We definitely had no problem keeping motivated. Thank you, the user, for keeping us entertained.
Ass Kissing: Ya, I’m kidding. Sorry Top.

IMPROVE:
Accountability. There was a person in our section that we never knew where he was at, how long he was going to be gone, any of it. He was also my supervisor…
also on this header. accountability for the user, the systems, and maintenance done. Since all warnings were heeded, and the supervisor went down his own Enlightened path, we haven’t tracked a single computer issue, user issue, or maintenance request in over 7 months. There is no way to tell what the patterns are, what systems should really be brought off the line and replaced, no accountability for what we’ve done in the past year. NONE.
This just doesn’t get extended to my Supervisor either, however. There are times that I knew where nobody was at, ever, for days on end. I’d see them walk in, check email, walk out. I’d get a few calls always wondering where so&so was, and I’d have to say, most likely within the confines of this post, but I’m not sure on that either. Am I responsible for their accountability? Yes. They are of mine, I am of theirs…It’s a circle that keeps the information clean. That never happened.
Communications. The Supervisor cannot communicate. He has never informed anybody of what requests he’s gotten in to fix, and when he drops the ball on them two weeks after the fact, something that happens all the time, we get a user or more mad because he/she has been paid lip service for the past couple of weeks, and nobody here knows about what they’re talking about. This also falls under accountability.
Communications isn’t just to our section. All the users that feed us half information or bad information of what a problem is, or what they need resolved. I know that I emailed everyone more than a few times that when they send us information about a problem, they need to be as specific as possible. I can’t even guess how many hours have been wasted the past year on being fed bad or wrong information, having us look left when the problem is to the right. I can’t even say how many times users feel that since we’re “computer people” we should be able to read their minds and figure out what they really mean.
Cohesion: I never once felt like a member of a unit here. I didn’t even feel like a member of a section. Other sections I see have decent cohesion, but then they try to up the Joneses with the adjacent section, having competitions. That’s all fine and dandy, except when the other section is still in your unit, and people, mostly officers, take it too seriously, and walk around lying about other people to get someone on their side. Soldiers get screwed in these exchanges by the way, and badly. I’m talking to the NCO’s as well.
Mentorship: In the Shake and Bake mentality they have here, “Promote as fast as possible” as long as you meet the very basic of requirements (breathe, fart and laugh at the same time, et cetera). I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the Queen say that All You NCO’s Need To Be NCO’s! Ahh, see, she’s seems to think that pinning something on your collar gives you the inherent knowledge of the centuries…It doesn’t, never will. What these kids need are mentor’s, leaders who have been around the block, who can show them how things should be done, how to hold themselves, how to make decisions and why they’re made in a certain way (MDMP). But the NCO’s that most of these kids have are shake and bakes themselves, and they feel that since they’re wearing 6 on the collar, all they have to do is be a loudmouthed ass and make decisions on a whim, and that’s being an NCO.
Personal Courage: (the lack of) This group of individuals here is probably the biggest group of pussy fucks I’ve ever had the chance to serve with. The philosophy here seems to be, a decision is best left to someone else…or, if I have to make a decision, I’ll be indecisive about it until just after when the suspense is due, then I’ll make one while a panic sets in…Then when I seriously fuck that one up, I’ll not have the courage to 1. own up to it, 2. try to fix it. I’ll instead blame it on someone else, or I’ll just ignore it and hope it goes away, or ignore it until someone else has to pick up the ball.
Loyalty: Well, there’s plenty of loyalty here, but it is because everyone is afraid to rock the boat, and do things correctly. The loyalty comes from fear.

I know that this is only one unit here. I know that this isn’t the way the Army is, I’ve been around the block a bit too many times to even think that. There are a lot of kids just coming in though, this being their first unit, first deployment, and this is what they think. They think this IS the Army, this is the way things are conducted. This leads to three probable scenarios. One, the soldier gets adapted to this one unit, and stays, forever. Not real good for diversity, and it keeps the same mentality in the unit for years. 2. Soldier see’s that things are messed up, and think this is the Army, they get out. 3. Soldier goes to another unit, and helps propogate this influence on new soldiers in new unit. Soldier here will either be successful, and start passing on a new seed, or soldier will be condemned by his/her peers, and be disenfranchised, thinking that the Army has lost it’s mind.