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Ashmole posted:I'm getting a super early command because a lot of captains refradded. Should let me do a vtip earlier now Ask another commander in your BN/BDE who they know and enjoy working with at JAG, then put that person's number on speed dial. 90% of your problems will come from 10% of your soldiers, and a good JAG person is invaluable when it comes to figuring out what you legally can and can't do with those 10%. Also, totally loving inexplicable behavior will pop up that you never could have imagined, and it's great to have a legal guru for those situations to give you a basic lay of the land before reacting. Also, if you treat your soldiers like adults they'll go out of their way to look out for you.
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Sep 30, 2017 17:25
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NUKES CURE NORKS posted:On the other hand, don't think your best soldier is indicative of anything either. 90% of junior enlisted are pieces of poo poo. Also, if you do gay family day poo poo make sure the families help clean up and don't put everything on the single soldiers that live in the barracks. Also also gently caress you if you're still in bitch gently caress you got mine smoke weed everyday
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Sep 30, 2017 17:54
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Also also: if you actually do training management, it gives you a couple loads of buckshot to fire at higher when they decide to gently caress with your unit's plans. If you don't, get rekt by taskings I guess. And know that mission command means freedom of movement to your commanders goal, not freedom of movement from your commander's goal.
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Sep 30, 2017 17:57
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iKon posted:Ask another commander in your BN/BDE who they know and enjoy working with at JAG, then put that person's number on speed dial. 90% of your problems will come from 10% of your soldiers, and a good JAG person is invaluable when it comes to figuring out what you legally can and can't do with those 10%. Also, totally loving inexplicable behavior will pop up that you never could have imagined, and it's great to have a legal guru for those situations to give you a basic lay of the land before reacting. I already have some significant legal issues I'll be inheriting. I've already started making changes to the property book. I'm a stickler for non expendables. I only have a little over a week and then I go to live fires
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Sep 30, 2017 19:40
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"Stickler for nonexpendables" is like being a stickler for murder and rape. Peep those expendables and durables.
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Sep 30, 2017 20:13
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mlmp08 posted:This plus don't get emotional about people who are fuckups. Do the paperwork, follow the law(!), send them home. Angrily yelling at or unofficially punishing a person for weeks or months means they're still a problem. Calmly explaining that they aren't doing the right thing, doing paperwork, and sending them home is waaay better. And NCOs and junior officers will notice and will do the same. I wish someone would have done this with me. I would have loved to have been sent home instead of being made to stay late. gently caress I hated AFN.
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Sep 30, 2017 20:32
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Soulex posted:gently caress I hated the army
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Sep 30, 2017 20:58
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gently caress you if you're still in you gently caress man!
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Sep 30, 2017 21:04
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I'll put it like this, AFN sent my last NCOER to command for final approval. Went up a 2/2 to a command who sees us maybe once or twice a year, came back like a 4/3 or 4/4. All because I called up there or emailed 1SG once every 3 months or so asking for status on my Dutch loving shooting badge that we went to go do so I could have put it on my loving paperwork but nope! You weren't even in my rating chain. So sometimes your problem soldiers are just squeaky wheels, don't be dicks to those dudes.
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Sep 30, 2017 21:55
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I think of problem Soldiers as people who actually did something undeniably bad. For example, I have 4 people I'm currently chaptering out. I have various other soldiers Soldiers who have trouble with PT, weight control, or just aren't particularly good at their jobs. These people I can work with and genuinely try to find a solution for their shortfalls that isn't treating them like poo poo until they do better. My chapter cases, sans the a failed UA, I am generally pretty on top of because they could cause a lot of additional problems. The UA was super forth coming and accepted they are getting kicked out, so I just let them clear because it's the path of least resistance. The guy who tried to commit a sexual assault or steal weapons from the arms room are getting the most stringent punishment allowed under UCMJ.
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Oct 1, 2017 01:12
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Oxygenpoisoning posted:I think of problem Soldiers as people who actually did something undeniably bad. For example, I have 4 people I'm currently chaptering out. I have various other soldiers Soldiers who have trouble with PT, weight control, or just aren't particularly good at their jobs. These people I can work with and genuinely try to find a solution for their shortfalls that isn't treating them like poo poo until they do better. You can't post about a guy trying to steal from the arms room without more story. Don't play with my heart.
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Oct 1, 2017 01:42
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Soulex posted:I'll put it like this, AFN sent my last NCOER to command for final approval. Went up a 2/2 to a command who sees us maybe once or twice a year, came back like a 4/3 or 4/4. All because I called up there or emailed 1SG once every 3 months or so asking for status on my Dutch loving shooting badge that we went to go do so I could have put it on my loving paperwork but nope! You weren't even in my rating chain. Isn't AFN the military news they play for you when you're deployed
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Oct 1, 2017 02:00
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NUKES CURE NORKS posted:Isn't AFN the military news they play for you when you're deployed Overseas. The station I was in was in Germany and our mandated mission was 2 products a week. Per station. My station commander decided that meant 2 products per week per person, even if you had other duties (like a 4 hour radio show). The problem with AFN, and that everyone has with AFN are the commercials. I get it. Here's why; you from this point on, have two weeks to plan, shoot, edit and prepare for air a 30 second spot featuring a command message like "don't drink and drive" or "don't rape anyone this weekend." Now make sure it is different than everyone else's. we don't go to school to be creative, just to work cameras and put together stories. I started to put a lot of work into stories, like editing them faster paced and adding music to make it more entertaining, but no one watches those. AFN gets music and video stuff for free at the cost of advertising. So the Super Bowl and other stuff get no commercial time because anything that airs is like "an endorsement from the military." And that could cause a bunch of legal issues. Like when we tried an internet streaming music thing (I know) and realized hat some of the copyrights we had forbade any other medium except radio. So all of that, and doing stories/spots, took about 12 hours a day, working through lunch and sometimes weekends for remotes ("Hey, do a live radio show at the opening of the NEW PX! Yay...") without any real comp time made for a bad environment. It was all because we had one guy in charge who looked at us like his loving experiments. He told me, as he eventually tried to befriend me, that he did it because he was bored. loving boredom drove you to throw stuff at people or drat us to more work even though you knew it wasn't needed? It was like the pit of despair there. People would show up and the normies would eat up their optimism and happiness like a loving drug. It was the salt flats. Some people had a great experience, but mine was not. Mainly because my leadership cared more about themselves and he amount of work they could give us vs. emotional wellbeing and you know, ENJOYING loving GERMANY.
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Oct 1, 2017 02:33
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There is a LOT wrong with AFN. They have this thing called the Eagle Playbook on what we are able to do and play and all that. The music we play sucks and literally everyone knows this except AFN HQ.
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Oct 1, 2017 02:34
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Working for AFN seems super loving chill job wise. Soulex experiences not withstanding.
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Oct 1, 2017 07:42
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LtCol J. Krusinski posted:Working for AFN seems super loving chill job wise. Soulex experiences not withstanding. In some places it is. My boss would always go on about how he got to essentially tour Italy for weeks doing destinations spots and getting per diem. I asked why we couldn't now and he just looked at me. He claimed funding later but I think he knew that a lot of the work we were doing was bullshit Some places are really loving cool. Germany, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Korea, Spain. I did get to do some cool traveling stuff for work so it wasn't always vinegar, but it was always hard so Apple Cider Vinegar? You get this quasi-VIP status at events and rub shoulders with people. Kevin Costner came by our station, but not at our station so he did a phone interview. I got to meet Greg Maddox and Rawlie Fingers, and I also got to do some stuff people always think they'd like to do, like be a radio DJ, and then realize 'oh this is a lot harder than I thought it would be.' Ultimately, it falls on the leadership. Everyone at that station was in behavioral health and on medication. The environment was severely toxic. Don't forget, someone was literally murdered (I reported to him) at AFN while I was there. Command Climate surveys did nothing, open door policy did nothing, and nepotism reigned. A couple of my buddies told me they had Honduras and loving loved it. The climate facilitated it because that's a small post. Vilseck small. Goods and bads. Clarification edit: the man who got murdered was the person I reported to at HQ. The person who murdered him was someone I routinely drank with when we were in town to the point of blacking out. For the curious: https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/oliver-sentenced-to-life-with-parole-for-killing-of-afn-broadcaster-1.326733 Soulex fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Oct 1, 2017 |
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Oct 1, 2017 08:04
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Counterpoint: I had a great time on the radio at AFN Honduras. I did about 1 product every other week, hosted a daily 4-hour radio show, and didn't wear a uniform for basically 12 whole months. Also, every afternoon is a pool afternoon when you're in central america. Most days I would start with PT at 0600 and be at the pool by 1430. I also traveled to several different countries in our AOR covering cool missions, and got to ride around in helicopters basically whenever I wanted to. Sorry you got a lovely station bro, but that sounds like just a lovely station. You are the only 46R I've encountered who hated AFN. Sounds like a toxic leadership problem to me. Pic: My chikan buddies who lived under the station. 
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Oct 1, 2017 13:03
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That is one fabulous cock. And I say that as someone with 27 chickens.
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Oct 1, 2017 13:07
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The Rat posted:That is one fabulous cock. There was many a PT session that was narrated by the furious squawking of the hens as "Rico Suave" (the cock) attempted to bang each and every one before breakfast. You could have set a watch by it.
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Oct 1, 2017 13:14
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Soulex posted:
Toxic leadership can make even the best assignments a goddamn nightmare to endure, and most of the time it comes from the numbers game. If you are the commander/1SG who can show you had the most active station on your review, then the review board doesn't give a gently caress what it did to your soldiers. You accomplished X, and that is what matters. Had to deal with Y suicides because of it? Eh, suicide happens, can't catch them all. It's a problem across the Army because Toxic leaders are just that, leaders. They keep being put in charge, so those underneath them think that it's what the Army wants, and they become toxic.
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Oct 1, 2017 13:23
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Soulex I been searching for one particular AFN commercial for years and you need to help me find it. It's of a little girl playing with a barbie and an Army Ken doll. And she shakes the Ken doll and goes "Woman where's my dinner?!" And then proceeds to pretend beat the Barbie doll. I know it exist and I didn't just dream it up. Google tells me it's real. It was the funniest goddamn thing I ever saw and needs to be shared with the world.
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Oct 1, 2017 13:28
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I love that someone went out and did something that proved why we weren't trusted to go out and drink beer over the weekend like the other BNs
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Oct 1, 2017 18:48
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There's always piling into the Sam Adams with a single bartender or emptying out the Class 6.
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Oct 1, 2017 18:54
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Mustang posted:I love that someone went out and did something that proved why we weren't trusted to go out and drink beer over the weekend like the other BNs loving 
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Oct 1, 2017 19:02
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thetechnoloser posted:Counterpoint: Oh yeah. It was absolutely toxic leadership. I got yelled at for something right before surgery and I ended up almost dying (according to the attending nurse) because I started breathing about 4 or 5 times a minute. Ever since I get full blown panic attacks coming out of surgery. I wish I liked my time better and had an overall good time. I just always seem to get he loving assholes. I heard a lot of cool things about Honduras and wish I got a chance to go. Did you have to do the station 2 remotes a month or was that another bullshit rule they made me do?
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Oct 1, 2017 19:03
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Bell_ posted:There's always piling into the Sam Adams with a single bartender or emptying out the Class 6. We did that during LTP. One of the BCs got everyone kicked out of there and shockwave.
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Oct 1, 2017 19:12
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Folks employed at Ft Irwin tell me they struggle because for as often as the post is occupied by an RTU, the window in which they can do anything is targeted, and I guess the people living there, guest O/C's and support staff aren't enough. On the other hand, managing a Brigade's worth of Soldiers to facilitate this would be a nightmare.
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Oct 1, 2017 19:24
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One person is one person too many at Fort Irwin.
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Oct 1, 2017 20:08
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RTU just needs to be locked inside RUBA when not conducting redeployment operations and that would solve everything.
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Oct 1, 2017 21:46
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Soulex posted:I heard a lot of cool things about Honduras and wish I got a chance to go. Did you have to do the station 2 remotes a month or was that another bullshit rule they made me do? Brother, we didn't even _have_ the equipment to do a remote for 10 out of the 12 months I was there. Sorry you had a lovely time at AFN. This was the back porch of the station. Rough life. 
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Oct 2, 2017 01:53
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That looks and sounds like heaven.
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Oct 2, 2017 02:04
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gently caress the Army for having so many knee jerk, cover your own rear end reactionary leaders. Right after 24 hour bus ride packed in line sardines of course the first thing soldiers want to do when they get home is do high risk soldier counseling and POV inspections. And it's high risk counselings for every soldier. I already knew who my moderate and high risk soldiers were. And even if some new ones popped up, none of them would answer the questions honestly when all they want do and to do is go home for the first time in a month. This is poo poo you do when you're back to work on a normal day so you can actually do it the right way instead of half assing it. I get it, it sucks when a couple people come back from NTC and commit suicide but I don't see what half assed high risk counselings are supposed to do other than cover the asses of some senior officer so they can say "see, we did something about it! And really fast!" Im leaning towards thinking that the majority of senior officers and NCOs just pay lip service to wanting to take care of troops, all they really give a poo poo about is their careers
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Oct 4, 2017 00:58
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Yup.
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Oct 4, 2017 01:03
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keep going Mustang I'm almost there
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Oct 4, 2017 01:03
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Mustang posted:gently caress the Army for having so many knee jerk, cover your own rear end reactionary leaders. Sucks. It's so hard to prove or validate, but the way I addressed suicide: Tell (AND DEMONSTRATE) that if someone calls for help to cops or a leader or a family member, they aren't blackballed for life. Don't gently caress them over for having dark thoughts. The handful of times I had a subordinate seek help via police or leadership, I didn't have them in my office first thing in the morning, I let them do a basically normal day of work, then in the afternoon talked to them, usually outside my office, to say that I didn't do that cause I don't care, I did that because I didn't want step one of their recovery to be a commander playing the CYA game or lecturing them while demanding signatures on a counseling statement in my office. I didn't pull NCOs out of leadership position or restrict people miserably. I called the JAG and mental health specialists all the damned time to see if I was loving up. Also, I made for goddamned sure that when I was giving so much quote unquote freedom to recently suicidal people, I explained to my bosses why, so they didn't flip out. With lower enlisted and trainee folk, the ones who were not making it weren't hosed with any more than anyone else. Soldiers who are "playing the game" to get out and aren't all that messed up in the head quickly realize that they can make it all so much easier for everyone if they play along, don't stir the poo poo, and get out. Woe is me that the army missed out on an opportunity to let various levels of leadership mess with a person right before they got separated from service. If the thing keeping one more soldier from just outright quitting and faking a mental illness was that he saw that we didn't abuse a person, good for them, and good riddance. I'm not saying this to be all pumped up about what my NCOs, 1SG, and I did. It should not be brag-worthy to say that I commanded for over 2 years with zero suicides or murders. But then I look at my neighboring battalions and BDEs and their death-rates and also chapter/imprisonment rates and realize just how much emotional quests for "discipline" or "risk mitigation" through stupid means led to people no-poo poo dying and/or murdering people.
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Oct 4, 2017 01:18
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Double post, but meh. Also more Army leaders should realize that it does absolutely loving zero for the country to just turbo-gently caress someone on their way out of service. Send people to civilian life, even if they're a bit of a screwup, in a manner to not go home and just become a burden and screwup back in their home town. If they're actually so awful that they need to be limited forever, I hope you did the paperwork to send them to prison for rape/murder/etc. It is so incredibly stupid to intentionally grenade a person mentally, emotionally, or physically, and then just send them out to be a civilian, for an incredibly wide variety of reasons.
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Oct 4, 2017 01:25
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Mustang posted:Im leaning towards thinking that the majority of senior officers and NCOs just pay lip service to wanting to take care of troops, all they really give a poo poo about is their careers See: BG Walker, who denied three of my guys purple hearts because he had "already awarded them the combat action badge."
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Oct 4, 2017 01:55
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Mustang posted:Im leaning towards thinking that the majority of senior officers and NCOs just pay lip service to wanting to take care of troops, all they really give a poo poo about is their careers Hey, he's learning.
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Oct 4, 2017 02:09
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Oh good, your next set of SSDs should be in your ATRRS now, sir. The next bracket involves senior leadership sexually harassing women and racially profiling people. Also, we're sending you for a rotation again
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Oct 4, 2017 03:11
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I had one, now two troublesome soldiers. Honestly they had/have it pretty easy. Nobody fucks with them, though they are getting article 15's for being loving idiots on white cell at NTC. I'm the second most senior PL in my BN and I've never once been called in the middle of the night for anything and all I do is treat my dudes like adults. My sister PLT on the other hand has had countless disciplinary issues. I'm not sure why but I'm the only PL that hasn't been told what their next job is, as far as I know I'm just going to keep being a PL. All the others know where they're going now that we're back from NTC.
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Oct 4, 2017 03:27
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