I’m Retired, but I’m Always A Soldier At Heart!

Well as most of you know I decided to come out of retirement for a week and go and help my daughter get her supply room together. Mentorship is something I will never stop doing. Well I must say for that one week my pressure went to heart attack rate everyday I was there. 

When I retired I wondered if I did the right thing and if I would miss it. Well let me tell you this, after helping my daughter for the week I realized that I don’t miss it at all. The level of respect is gone, the soldiers are lazy (and I won’t say all), and the officers and NCO’s are walking around like they are afraid to correct soldiers (I won’t say all, but most). The soldiers took more breaks when it was time to work than a little bit and the NCO’s acted like it was the norm, how in the world do they get any work done. Soldiers walk around like there is nothing to be learned and no rush to accomplish the mission and if you ask them a question they look at you like a deer in headlights. My blood pressure was high everyday because they couldn’t answer simple questions about mask, toolboxes, and the location of equipment. All of the soldiers were like you had to wait for their NCO to return. Do we not share information with the soldiers anymore?

I know I am not in the military but I dropped my daughter and told her to stay there until I got tired and at the same time I drilled into her head the right way and wrong way to run her office. I told her things that will help her succeed in her office and things that can get her relieved and put in jail, I told her how to stand her ground, and what battles or hers to fight and which ones or for her CDR/XO to fight, and I did all of this while she was in the front leaning rest position. I wanted her to remember it and I know by her being in that position she will always remember it. It’s called tough Love.  

Female Soldier Voice: WOW! SOLDIERS CAN REALLY SURPRISE YOU!!

Female Soldier Voice: WOW! SOLDIERS CAN REALLY SURPRISE YOU!!

WOW! SOLDIERS CAN REALLY SURPRISE YOU!!

One day I was putting a message on facebook and received a message from a soldier from my past. Now I could not recognize the picture or the name, but the soldier fixed that. To my surprise it was a soldier that told me over and over again that she was going to get out of the military and that she hated it.

I made it my business to get this soldier to the board and get her through her PT test no matter how much she kicked and screamed. Every time she would the day was going to be easy I made her do push ups and flutter kicks and I drilled her for the board. She soon made up songs for the board answers, and was asked by the CSM at the board to sing it. When she PCS’d to another location she was promoted but still talking about getting out. This was back in 2002.

In 2011 I received a message from this soldier and she has been a Drill Sergeant and now she is a SFC. She also told me that she uses some of the sayings that I use to say to her on her soldiers. I truly thought that, she wanted to kill me at times because I would drop her in front of other soldiers and drill her when she wasn’t expecting it. But now to know that I had a great impact on her career, makes my retirement all that more special. Thank you SFC Veronica Carter for making my retirement so special.

So to all the NCO’s out there;  “What type of impact are you making in your soldiers career? Is it good or bad?

S-4 AND SUPPLY NCO’S WAKE UP AND GET IT TOGETHER

To the Supply Sergeants and S-4 NCOIC's, take time out and train the clerks. Your clerks should be able to fill your shoes when you are out of the office. Make sure that they have a continuity book, check it out and make sure they highlight things that are important. Give the clerks areas of responsibility and stop letting them sit in the office and just hand out supplies. When I worked as the S-4/PBO my Supply Sergeants thought I was crazy at first because I would just go into the supply rooms and go over their paperwork. Why should they always come to me? I was able to inspect, train and observe at their level all at the same time when I did this. I drilled the clerks to see if they were being trained properly, and I took time out to train the Supply Sergeants. If one of my supply rooms had a problem with something and we fixed it, I would have them share it with all the supply rooms. All Yankee's or Supply Sergeants and Arms Rooms in the same Battalion should be on the same page and closer than close. Mentorship is the key to success. Remember you will need someone to take your place when you move to the next level, so if you groom nothing there will be nothing, if you groom the best you will leave your stamp and the best. This can be used in any office environment, just tailor it to you. Knowledge has no POWER, unless it is SHARED!!