All active duty members heads up

[hornadylnl]

let me guess, you were a recruiter.

No, I don't believe in selling something that I don't believe in myself. As I said before, I believe in my country and what it is supposed to stand for but not what it has become. I could not in good conscience recruit someone into a system that I felt was broken.

While I was in the guard, us squad and team leaders were all called to a meeting with the first sergeant demanding that we bring in a recruiting lead for every single drill or we'd be taken out of our leadership positions. I was an e4 team leader. As soon as the meeting was over, I told my first sergeant to take me out of my team leader position and I was not bringing in any leads. He acted shocked. He told me that I'd have to write up a letter for him to send to state telling them that I didn't want to be promoted. I wrote it and signed it gladly.

We had a douchebag full time recruiter who was paid to recruit. I wasn't about to do his job for him and I couldn't recruit someone I knew only to have them pissed at me because they didn't like it and were stuck.

 

[INRanger]

You do sound like a whiny little bitch. You had a less than stellar experience, that sucks. But you take your experience of 3.5 years and think you know how the Army actually is. It's like never leaving the city you were born in and know the rest of America is. Your chain of command obviously sucked but dont judge the Army on them. And yes his chain of command owes him at the very least an explanation. The whole registering thing has never come up for me unless you in on post housing. This definitely stinks.

 

[INRanger]

I thank you for your service. I especially thank you for getting out when you did.

 

[hornadylnl]

I thank you for your service. I especially thank you for getting out when you did.

You're response is all the more reason I didn't want to be a ranger. I was in 2 different units in 2 different posts and the experiences were pretty much the same. The last was better but not much. You think it is not possible to understand that people are people the world over? All the dirtbags were concetrated into my 2 units?

I experience pretty much the same thing in my civilian job. There are plenty of dirtbags there that work beside and above me that handle their responsibilities the same way that my fellow soldiers did. But what makes my civilian job so much better is that I'm not held there by force and threatened to be thrown in jail if I don't comply. I can tell them to eff off any time I want. By the way, I've been at my company for 10 years so I know loyalty and how to stay somewhere. I get frustrated at work but I know enough to know that it won't be any better anywhere else I go.

The point I'm trying to make is that there are things that are happening in the military and need to be changed but it is ruled by the pervasive attitude that "oh well, thats' the way it's always been". One of my favorite sayings in the Army was "200 years of tradition, unhampered by change".

Tradition is a very valuable thing when you can actually justify what it is that you are holding on to. The example I give is a person who has the means to give something to his children but won't only because he couldn't have it when he was a child. "Son, sorry you can't have a toothbrush because my parents never gave me one."

I wanted to make the Army a better institution but every time I tried, I was labeled a whiner, a complainer or whatever. Oh well, eff'em, I'll just follow along like the rest of the

 

[hornadylnl]

I thank you for your service. I especially thank you for getting out when you did.

Yes, your respect is oozing out of your post. By the way, I didn't ask for it. If you beat your dog and he lowers his head every time he comes near you, it isn't out of respect. I've watched Band of Brothers many times. There wasn't a soldier in the company that wouldn't have taken a bullet for Major Winters. He didn't lead them with a fist.

By the way, I think it's funny how people can make character judgments by reading 10 minutes worth of anonymous internet postings.

Anyway, sorry for the threadjack.

 

[INRanger]

Oh PLEASE! You were a team leader, the most important job in the army. You walked away. You had the opportunity to guide, mold and change the way your soldiers thought and acted when they became leaders. You couldn't put the welfare of your soldiers over your own dislike of a stupid policy. You make me sick. Change doesn't happen over night. It's like turning a large boat, it takes time and a little foresight. Instead you chose to **** in the wind while whining over your wet boots. Some how I doubt your lack of being a Ranger is all your choice.

 

[INRanger]

Ive never beaten my soldiers, sure felt like it at times. I am proud to say that they gave me everything they had, I know at the end of they day they got mine.

 

[tyler34]

looks like a couple people have some sand in there vaginas.

 

[AllenM]

looks like a couple people have some sand in there vaginas.

That made me laff

 

[INRanger]

I know better than to debate with people like that. I let his whining push my buttons. Now I have some sand to rinse out of my mangina.

 

[Pami]

Yeah, guys, let's take that argument to PMs and get back to the OP, please.

 

[tyler34]

edit: ok pami

 

[INRanger]

Nobody wants to see that. I don't want to see that.

 

[hornadylnl]

Back on topic. What can the soldier in the OP do to change the policy that was handed him? Can he change it? There is a whole institution that is behind it and he is one soldier. Will enough soldiers stand against it? Or will he and others like him get out?

 

[INRanger]

I don't know that is a real tough one. I would suggest calling his congressman and an advocacy group like the NRA. If the soldiers stand up against it it should be by silent dissent. I would simply report that none of my off post soldiers were gun owners. The best way to force a change or explanation in this instance is for outside involvement.

 

[hornadylnl]

I don't know that is a real tough one. I would suggest calling his congressman and an advocacy group like the NRA. If the soldiers stand up against it it should be by silent dissent. I would simply report that none of my off post soldiers were gun owners. The best way to force a change or explanation in this instance is for outside involvement.

Yes, because we know they can't invoke their right to free speech.

 

[agentl074]

I think I would be seeking legal advice both from JAG and a civilian attorney.

I would see the Area Defense Counsel and ask them WTF its about

 

[dburkhead]

Before getting in too big of a panic, where did this come from and how "verified" is the source?

When I passed this on to another venue where a lot of military folk (veterans and active both), I was told by someone who served then that almost the same note went out during the Clinton years but that it was spurious then.

I was also reminded that military commanders have a lot of authority over their subordinates that isn't often considered. For example, a company commander can inspect a subordinates off-post house or apartment (or order others to do so) the same as an inspection in barracks. This is not often done these days, but the regs are still on the books. Likewise, technically, one needs one's company commander's permission to marry. Again, this is pretty much never invoked, but the reg is still there.

 

[hornadylnl]

Let's assume it is just a company commander who made the dicision and your an lt. You tell yourself that you won't do it when you have a company. That guy becomes you batt commander and enforces the rule batt wide. How will you ever change it? How many who want to change it will ever reach a level where there isn't someone above them to stamp out that change?

 

[VN Vet]

I was in the Navy for ten years. The Navy had spend much money on my training and they tried their best to get me to stay, but I had fulfilled my obligation and I smelled changes coming even in 1981. Remember McNales Navy? I had a squadron similiar to that outfit; cool and laidback. Besides, my wife said no to me staying any longer and she out ranked my CO and me.