My How the Army is Changing

I'm going to run a scenario by you guys and gals that shows how much the Army is changing. I will probably catch hell for this if the wrong people see it but oh well, them's the breaks right? Ha, I can only catch hell for 10 more months then this decade long career comes to an end.

OK, here it goes. I'm a Platoon Sergeant, and one of my section leaders is this E5 promotable that I have a lot of problems with in the past, like lying, late to formations, more lying, failure to meet suspense...the list can go on forever. I have tried numerous times on numerous occasions to get a good old Article 15 slapped on her, but to no avail due to weak commanders who for some reason CAN'T DO THEIR JOB AND PUNISH A DESERVING SOLDIER....whoops, caps.

Here goes the rest of the story before I digress any more. It is a Friday, and I call this NCO up to tell her and her soldiers to make sure they are at formation at 15:30, to which she replies that she isn't coming to formation because she has to do counseling and CTT testing. I respond that I don't care what she thinks she has to do, she can plan it around formation as it is a Friday and the section has to receive a mandatory safety brief before the weekend. She tells me NO, to which I tell her again that it is an order. She once again says no, and tells me she is hanging up to call the First Sergeant. This is one thing the First Sergeant did that upset me...he told her that only she had to come in and not the section. Well, after formation SGT pain in my ass and me go into the 1SG's office and 1SG proceeds to reiterate to her that I am her Platoon Sergeant and she will follow orders without question unless said orders are immoral, unethical, or illegal. SGT pain in the ass responded that the order was un-reasonable. Boo Hoo, cry me a river, 99 percent of what the Army does is un-reasonable. Well, she keeps arguing with the 1SG until he finally lays the hammer on her and tells her that is how it is and to move out.

Well, how many of you are willing to bet that this NCO will disobey another order? Tune in for part 2 to find out the rest of the story!

Talk to the TOP!

OK, took me longer than I thought, but here is the rest of the story on my conversation with the USFK CSM, CSM Wheeler. A little bit of intro….I am the very first caller on his very first session of Talk to the Top, which happens once a month with the top enlisted guy in Korea. As soon as the show starts on AFKN radio, I call in and get connected with him. Right away, I realize something is not right from similar venues held before because I can hear the radio playing in the background, and in past sessions with the previous USFK CSM, CSM Welch, questions were fielded live on the radio. I had called in before to CSM Welch about dependants driving while E5's and E6's could not, and was told by him that was not how it was, that the policy addressed underage dependants ability to drive. Well, I researched it and it doesn't, so strike one against them.

Back to the present….I bring up the same questions to CSM Wheeler and all he does is keep changing the topic and saying that due to too many drinking and driving incidents E5's and E6's can not drive, and the policy will not change. I kept responding that I wasn't arguing that, and I was wondering why underage dependents had the privilege to drive when of all people in Korea they needed it the least. Well, he finally got frustrated and told me that was how it was and it wasn't going to change, and lectured me for a while on things not even on topic. At the end, I told him that I thought the policy was self serving to the Senior Officers and Enlisted that helped shape this policy, as it is their kids who are driving. More than once I have seen these same kids acting very recklessly on post with their cars, but I guess our leaders are too busy in their units to discipline their kids.

Well, CSM Wheeler gets on the radio and talks about our conversation to the AFN listeners, and he doesn't even mention one thing that I said about dependants driving, but instead just talks about why E5's and 6's can't drive. Fine, touché, but I will get the word out one way or another.

What is broke about the driving policy in Korea

OK, this is one topic that really gets my blood boiling, but I'll try to remain calm as I lay it out. Here at Yongsan Army Garrison in Seoul, most E5's and above are required to live off post on the economy due to a lack of barracks space on post to house them in. Well, after one too many drunk driving incidents, the General decided to take away driving priveledges from all Sergeants and Staff Sergeants, even though they are required to live off post. Now, these soldiers who live off post are supposed to either walk in to work every day rain or shine, or take a taxi at their own expense. Some live very far off post, and some are hurt physically and don't have much choice but to take a taxi.
OK folks, now here is the part that pisses me off the most.....One of the reasons besides drinking and driving when taking away driving priveledges away from these soldiers was immaturity, yet UNDERAGE DEPENDENTS here in Yongsan have cars and drivers licenses. Now if this isn't a slap in the face to every NCO who is walking into work every day then I don't know what else is. Well, now it should be evident that the driving policy is clearly self serving to our Senior Officers and NCO's, as who else is crusty enough to have kids old enough to drive in country?? That's right folks, the top brass and stripes themselves, while pulling driving priveledges from those soldiers they should be looking out for kept the driving priveledges in place for their own flesh and blood. It makes me sick to see these same people talk about force protection, yet with this driving policy they have effectively created a major force protection issue. Every day I see the same people taking the same route to work...No guessing here if terrorists decided to start picking us off one by one. Also, can you imagine if we actually went to war here in Korea?? All of our first line supervisors would take forever getting into work because they live off post with no car and are humping three large bags!!
Well, I presented these same concerns and thoughts to the USFK CSM, and tune in tomorrow to see just how well that went over. See ya then!

First Post of One Soldiers View of the Army

Hi to anyone who comes across this first posting. I think I've read one too many articles in the Army Times about soldiers and their blogs before I had to go ahead and give it a try myself. I'm an NCO stationed in Korea, but I'm going to be PCS'ing back to the states pretty soon. Before I leave, I think I'll get everything off my chest about what is bugging me about Korea, as I'm sure the States isn't a bed of roses and will keep me blogging a lot. Thanks for looking, and feel free to leave comments, either good or bad. My skin is thick and I'm too old to get my feelings hurt, so keep them coming!! Thanks......