<html>
<head>
<title>Stripers</title>
<meta name="Author" content="Greywar">
<meta name="keywords" content="army promotion NCO hero book stripes chevrons">
<style>p{margin-top:5pt;margin-bottom:5pt}</style>
</head>
<body>
<font style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:12pt">
<p>Stripers</p>
<p>In <a href="http://greywar.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=20041" style="color:blue;text-decoration=underline"><font style="color:blue"><u>part one</a></u></font> of this article I addressed some of the administrative changes the Army has made to the promotion system in the last 20 years or so and how they have resulted in a lowered promotion bar for the most part. While this is an important facet of the promotion system I feel that the <b>philosophical</b> changes accompanying them are actually carry more gravitas.</p>
<p>In days gone by the Army Sergeant was the backbone of any unit. They were the ones who provided the support, training, and mentorship that the majority of the unit (read : privates) needed to be able to accomplish the unit’s mission. In fact the two main responsibilities of a Non-Commissioned Officers (we used to be referred to as "non-coms" though the 40’-60’s) still are listed as : Accomplishment of the Mission and the Welfare of My Soldiers. Read those two points carefully and you will see that neither of those things involves the advancement of the NCO’s personal goals whatsoever. </p>
<p>This maxim has gone unheeded by a growing segment of today’s NCO Corps. By lowering the bar and changing the NCO/private ratio dramatically we have left more for the Stripers to invade our ranks. These folks are the failed Officers of the US Army. They joined the Army and were almost immediately provided a <a href="http://kengelhart.home.igc.org/goldenpa.htm" style="color:blue;text-decoration=underline"><font style="color:blue"><u>Golden Path</a></u></font> for self gratification and aggrandizement. "At last!" they think, "Here is a way to say that <b>I</b> am not a total failure." They are given ridiculously simple goals to reach and are promoted quickly. This is a terrible problem.</p>
<p>For a long time NCO’s were the folks who worked the longest hours, did the worst of the details, and the folks who gave the most of their personal energy to the unit’s enlisted personnel. The ensured that every soldier knew their jobs, was clothed and fed, that the soldiers were happy and writing home to mom, and that the mission was getting done. This often meant that instead of being home for the holidays that they would be working through them to ensure that their privates had adequate time to spend with <b>their</b> families. That instead of slacking off whenever they could get away with it (as privates are prone to do) they had to set the example and work longer and harder than any of their soldiers did. When everyone was cold, wet, hungry, and tired in the field they were the ones who could not sleep or huddle beneath their blankets but instead had to figure out how to arrange for food, shelter if possible, make up a duty and sleep rotation schedule that was fair and balanced, and then check on every man they were responsible for prior to being allowed to even <b>think</b> about their own comfort. "Sarge" had to be mom, dad, and boss. Nursemaid, mentor, and taskmaster.</p>
<p>The enormity of these tasks coupled with the onerous constraints on their time and personal comfort kept the truly self serving folks out of this line of work for the most part. While there are still bits of this philosophy left in the Army for the most part it is entirely <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=vestigial" style="color:blue;text-decoration=underline"><font style="color:blue"><u>vestigial</a></u></font>. </p>
<p>Now it is perfectly acceptable for the 4<sup>th</sup> of July Arms Room guard duty roster to be drawn entirely from privates! In point of fact the NCO who wrote up the roster started the long weekend duty with the lowest ranking member of the unit. This kid had barely arrived here and was immediately being fucked over on the 4<sup>th</sup> of July! </p>
<p>"Welcome to our unit… Yeah we will take care of you <b>real good</b>…hehe… hold him down First Sergeant… Don’t struggle boy it’ll just hurt more." </p>
<p>Fortunately a precious few NCO’s took the matter into their own hands and at least ensured that some of the folks working the worst times (i.e. the night of the 4<sup>th</sup>) would be covered for. Unfortunately the vast majority of the people wearing stripes in our platoon looked at the duty roster and simply were glad <b>they</b> were no being screwed over.</p>
<p>Another recent example was <a href="http://greywar.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=19540" style="color:blue;text-decoration=underline"><font style="color:blue"><u>my day of Zen with the lawnmower</a></u></font>. At the end of this debacle our Platoon Sergeant comes out from a hard day in his air conditioned office to smoke and bitches about the quality of the landscaping done! This same man continually hammers home the fact that the platoon "Will do Physical Training during the mission…. every day if necessary!" When he himself <b>never </b>does a lick of PT! The lazy bastard won’t even grant us the illusion by coming to PT formation in a PT uniform. How about a little solidarity asshole?</p>
<p>Soldiers do not mind hard labor when they see you sweating alongside them or even better working at a greater pace than they are managing. Morale tends to swirl about the shitter when things like the above examples happens though. </p>
<p>This shift of attitude has given rise to a whole breed of NCO’s who think that their rank is for <b>themselves</b>. They think that wearing a <a href="http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/blstripehist.htm" style="color:blue;text-decoration=underline"><font style="color:blue"><u>Sergeant’s Chevrons</a></u></font> means that you can do less work or that they have been acknowledged as <b>special</b>. They have no clue that our job is to allow the rest of the unit to function smoothly. We are the trowel and not the cement truck. There are not enough NCO’s to man every position or to fire all those rifles. Can you pull all those triggers? I think not. Your job is to ensure that those trigger men are ready to do it. You are supposed to be the <b>Servant of the Soldiers</b> over whom you have been given reign. While you may excused from some activities that privates do, the intent is for you to use that time to accomplish larger goals and not to simply slack off or to work on your "hero book".</p>
<p>In closing I would like to leave you with some words of wisdom from <a href="http://greywar.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=12786" style="color:blue;text-decoration=underline"><font style="color:blue"><u>SSG Stoneroad</a></u></font>. </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><font style="font-size:14pt"><b>"Allright, stop your jaw-jackin, booty smackin, and get your goat smelling asses to work!"</p>
<p style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </b></font></p>
</font>
</body>
</html>