Are soldiers losing their military bearing?

Yeah, the reward being not losing a stripe!!

The Military is one of the last true Meritocracies , for the most part, you get what you earn. Most kids these days never really had to earn anything. Also adolescents is lasting longer as lifespans are lasting longer. Adolescents now is not ending until soldiers are in their mid 20's . You have soldiers whom were pulled out of adolescents earlier by trauma, they seem to do better in the military structure as they have been forced to mature ahead of their peers, thus responsibility is given to them earlier, causing a wider meritization and maturation deficit among the peer groups.

Sadly, newer recruits do NOT understand that the purpose of "Basic, AIT, Boot Camp,..." is to stress you to the point so that they know you can handle yourself and help others WHILE being stressed. Have seen senior NCO' s yelled at by juniors and taking no action for fear of them reporting them to their seniors and risking their service. Stupid but true.

Wall to wall counselling, punishment details, ... were all things to help juniors understand military life without NJP and Article 15's. Now all they get is a pass to the Chaplain and time in the "weep Locker".

I failed the APFT then passed it but never did once ever expect to be rewarded for it. It was some thing that just had to be done and that was it. By the way my time in service was from 89-96.

SgtMaj Mark Davis - Mark, I think we (at least the Army) is going back to the pre GWOT military and hopefully the situation gets rectified.

SSG Tyshaun Cater, 1SG Steve Wettsin great question and on point 1SG Wettsin. Unfortunately for me from '01 - '04 as a Ft Jackson Drill Sergeant, we (TRADOC) initially still enforced the same enlistment standards as ... the last 30yrs? I had the misfortune of removing potential Soldiers who signed up immediately after 9/11 ... some even unaware of this devastating day. As we got closer to "Big Army's" move to the deployment for OIF/OEF they opened the flood gates with waivers for almost "everything". Once we were getting deeper into OIF/OEF, I was graduating Soldiers with the same medical and physiologic problems that were prior reasons for discharge.

Two examples the still stand out to me was "PVT Please" after a simple visit to sick call was ask by DR if he "ever had tubes in your ears?" Answer to this issue was an unwanted medical discharge. After the flood gates open I graduated "PVT Tubes", a soldier that had gone on sick call specially for ear problems ... Who was the better? PVT Please was the better Soldier hands down. The PVT all NCOs dream of coming out of Basic Combat Training (BCT) and PVT Tubes was a floater with minimal effort. (One of ??? that almost cost me my hat and stripes)

The second example that still curdles my stomach is "PVT Crazy", on psych medications ... Yep, you guess it, I couldn't ask why. I don't think our CMD or 1SG knew either ... all because she had no SI or HI. Yes, PVT Crazy graduated. A real hard hitting example iso PFC/SGT Bergdahl who was denied entrance to the US Coast Guard, but managed to join the Army. This flash flood of Soldiers to bring "Big Army's" numbers up I think also just pushed everyone too; you either went up the ranks or just continue to slush mud.

To many Soldiers with nothing but Down Range knowledge, which we all know unfortunately is not the same as Garrison. You take the Soldier out of that environment and back to "spit & polish" and they don't know how to act. Top that with Juniors NCOs who left Garrison as Privates, did great things, got promoted, and did a great job keeping his/her Soldiers safe. My guess is that more than have of all JR NCOs Army wide, were not leaders when they left. This is only caused a snowball effect, that will take time to fix. NCOPD needs to be on the forefront of training with mission oriented training simultaneously (that why we get/got the big bucks); and lower enlisted need to be mentored how to be a PVT and not slack wrinkle bag. To learn more about their job not just the one key mission that units conducted down range.

Fort Leonard Wood - 3d BCT Commander - A letter to the local newspaper told that the Cdr's intent was that his Drill Sgt's were to be "nice" to the Trainees. No hell week, no shakedowns, no yelling, and especially no cursing. The BCT POI changed to reflect no testing because the soldiers of this generation had "test anxiety". Things are not improving.

SSG Jason Penn another reason while I do t miss the military.

I was asked to create training for my unit for we were about to deploy. I got in trouble for the training was too scary.

Also, I got counseled for counseling a soldier who failed the apft. I hurt his feelings.

One NCO can enforce the standards. That's part of the problem, so many are looking to someone to do it

COL John Maus - I know what you are saying Sir. The SMA can't enforce all Army standards by himself. If one NCO is enforcing the standard in one unit and a Soldier moves to another unit where another NCO isn't enforcing the standard it can ruin that Soldier. It takes a combined effort throughout the Army to sustain Army-wide discipline. An NCO can either think he is an individual enforcing the standard or part of a team enforcing the standard, which would be more effective? I think the latter would be more effective for any organization.

Heard an old NCO say "We set a new standard every day ' lower than they day before.

Many NCO's have forgotten that they have to teach soldiers to be a team, don't just say it, give examples and foster that example. excellence is a habit, you still have to show soldiers what excellence looks like.