Fear and Loathing in the Barracks - And the Heart of Leadership by Larry H. Ingraham

Great read 1SG Steven Stankovich this was written shortly after I had enlisted and was at my first duty station as a young PFC. I know/knew some of the NCOs described in this piece, both on the positive side and the negative, and it is from both of them combined with my own NCOES and experiences that helped shape the NCO that I became. I watched in the mid-90s when a lot of my peers, SSGs and SFCs, "took the money" and left when early retirements were offered because of certain ideas that were put into place that seemed to strip away layers of NCO authority that had been put back into place after the creation of the all-volunteer Army. I watched in the early-mid 2000's as we once again promoted individuals too quickly for the sake of plugging holes as we were an Army at war, and how bad the leadership became when units returned to a garrison setting and some of these leaders couldn't direct a Soldier in need to ACS or any other program designed to help, because they did not know. I did everything within the limits of my "AoR" to influence/mentor/teach my Soldiers and young NCOs what "right" looked like, while never receiving the same from my mentors, never once had a 1SG/CSM sit me down when I was a PSG and "show" me what I needed to do to get to where they were; in fact it seemed that they had no interest in mentoring me or other SFCs of the BN to take over for them, because they didn't want a SFC in a 1SG position so they would and did go outside of the BN to get a MSG to put into the position. I also watched as we wound down the wars we were involved in and a great deal of "older" NCOs, myself included, seemed to get passed over simply because we would not provide "the bang for the buck" that younger NCOs would, regardless of the fact that they had never had to lead Soldiers in a garrison environment and relied on some of us "older" NCOs to show them the ropes. I look back on the last 3 years of my career, specifically the last 2 that I was eligible for the MSG promotion board, and read through the breakdown of the results and could "check off" all of the areas that I met the requirements the same as those that were selected and the only reason I or the 1SG and CSM I had for my last 2 boards could figure out is because I was too "old" and had too many years TIS. There were individuals getting selected over me that had as much TIS as I had TIG as a SFC by my last board appearance; I view it as the Army's loss because of the experiences in both the combat and garrison environments that I brought to the table that were being "cast aside". I am hopeful that some of the junior NCOs and Soldiers that served under me that are still serving can "save" the Army, but from what I have witnessed over the last 5 years or so first-hand and as an outside observer with my middle son now serving, they have a great deal of work and pain ahead of them, similar to those that stayed after Vietnam and after the mid-90s.

Notice the part where he talks about Professionalism as occuring in the Army. Guy was a few years ahead of time, wasn't he. "They said they were "professionals" (which nobody who knew about the Army ever doubted for a minute.)" If you have to call yourselves "professionals" you've already lost it.

Read through that piece. I think it hits home for more than just the old guys. Definitely a lot to think about. I really do believe that reading this article will affect my leadership style.