Posted on Jan 6, 2014
SFC Randy Purham
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Here's a touchy one to some. But here goes. You know when "someone" screws up or a rash of incidents (same natured) happens; we have to go through a bunch of classes and briefings to be reminded on how its wrong and not to do it and etc? Where did that come from? At what point does it become too much?

 

I see it as a mechanism of empahsis, but no action. What I mean by this is; we overly emphasize on it in hopes that it doesn't happen, but when it does then it may or may not be dealt with accordingly. It should come to a point that if you been in Army or any organization and you are a full-fledged adult, you simply know better, held accountable and the punishment for the crime should be carried out accordingly.  This is definitely applicable to SHARP/EO and the god foresaken weekend safety breifings.

 

Your thoughts?

Posted in these groups: Train2 Training
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Responses: 8
CPT Aaron Kletzing
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Edited 11 y ago
When you are training to time instead of to standard, then you run the risk of spending needless time on briefings, etc.  Unfortunately, many times military units are pressured from higher to train to time, even if they would prefer otherwise.  In those cases, it's beneficial for the leaders to provide effective hip pocket training so that the time is well spent.
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SFC Randy Purham
SFC Randy Purham
11 y
Sir, the training aspect is getting more irrelevant in terms of time spent. When the standard is set and met there should be no need for repetitive wasted classes and briefings. I don't mind the annual training so-much, but even those should be watered down for those that been around the block awhile. Newbies, I got it, they need a little more drilling and exposure. I've been part of and seen many training events that were done in 30 minuets or less, when doctrine calls for 2+ hours. Sometimes you have to train according to your audience. You even have those that just don't get it and require longer training or remedial training. My time as an instructor, I seen all kinds of learning curves and we tried to cater to those students accordingly to get the most effective training in them and out of them. Thanks for your input.  
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SGT Team Leader
SGT (Join to see)
10 y
CPT Aaron Kletzing, absolute truth, Sir.
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SGT Team Leader
SGT (Join to see)
10 y
SFC Randy Purham , you are in such a fantastic position. I've been in for years now, and I would have to say that my ABIC course and my OCS training taught me just how awesome it is to be a part of the teaching and learning cycle. I know it may sound lame, but I look at training as a great way to learn new things.
CPT Kletzing is spot on. Soldiers get complacent. We are human beings. Many times, we feel useless when there doesn't appear to be anything to do. You have the ability to mix it up a bit. It can be as simple as showing your soldiers how to build a sand table, or taking them out to watch another section perform their MOS. Do some back-briefs. Ask questions. If a leader is enthusiastic, it's motivating.
It allows you to interact positively with your soldiers and allows them to learn something new. What a person gets from training is directly proportional to what they put into it.
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SFC Randy Purham
SFC Randy Purham
10 y
Absolutely.
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1LT Platoon Leader
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Usually when you look around and see that over half the group is asleep that's a good indicator that the briefing has been too much.
In all seriousness though you do bring up a good point SFC Randy Purham. It's something that I've thought of a lot. It seems these days there's a whole lot of discussions about "how we shouldn't do/ need to change something because some incident occurred." And honestly it seems to be a bit of overkill. You find yourself wondering why don't we actually do something instead of just talking about it or even I wonder why don't we take the next guy that really screws up and throw the book at their face and make them the example? It gets annoying and all we can do is that if and when we get into higher leadership positions that we can take more action and do less talking and wrist slapping when incidents occur.
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SFC Randy Purham
SFC Randy Purham
10 y
2LT Katherine Carlino, I totally agree with you. I would love to take the "personal accountability" approach to incidents, by and through "firing" (discharging) people. There should be a code in the system at the BN S1 level that you can immediately discharge someone based on disciplinary and other extreme circumstances, just like a regular job.
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1LT Platoon Leader
1LT (Join to see)
10 y
SFC Randy Purham we could only dream lol
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SFC Mark Merino
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How appropriate that you are in Alaska SFC Randy Purham. When I worked there as a civilian, I had at least 30 days of online mandatory classes, briefs, presentations, etc. Is it an Alaska thing or universal overkill?
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SFC Randy Purham
SFC Randy Purham
10 y
I believe that its an universal overkill. I think someone at some point in time took "CYA" overboard and this became the norm.
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SFC Mark Merino
SFC Mark Merino
10 y
I think you are right SFC Randy Purham
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