Posted on Mar 10, 2014
The DA4856, is it a tool for development or is it a tool for separation?
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AR 625-200, Ch1 states that prior to making a choice to separate a Soldier, every possible attempt is made to develop and rehabilitate Soldiers. NCOs have a responsibility to advise our Officers develop Soldiers and execute legal orders of Officers in accordance with Army Regulation. The main investment DoD and DOA has made is to recruit and train applicants into Soldiers. Officers and NCOs have an obligation to be just, fair and sincere about leadership.
Counseling
Punishment
UCMJ
Development
Professionalism
Posted 11 y ago
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I preferred to use it as a developmental tool, but I also had to use it to record less than desirable behaviors that occassionally resulted in separation.
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1SG Henry Yates
The individuals I recommended, I gave them every opportunity to repair their error. Nonetheless, they made choices that lead to separation. I used to think that I'd never recommend separating a Soldier, but I kept on living. The time came. I began to learn that good order and discipline is disturbed by some who choose to follow the opposite. I also became conscious of the need to consider behavior that is not conducive to the main reason we serve; deployment and combat. We protect individuals from possibly harming themselves and protect others that may be ill affected by recognizing behavior of individuals who lack respect for good order and discipline.
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It can be used for either. One of the main things I stress with my NCOs is that I don't want to see nothing but negative performance and non-promotion counselings out of them. This is when I get into my NCOs business. If an NCO is only recognizing the bad and not the good, they are failing as a leader. I don't advocate a counseling where a pat on the back is just fine, but if a Soldier only receives negative counseling, their leader has given up on them. It's our jobs as leaders to help direct our Soldiers on a path for success.
There are a lot of reasons why Troops go from being a good Soldier to a bad one. The first thing that should be asked of them is, what's going on.
I had an NCO working for me who was brilliant. An exceptional Soldier that I knew could be relied upon. Over a period of a couple of weeks, he really started getting behind on his work and I had to pick it up for him. It began to stress me out since my workload was seemingly never ending. I took him aside and said, "I know you aren't a fuck-up, so why are you fucking up?" That was when he finally told me what was wrong. His wife was suffering through PPD really badly and had suicidal ideations. I got him on a plane back home (We were deployed at the time). Part of being a leader is providing direction, motivation, leadership, and discipline. That being said, the other part is listening. If I had just thrown 4856s at him like others might, that Soldier may not have been able to get back on his feet.
Too often have I seen NCOs who go directly to paperwork when it isn't necessary. If a Soldier is 2 minutes late, they don't need to be counseled for that. Sometimes, it's hard to find parking.
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As long as we can agree that somewhere on the path of development, sometimes for some people seperation is part of development, then I will stick with development. The Army is for everybody, but everybody isn't for the Army.
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