How would you restore a troop's confidence in his Chain of Command?

2015-02-20T10:28:09-05:00

Recently I had a conversation with a young Soldier about the Commander in Chief. He said that he had lost confidence in the CIC’s leadership abilities and the fact that the President was talking about deploying more troops without appropriate authorization he felt that he would be following an unlawful order to deploy under the CIC’s directive.
We had a long discussion about it and it had nothing to do with the Soldier’s willingness to perform his duty and deploy with his Unit it was actually to the contrary. He wanted to deploy he just wanted it to be under the right circumstances and by the rule of law.
During our conversation I pointed him to the UCMJ.

Article 91 - Insubordinate Conduct toward a Warrant Officer, Noncommissioned Officer, or Petty Officer.
Any warrant officer or enlisted member who
(1) strikes or assaults a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer, while that officer is in the execution of his office;
(2) willfully disobeys the lawful order of a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer; or
(3) treats with contempt or is disrespectful in language or deportment toward a warrant officer, noncommissioned officer, or petty officer while that officer is in the execution of his office;
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

Article 92 – Failure to obey order or regulation.
Any person subject to this chapter who
(1) violates or fails to obey any lawful general order or regulation;
(2) having knowledge of any lawful order issued by any member of the armed forces, which it is his duty to obey, fails to obey the order; or
(3) is derelict in the performance of his duties;
shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

Now the Soldier said he had read and understood the articles but his dilemma was he did not believe the orders coming from the CIC were lawful and that all the people in between were just simply following suit.

Honestly, after all my years of service this young man had presented a dilemma to me which I had not had to answer.
Since I am retired and not in his Chain of Command to know the full extent of his situation The best I could do was assure him that the senior command directly under the president and on down to him were just as concerned about the same things he was and that somewhere in there somebody would ensure that the orders were lawful. But I could tell at the end of the conversation that I had not fully answered his question.

In this day and age our young troops are smart and well informed.
Here’s the question:
Given a young motivated soldier who wants to do what is right and serve with honor and pride, how would you handle the above scenario in order to restore the soldier’s confidence in his Command Structure.
One stipulation: The short answer of telling him it is above his pay grade and he needs to just follow orders is not an option.

Response by 1SG Michael Blount made Feb 20 at 2015 10:36 AM

2015-02-20T10:36:56-05:00

@MSgt Rick Runion - Personally, I think you were talking to a Soldier who never deployed, was nervous about it and tried to hide that fact by some legal smokescreen of what POTUS wants to do is "illlegal". If this was one of my Soldiers, I'd explain the following: (1) Everyone, combat vets included, is nervous about a deployment. In fact, something's wrong if you're not (2) Everyone - including that Soldier - is getting on that plane and will sereve (3) His
CoC, and especially his 1SG will look out for this Soldier and do all they can to make sure his wife and family dont' get that dreaded knock on the door. If that's not acceptable, then home-boy needs to wonder why in the world he joined the Army in the first place.

Response by 1SG Al Brown made Nov 14 at 2016 9:08 PM

2016-11-14T21:08:34-05:00

I don't have patience for that type of issue when it's unit movement time. He would be at Parade Rest. I would explain once how it was going to go. He would comply or I would have the Field Grade typed and on the CSMs desk before close of business. In this scenario, it's fixed quickly , or the pain comes swiftly.

Response by Gloria Liatta made Nov 14 at 2020 10:23 AM

2020-11-14T10:23:44-05:00

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