Posted on Feb 3, 2015
What are your opinions on morale issues in the military?
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I'm writing a research paper with the overall topic of morale in the military. The tentative thesis statement: "Leaders should help foster morale by creating and supporting avenues (MWR/sponsorship/mentorship) to boost resilience (reintegration/stress relief) and cohesion (teamwork/esprit de corps)."
Morale
Retention
Leadership
Re-integration
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 8
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SSG(P) (Join to see)
I think that the items you mention in your proposed thesis statement are important, but the most important thing that impacts morale in the unit is effective, caring and involved leadership. A leader who really cares about his/her unit and soldiers will do all the things you mention and more.
I think that the items you mention in your proposed thesis statement are important, but the most important thing that impacts morale in the unit is effective, caring and involved leadership. A leader who really cares about his/her unit and soldiers will do all the things you mention and more.
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1. Mission Accomplishment
2. Troop Welfare.
This is something that was drilled into every Marine when I joined. Non-stop. Whatever the mission. Get it done. Then take care of your men.
Morale is always a tricky subject, because it is always the SECONDARY mission.
There's an old saying "If a Marine ain't bitchin', a Marine ain't happy."
What that actually means is that once Marines stop complaining, you know they are at a breaking point. It's the silence before the storm. Marines will complain about everything. Old gear, new gear. Good food, bad food. Peacetime, War. Army having too many medals & Badges. Air Force having nice rooms, Marines having renovated rooms. You name it.
Trying to look at Morale with Marines, is like trying to nail jello to a wall.
2. Troop Welfare.
This is something that was drilled into every Marine when I joined. Non-stop. Whatever the mission. Get it done. Then take care of your men.
Morale is always a tricky subject, because it is always the SECONDARY mission.
There's an old saying "If a Marine ain't bitchin', a Marine ain't happy."
What that actually means is that once Marines stop complaining, you know they are at a breaking point. It's the silence before the storm. Marines will complain about everything. Old gear, new gear. Good food, bad food. Peacetime, War. Army having too many medals & Badges. Air Force having nice rooms, Marines having renovated rooms. You name it.
Trying to look at Morale with Marines, is like trying to nail jello to a wall.
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CPT (Join to see)
The medals and badges. There's a whole Reg about them, but its interpreted quite differently from unit to unit.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
And from Service to Service to CPT (Join to see). There are similar gripes about awards on the Marines side. Previously our approval authority was actually one rank higher than Army's so our rarity is significantly different than your side. We don't really have badges which helps some, but recognizing Marines at the BN level with anything other than an EOT was near impossible for a long time.
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Morale is a very important issue that leaders tend to forget. I will share a story about while I was deployed to Joint Task Force- Bravo in Honduras. When I first got there then COL Lenzynski (sp) was the task force commander and his theory was work hard play hard. He believed that morale was just as important as taking out the trash. Well he rotated out and his successor killed morale by his leadership philosophy of work hard, harder, and very little play. I can say it was night and day between the two.
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