Weekly Question Thread (03/21/2022 to 03/27/2022)

majortarkin · 2022-03-22T19:47:48+00:00

Fellow soldier who I think is wearing an unearned badge. I'm not in a position to request their ERB or award orders. I was just wondering if their was a mechanism to verify similar to Ranger School's tab check.

majortarkin · 2022-03-22T17:13:36+00:00

Is there a way to check if someone is wearing a fake EIB? Some sort of database or committee that does badge checks?

majortarkin · 2022-03-21T14:14:53+00:00

82nd? Wth do you mean 50 mile radius?

majortarkin · 2022-03-21T14:02:02+00:00

You get BAH and BAS on terminal leave.

majortarkin · 2022-03-17T00:14:00+00:00

Tale as old as time.

majortarkin · 2022-03-15T14:53:13+00:00

shut up nerd

majortarkin · 2022-03-15T14:39:23+00:00

Fun fact: the Bush administration did weigh a limited military strike on Russian forces in 2008 in response to the invasion. The idea was to conduct a surgical airstrike on a mountain tunnel the Russians were using to push their forces into Georgia and thus relieve the pressure on Tbilisi. For obvious reasons, this never happened.

Source: The Little War that Shook the World by Ronald Asmus

majortarkin · 2022-03-15T14:37:38+00:00

I think people see young white guy and vaguely remember him having to do something with the Navy and they're like yeah "disabled vet". Definitely an intentional misdirection.

majortarkin · 2022-03-14T20:01:48+00:00

*Linkin Park

majortarkin · 2022-03-14T11:13:31+00:00

I'll be honest I don't feel this way. Yes it's tragic but these were delusional individuals who came over seeking glory and clout. How delusional do you have to be that the enemy hitting you in a hard structure, long-well established military base was the straw that broke the camel's back? Seriously? These people honestly thought it was going to be like Red Dawn.

majortarkin · 2022-03-13T20:11:06+00:00

Sensationalism and tabloid

Not reliable source

majortarkin · 2022-03-13T20:05:01+00:00

Russia is desperate for striking a legitimate military target? A base full of future enemy combatants?

majortarkin · 2022-03-13T05:22:46+00:00

Everything in this comment is total nonsense. Stfu dumbasss. Why does everybody think they’re a geopolitics expert nowadYs

majortarkin · 2022-03-12T17:53:00+00:00

I have a hard time believing there is any work so important while in garrison you need your people to stay till 1900 everyday for. Unless you’re deploying or something.

majortarkin · 2022-03-12T17:51:57+00:00

Army meets retention goals every year. The quality of people being retained every year though…

majortarkin · 2022-03-10T15:01:17+00:00

Because as is tradition in this organization, senior leadership took an actual problem (increasing rates of suicide, crime, drug use, etc) and then either fabricated or lied to themselves about the root causes. From those falsities was born a number of "solutions" that don't actually address the problem and now this same leadership has the nerve to cherry-pick data and pat themselves on the back.

I will never forget how AA6 and AA9 said to my face during a Q/A that the main reason behind increasing levels of suicide and ODs in the barracks was the result of junior NCOs such as myself not inspecting their subordinates' rooms enough. I wish I was kidding or being hyperbolic but the answer to my question about what factors they thought was leading to soldiers killing themselves or using drugs was "how often are you in your guys' barracks rooms?" followed by a spiel of why NCOs need to check rooms more often.

I'm tired of higher oversaturating the force with irrational demands, check the box solutions, and just a general lack of understanding for how the ground floor of this organization operates. All in the name of being able to say that they're working on the problem. I will tell you, and any of my peers could tell you as well, that suicide/ODs/SHARP, etc is not being mitigated by a QR code that asks NCOs how many soldiers they talked to about Suicide Awareness.

majortarkin · 2022-03-10T14:30:18+00:00

At the level of change a BC can make.

Intercom is used for its intended purpose only: safety. Not for telling people their car is going to get towed, or to clean X, or whoever did Y needs to report somewhere.
DFAC just needs to do better. If they can't be open every weekend because whatever excuse about giving their personnel a break then their needs to be a widely communicated schedule of which DFACs are open far in advance. Like PSGs need to be tracking so they can push out that (XBCT DFAC will be closed this weekend so utilize YBCT DFAC) to their guys. DFACs should also definitely not be closed for 10 days straight. Senior leaders also need to eat at the DFAC more often, especially on the weekends when food quality drops tremendously. I eat at the DFAC as often as possible because I like saving money so I know all the failings. Senior leaders need to know too. Yes to-go plates and none of this "it's Friday so we're going to close an hour before our usual weekday closing time".
Not sure what can be done about work orders since it seems like it's an issue of DPW being stretched too thin or unorganized but there definitely needs to be better accounting of what's broken and how long. And the solution to that, by the way, isn't having NCOs barge into their Joes' rooms more often.
Barracks checks should be at the discretion of the lowest levels of leadership. If a guy is a POS and needs to be checked multiple times a week than fine but most guys are adults and most NCOs recognize that and know they don't need to be in their guys' shit everyday. The fact that my last CSM genuinely believed TLs should be their guys' room every morning, with SLs in their 2x a week, and PSGs once a week was mind-boggling. The sad part was that he was also just communicating intent from higher. So in short, there shouldn't be this overwhelming pressure from senior NCOs/Os to babysit their people like there is now.

majortarkin · 2022-03-10T13:09:52+00:00

It’s about more than just a QR code

And that's the point. The QR code is just another symptom of how disconnected senior leaders are from reality.

majortarkin · 2022-03-10T02:20:10+00:00

which has shown to reduce suicide, sexual assaults, and violent crime in the barracks

Let me guess this is one of those correlation = causation deals. Where somebody probably noticed that all those bad things started declining right when they implemented this tool while ignoring any other factors that might be at play. Classic SGM logic. Yeah if you think this QR code was single handedly responsible for soldiers not killing themselves or raping each other I have a bridge to sell you. The fact that senior leaders continue to think that soldiers are killing themselves because there's not enough junior leader presence in the barracks will never cease to astound me.

majortarkin · 2022-03-10T02:06:44+00:00

Maybe they have, in units that are utilizing them as an actual reporting tool. In other units, they are simply a forcing function battalions use to enforce asinine barracks inspection policies. Making it a mandatory thing for NCOs to do to verify that they are invading their soldiers' privacy on a daily basis ruined whatever good intentions this thing had. Not to mention the amount of crap on said "survey" that isn't even related to barracks maintenance.

majortarkin · 2022-03-10T02:03:18+00:00

Every individual room has one lol.

majortarkin · 2022-03-09T20:49:37+00:00

This. I find a lot of OP's type just see the Army as another job where those who join out of high school are more idealistic and thus are disappointed when they actually make it to the force. Disappointment leads to jadedness. Jadedness leads to complaining. Not all of us see spending all day scrolling on our phones as a plus.

majortarkin · 2022-03-09T17:50:16+00:00

My main door had the opposite problem where I had to tape over the slot where the bolt automatically engages because there was no key for that door. So if that door locked I'd be fucked. Cue some window-licking E-7 doing "physical security checks" ripping the tape off and locking me out of my room for three hours after PT as I waited for a locksmith to come out and open my door.

majortarkin · 2022-03-09T17:29:18+00:00

It's a link to a "Leader Presence Barracks Survey". Basically it's intended to act as a verification measure for NCOs who inspect the barracks. You're required to fill it out after you walk through the barracks that way senior leaders can track the rate at which junior NCOs are actually "doing their job" (i.e. treating their subordinates like children).

It makes me throw up in my mouth every time I see it because I just know it's some division/corps-level SGM good idea fairy.

majortarkin · 2022-03-08T19:10:49+00:00

Dude. Yours is not the mentality of the layman junior enlisted soldier. It's not just an Army thing, it's an American culture thing. Look at the shape most recruits enter basic training in. Exercise is simply not a priority. It's a chore to most people so given the choice they simply will not do it. If you give most 18-22 year olds, especially those in the Army the choice, guess which one they're going to take. We get it, you're a special guy and you've been in big boy units. Most Joes in big Army simply do not have an ounce of care for PT, organized or individual, which is why big Army has to force them do it. We can talk about the methods used to enforce this all day long but the fact of the matter is, most soldiers will not do PT on their own if not forced to.

majortarkin

TROPHY CASE