Originally posted by jamusta
Before I comment on this I will give you some background on my experience.
4 years active duty USMC
4 1/2 years active duty Army
Currently 5 1/2 years Army reserves.
I am currently SSG.
Now my comments:
These 18 soldiers delivered this fuel to a unit earlier but it was refused by that unit because it was contaminated. They were ordered to deliver this exact same fuel to another and refused for this reason plus maintenance and security issues since they were going into a hot spot.
As a NCO I would have protested the contaminated fuel on behalf of my soldiers but the mission would have been carried out. A good NCO would have talked to his/ her soldiers. Let them know that someone is relying on them to do a job and that the fuel needs to be deliverd regardless of their convictions. If they did proper PMCS (preventive maintenance) they would not have maintenance issues. Security they say? Well practice your defensive tactics and pad your truck doors with flakjackets or use extra materials anything to make your soldiers feel more secure and clean your riffles!!!!! Bottom line is mission first always...
These soldiers disobeyed a lawful order and should be punished accordingly.
This is the product of your congressmen and women. Long gone are the days of handing grenades to a private and telling him to take out that machine gun nest. In todays army you can no longer offend soldiers. No cursing at soldiers. You actually have to be polite when giving orders. In basic training they are always crying to their parents about their treatment. The parents in turn write the nasty I wont vote for you letters to their Representatives who in turn crack down on the military. Hence you see the result.
Now as an NCO how would you feel if you were leading this mission....after protest. On the way you lose a guy or two just to get there and have the same fuel refused for contamination.
What do you tell those kids parents? "Your son died to deliver contaminated fuel that was allready refused once at the destination"
The "big picture" here isn't exactly clear, I know in the Corps we had a system called "request mast" wich meant you could take an issue up the chain of command and were garunteed a response.
Given THESE facts that jamusta described I would have utilized every method at my disposal to prevent endangering the lives of my troops for an absolutly needless mission.
Sometimes there is a call for parents to get involved. This situation is not one of them. If soldiers have a problem with their command then the Inspector General is always a good place to start. But to run to your parents and tell them you are sick because the barracks are to cold and they send a letter their congressman and he in turn emails the base commander who is then forced to turn on the heat and its the begining of October in Georgia is rediculous. True Story by the way.
I was told another funny one the other day. A kid in Boot camp is told by his DI to write a letter home to his parents telling them he is safe and what they can/cannot send him while he's there.
In this letter the recruit very plainly says "send me some socks"
well the freaked out mother gets even more freaked out and calls her congressmen whom she knows on a personal basis. The congressmen then talks to the secretary of the navy....the SecNav then talks to the commidant of the Marine Corps......the CMC then calls the Comanding General of MCRD San Diego....this goes on all the way down the chain of command all the way to the very pissed off DI and a scared Chitless recruit.
The recruit is then instructed to very elequently to write his mother listing all of the items he was issued while at recruit training. All this because a freaked out mother thaught her baby didn't have any socks!
