Do As I Say, NOT As I Do!!!

Ahhhh yes. I am almost positive that this is the oldest blatant breach of integrity out there. On a daily basis (especially here at Ft Gordon) I see this multiple times a day. Well today I was treated to not only 1 but 4 separate instances within an hour. I will start with the least surprising and go all the way to the one that will definitely cause a stir.

Ok so everyone in the US Army knows that Thursdays are for Training or in some circles it's known as "Sergeants Time". Normally this type of training is blocked off so that you can have 4-5 hours of uninterrupted training. Physical Training is rarely done on this day UNLESS it is a part of the training. Normal units start PT around 0600-0630 (ours varies between 0415-0530 but I will cover that in detail later). Sergeants time usually Army wide starts at 0700.

Well wouldn't you know that somehow, someway the Officers got involved. Well we all know that once that happens you can EXPECT some kind of fuckery to take place. So here we have the issue of the Headquarters Element in any unit. Normally it will be made up of various offices that work at the Battalion or higher level. Now the Commander of the HQ Company is usually still just a Captain. Well because it is at Battalion level or higher, just about everyone to include the secretary is more important than the Commander. Harsh reality but oh-so-true. Well of course when you feel as if you are the heel every now and then you want to try to step on the toe.

Now within the various offices I will say that approximately 100% of the individuals that work in these offices can give a damn less what the Commander wants. Once again, harsh but true. Usually it's because we have actual jobs that require time. Time that is precious and shouldn't be subjected to your petulant tirade to show that you are indeed "El Captain". So because there are offices that give the morning formation the middle finger (as we all REALLY want to as PT now a Joke of EPIC proportions) the Commander decides that he as a bright idea. We will do PT on Thursdays since some of the "S" shops don't show up. THEN we will go straight from PT into the Thursday training.

Now there are a few problems with this that came about this morning. Here is where the Do as I say not as I do comes in. This new activity was conceived by the Commander who has YET to show up to any formation this week. So not only do we now have an extra day of the Tom Fuckery known as PRT (Physical Readiness Training) but we have another day to watch the Commander blow off HIS own Company formation.

Now this activity is facilitated by the 1SG who by all accounts in a NORMAL unit would be the voice of reason, however in this unit he is an ENABLER of all things wrong. He is akin to a parent that knows their child has a drug problem but still gives him the $100 allowance every week. He actually holds the formation for the Commander. Now this is the best part. He comes over to our formation and does accountability by memory (which is never a good thing). Once all of the USUAL SUSPECTS are accounted for, they somehow seem to.......................disappear. Poof! Gone before we even start PT and the best part is the 1SG is right behind them. That's right. Double Poof! So the only ones that are there are the ones that are ALWAYS there in the first place. Now, did I confuse you...........I know at this point I am as confused as I have ever been in my 19 year career.

EVERY Leadership publication that I have seen in the Army has always ALWAYS said to LEAD BY EXAMPLE. BE, KNOW & DO. So this is why this is such a problem for me. How can you tell me to be in formation every day and you be conspicuously absent? This isn't an instant where he is the Manager at Wal-Mart and I am the stock guy. This is the ARMY, Lead from the FRONT. We spill the same blood in the same mud. Sometimes I want to sit them all down and make them watch "We Were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson and Sam Elliott until they get it. UGHHHHHH!!!

Now before we were blessed to have the 1SG come over to our formation for "memory accountability", he had to give us a warning. Now I will go ahead and let you know that if you are in the Army and reading this, it's gonna sting a bit to read the next few lines.

Here is the Speech at 0530:

"Ok listen up. I know we have NCO's that want to do the right thing, but under no circumstances are you to correct an MOSI (Trainee) Soldier. I know you might outrank them but don't say anything to them that might cause a confrontation. What you need to do if you see someone doing wrong is get their name, unit and Commanders name and then come back and tell me and I will handle it. You have to know what type of environment you are in."

Excuse me? What the FUCK did he just say? Did he just tell me that as an NCO I cannot correct a Private without his intervention? You have got to be Shitting me!!!

Now there is a GLARING problem with this entire scenario. First, he can't even commit to his job of keeping the Commander from making irrational, emotional and foolhardy decisions. Second, if I ask a Soldier for said information what is to stop him from a plain and simple "Fuck you Sergeant". Let me run this down for you:

Soldier is walking down the street with no headgear, hands in his pocket and throws an empty bottle on the ground.

Me: "Hey Soldier, pick that bottle up, take your hands out of your pocket and where is your headgear?"

Soldier: "Pick up what Sergeant" (as he still has hands in his pocket)

Me: Don't play stupid (cause they usually do) that bottle you just threw on the ground and get your hands out of your pocket.

Soldier: "I don't know what you are talking about."

Me: (trying to now use the 1SG's technique) What Company are you in and what is your Commander's name?"

Soldier: "I ain't telling you shit Sergeant"

Me: (Forced at that point to either A. Put my career on the line for "helping" him correct himself or B. Walking away mumbling under my breath defeated by a Private.

Yea, that's really going to work out just fine. Oh well..........Welcome to the NEW Army. Never have I heard that I can no longer correct a Soldier without supervision. They might as well cut out the middleman and just have us castrated in Basic Training.

Bullshit-o-meter score for this action is a fucking 11. (For OBVIOUS reasons!!!)

Till Next time......Ol' Sarge, OUT!!!

The Actual Definition of Bullshit

Now I don't want you to think that I just spew venom all the time about my chosen profession. That is surely not the case. There are good times (or rather have been) from time to time. It's just as of late these have been VERY few and far between.

I entered the Service almost 20 years ago, and I will scream from the highest mountain that IT IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ARMY than the one I enlisted in years ago. Now one would think that "well if it got so bad why didn't you just get out". To that I say that it was a gradual progression akin to the deteoration of a tendon in your knee. You don't really know that it's actually that bad until its too late to do anything aobut it.

Now with that being said I will get into the meat of this and the reason behind it. When I enlisted many moons ago the leadership had plenty of integrity and bravado. They were REAL men that actually used the concept of "My Word Is My Bond". Now almost 20 years we have what can only be called "promotion through attrition".

Attrition is defined as: 1. a wearing down or weakening of resistance, esp. as a result of continuous pressure or harassment: The enemy surrounded the town and conducted a war of attrition.

3. a gradual reduction in work force without firing of personnel, as when workers resign or retire and are not replaced.

Now the issue is that all of the great leaders that WERE around have since vanished. They left a very select few to carry the torch and because of a flawed promotion system we were left with more "questionable" members that have somehow taken over. The one thing that seems to be a commonality among the "questionables" is their total lack of integrity. That, my friends is the root of all business. If you don't have integrity then you don't have shit. Plain and simple!

Below you will read the actual creed of the BullShitter. This has become the mantra for those that would like to SEEM as if they were smarter then they were. Problem is that I am a very hard person to "baffle". I have been around and seen a lot, therefore it's damn near impossible to pull the wool over my eyes. Also I am a master at bringing individuals from the brink when it seems that they have been hypnotized by the actual BullShit. (Hey that's my job, lol)

So now they have all taken what I consider to be total and utter BullShit to the next level and have somehow gained followers over the years. This is indeed tragic as I can see the actual deteoration of the tendon and unfortunatley it's going to break sooner rather than later.

History of BullShit

Assertions of fact

Bullshit is commonly used to describe statements made by people more concerned with the response of the audience than in truth and accuracy, such as goal-oriented statements made in the field of politics or advertising. On one prominent occasion, the word itself was part of a controversial advertisement. During the 1980 U.S. presidential campaign, the Citizens Party candidate Barry Commoner ran a radio advertisement that began with an actor exclaiming: "Bullshit! Carter, Reagan and Anderson, it's all bullshit!" NBC refused to run the advertisement because of its use of the expletive, but Commoner's campaign successfully appealed to the Federal Communications Commission to allow the advertisement to run unedited.

Distinguished from lying

"Bullshit" does not necessarily have to be a complete fabrication; with only basic knowledge about a topic, bullshit is often used to make the audience believe that one knows far more about the topic by feigning total certainty or making probable predictions. It may also merely be "filler" or nonsense that, by virtue of its style or wording, gives the impression that it actually means something.

In his essay on the subject, William G. Perry called bull[shit] "relevancies, however relevant, without data" and gave a definition of the verb "to bull[shit]" as follows:
To discourse upon the contexts, frames of reference and points of observation which would determine the origin, nature, and meaning of data if one had any. To present evidence of an understanding of form in the hope that the reader may be deceived into supposing a familiarity with content.

The bullshitter generally either knows the statements are likely false, exaggerated, and in other ways misleading or has no interest in their factual accuracy one way or the other. "Talking bullshit" is thus a lesser form of lying, and is likely to elicit a correspondingly weaker emotional response: whereas an obvious liar may be greeted with derision, outrage, or anger, an exponent of bullshit tends to be dismissed with an indifferent sneer.

Now with that I can tell you that apparently they have read, ingested and are putting into practice every part of the BullShit Model. The one thing that the BullShitter is really good at is that he/she (it is not gender specific) does not always actually lie; rather there is a strict omission of the truth at all cost.

So now you know why my subject matter is seemingly bleak. In short and summary. The BullShit artist have taken over the Military Service and are slowly but surely weeding out the ones that will call them on their BullShit.

It is a sad day ineed.

Ratings on this action on the BullShit-o-Meter is............10. (can't be any lower today)

History Of Bullshit cited from Wikipedia 1 Feb 2011