Two Decades of War Have Eroded the Morale of America’s Troops

[26 Inf]

This article was found on Real Clear Defense. It is from The Atlantic which is a little left of center, but I thought it was interesting and thought provoking.

Left Behind: Two Decades of War Have Eroded the Morale of America’s Troops

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...behind/556844/

[Averageman]

I'm sorry, that article (I made it about half way through before I had to exit) doesn't begin to touch what the real problems are, nor does it touch why they exist.
Deferring to racism and racism exists in every aspect of our society, is a cop out. It's not the real problem. the real problems are much deeper than that, they involve many more aspects of training and unit discipline and they run deep.
The worst thing that ever happened, in my opinion was the importance of the individual over the teams and that goes from Squad/Crew all the way up to Battalions and Squadrons.
Bluntly pointing out failures and fixing them, is the only way to prevent further failure. The system now seems to be adverse to any action that might result in someones individual feelings being hurt.
You have to train hard, you have to remain thick skinned and you have to build teams that want to be successful. Having said that, people who wont get on board with that need to leave.
Inspections aren't to standard, things aren't checked and rechecked and sometimes Junior leadership at the E-4 and E-5 level don't know "Right" because they haven't seen it. After all, failing an inspection could hurt someones feelings, which would lead to a "Sensing Session" which would lead to the person upholding the standard being identified as toxic.
Instead it is a "Go along to Get along system."
Until someone at the top decides training has to be hard, military members have to be harder and that all this "My Feelings" stuff has to be removed from a failing system they are doomed.
Anyone who doesn't embrace winning and training hard and upholding the highest standards needs to be removed and removed immediately.

[RetroRevolver77]

Yah I couldn't get through that article. Anything that blames racism for societal problems is just furthering the leftist permanent victim hood agenda.

[Averageman]

There is a blueprint out there of how these issues were fixed post Viet Nam.
Probably a dozen or more books, hundreds of articles and although then racism was claimed to be a major issue, we fixed it in the military as best we could and moved forward with the mission being first.
The problem is we've changed as a society, we're not raising young men to be warriors. Everyone wants to be an outstanding individual, that's an admirable goal, but it takes someone who works well as part of a team first.

[Coal Dragger]

The author was a Public Affairs Officer.

Yeah I value his views about as much as those of a creepy child molester battalion chaplain.

[Pilot1]

The author was a Public Affairs Officer.

Yeah I value his views about as much as those of a creepy child molester battalion chaplain.

LOL! Tell us how you really feel. Spoken like a real man from Custer.

[Dist. Expert 26]

Morale sucks because of toxic leadership, getting treated like children, spending more time on online training than anything useful and forcing out tons of good people over trivial BS.

[26 Inf]

I'm sorry, that article (I made it about half way through before I had to exit) doesn't begin to touch what the real problems are, nor does it touch why they exist.

Deferring to racism and racism exists in every aspect of our society, is a cop out. It's not the real problem. the real problems are much deeper than that, they involve many more aspects of training and unit discipline and they run deep.

You should have completed the article, the author dismisses the racism deal and stresses that 'a oneness of purpose' transcends race. I got that when I went through Boot Camp in 1972 in a platoon comprised of 70-80% blacks, most of whom had no use for my cracker ass, and, sad to say, at the time I had no use for their asses either. Nonetheless, most of them tolerated me tutoring them on general military subjects - when had the goal of becoming Marines that momentarily bonded us.

The worst thing that ever happened, in my opinion was the importance of the individual over the teams and that goes from Squad/Crew all the way up to Battalions and Squadrons.

Yeah, the Marines, and it was a Marine officer who wrote the article, never bought into that 'Army of One' or Be All You Can Be' bullshit.

Bluntly pointing out failures and fixing them, is the only way to prevent further failure. The system now seems to be adverse to any action that might result in someones individual feelings being hurt.
You have to train hard, you have to remain thick skinned and you have to build teams that want to be successful. Having said that, people who wont get on board with that need to leave.
Inspections aren't to standard, things aren't checked and rechecked and sometimes Junior leadership at the E-4 and E-5 level don't know "Right" because they haven't seen it. After all, failing an inspection could hurt someones feelings, which would lead to a "Sensing Session" which would lead to the person upholding the standard being identified as toxic.
Instead it is a "Go along to Get along system."
Until someone at the top decides training has to be hard, military members have to be harder and that all this "My Feelings" stuff has to be removed from a failing system they are doomed.
Anyone who doesn't embrace winning and training hard and upholding the highest standards needs to be removed and removed immediately.

Hey, your the one that joined the Army. I got out of the Marines and entered the Army Reserves as an E-5. Night and day. My first freaking drill with the unit, I noticed a trash can overflowing and told a nearby SP4 'hey, Specialist, give me a hand taking this to the dumpster.' 'You're not in my chain of command.' 'Take me to your NCO' Turns out that in lego land what I did was detracting from the mission. I went to my PSG and told him "I'm done, I'm on a 'Try-One' and I've tried." The PSG, who was a former Marine, calmed me down and I spent the next tne years ignoring the rest of the Army Reserves as my platoon marched to the 11BY drummer.

[Coal Dragger]

LOL! Tell us how you really feel. Spoken like a real man from Custer.

I might have been a bit harsh but seriously, the dude wrote press releases for a few years. He knows jack and shit about an actual grunt unit.

He went through TBS, good for him. He then spent his career with his mouth affixed to some colonel’s ass typing up pretty sounding bits for local newspapers and the Marine Corps Times.

Forgive me if I’m not impressed with his viewpoint.

If this were authored by some dude who is now an infantry Lt. Col after who knows how many deployments, I’d lend it a lot more credence.

[26 Inf]

LOL! Tell us how you really feel. Spoken like a real man from Custer.

As in Custer Hill, Fort Riley, Home of the Big Red 1, or Custer, as in George Armstrong Custer, the dude who didn't listen to others and got his command wiped out? Because one's better than the other.