Bad habits

[knight77]

How do you break someone in your squad of snoring while they are out in the field. (without giving them a blanket party)

[matt]

If the snoring is not too loud don't worry about it but if he sounds like he's cutting down the forest, make him wear his ProMask.

[LRSC Grunt]

Giving the person a blanket party might be the answer to some things, but it wont solve a snoring problem. Snoring is caused from access tissue in thier sinuses. They cant really help it if they snore, they are asleep. Make them sleep on their side, or even better, sleep on their stomach.

[Snake]

Now hear this:

There is No(0) excuse or justification for Blanket Parties, Code Reds, or whatever the hell else you guys call it.
If you have a problem with someone, have some Intestinal Fortitude, and sort it out while he's awake, and do it without your buddies.
Thats how people end up with their throats cut while they sleep.
It aint manly, and it aint professional
Snake
25th ID(L)

[knight77]

Snake you said it perfectly. I put that in so no one would give me any stupid response. Its all about teamwork and trusting your buddys.
Matt, whats Promask?

[RAT]

He might be talking about wearing what is commonly refered to as a gas mask. In the service it is called a field protective mask or Pro-mask for short.

RAT OUT!!!

[LRSC Grunt]

Snake,
I agree to what you say but how do you handle a wise ass private who doesnt want to do anything, and each time you smoke him he just quits, rebels, and tries to get you in trouble in the process. One either you chapter his ass out, or two you take care of your own and square his ass away internally.

[This message has been edited by LRSC Grunt (edited 12-11-1999).]

[Snake]

Grunt,
I didnt say -not- to use "physical leadership" on miscreants. but at least do it face-to-face. If you cant maintain authority without goons backing you up, you shouldnt be in a leadership position.
Do what we do in my Batt. Drag his ass into the toilet and smack him around a little to reassert dominance. If he complains, then I guess he fell down some steps....
That, of course, is the absolute last resort. You, as an NCO, should be able to make people -want- to follow you. You draw your authority from your Officers. They in turn have their authority reinforced by the fact that you respect them. If I see a unit where the Officers and NCO's are feuding, there is something deeply wrong with that unit.
Incindentally, the only time I would actually use physcial coercion, is if I thought the soldier was worht a damn. If he aint, Chapter his ass.

Snake
25th ID(L)

[This message has been edited by Snake (edited 12-11-1999).]

[RAT]

Snake,

You hit the 10 ring.

LRSC Grunt, To help you out a bit when I was Plt Sgt in the Corps had a young Marine you could not tell him sh*t. (Tough guy form New York City). Smoked him everyday for about 2 months, still did not see any improvement in his attitude. He would say you can write me up or if any one touches me I'll press charges. So I went and got the Court Martial manual made him copy it from cover to cover. Took about 2 1/2 months after work and weekends for him to complete it. After he had done that he know execatly what would happen if he got out of line. Plus, what charges and articles I would press to the C.O. He turned out to be one of the best Marines I worked with.
Hope this helps.
MY.02
RAT OUT

[This message has been edited by RAT (edited 12-13-1999).]

[Tracy]

The difference between a blanket party and wall-to-wall counseling is who does it and the objective. It's not mob behavior when you "shoot your own dog" with the intent of improving unit mission readiness. Remember, Commanders PUNISH, the rest of us schmoes can only CORRECT a condition or action.

I had a dingbat who skied out of the barracks after being restricted to his room in an Article 15 Action. I had SDNCO that night and the kid came down and checked in per SOP for the evening. 15 minutes later, my CO calls and asks why the f**k is PVT Tentpeg at the local Pizza Hut. Long Pause followed by "I'll get on it, mamm" (DLI - Female chain o' command).

So Tentpeg sneaks back into his room and flips on the light to see my smiling face. I had him put on his BDUs and report to me ASAP. This was at 1800; I had him brasso every freaking fixture in every common area in the building. Then I sent him to the Marine SDNCO at 0300 insure the USMC maintained the same standard for their common areas as well.

By 0800, I had one very pooped troop. Plus he had to report to School. Naturally he whined to the food chain and I got called in. The first thing out of my COs mouth was "Were you PUNISHING him?"

Right at this point I had an epiphany: "No mamm, I had him clean and brasso the areas because I couldn't trust him to stay in his quarters; so I figured he could stay with me. If I'm working all night, he can work too." Now my action is corrective, not punitive.

I did get chewed for 'loaning' him to the Jarheads. "SFC **********, we don't loan our tools to just anybody." Three-Bags-Full.

BTW, I wouldn't use the wall-to-wall method unless you had it done to you. So for all of you 'perfect' NCOs, use your perfection to find another way around the problem. The rest of you apes knows what it feels like; so use your best judgement (that's the part ABOVE the neck and not concussed)

tracy.**********@60mdg.travis.af.mil

[Snake]

As I -should- have said,
You gotta use judgement to see -who- responds to -what-. I have encountered pukes that wouldnt respond if you cattle-prodded 'em. Those kind of people always think its the -Army- and -The Man-(tm) thats fuckin them. The problem is never, -never- mind you, with them. People like that, just shit-can em and Drive On.
On the other hand, sometimes physical counseling is effective in establishing your "authority", 'specially if your new to the NCO status. Happened to me when I got my Corporal stripes. A lot of the Boys didnt think I had changed much from PFC Snake, then decided to see just how far they could push.
Then the inevitable "If you werent wearing them Stripes....." pops up, and ya cant really let that slide. Just do it, get it over with, and dont make an issue out of it.
And fer Christ's sake, dont involve the O's!!
And remeber, you aint out to break the punk, just establish your "pack leader" status.
I've yet to figure out a suitable substitute for females. Probably just Chapter em.

Snake
25th ID(L)

[LRSC Grunt]

Remember....blanket parties arent limited to beating the crap out of them, they can include smoking them instead. Im a Spc-4. Back at my old unit at 101 we sort of had our own little Spc-4 mafia. It wasnt as harsh as a ranger bats, but we still did take care of our own. Where I come from if one person screws up really really bad we all screwed up. Our strongest point is no stronger than our weakest link, one persons actions is a reflection on us all. I believe being told to square some one away in such a way is wrong, but I do believe its very effective only in extremity as a last means acting without order. It has happened to me before, it was done to the ones before me, and I want to keep it that way. I wasnt in a ranger bat but I do believe the Spc-4 mafia is truely the backbone of the Regiment.

just my 2 cents

[Snake]

Grunt,
Thats where I disagree. I believe that the Corporal is the backbone of the unit, -if- they are given responsabilities fitting an NCO, and arent treated as a jumped up PFC.
Somewhere along the line, the Corporal became the "lost NCO".
However, I will point out that -I- was never a Spec-4. So our experiences differ.

Snake
25th ID(L)

[Hummel]

My Question is what if the blanket parties result in injuring the guy where he can't do his job, then what? Sometimes it just takes a twist or an accidental pop to end a career or kill someone.

[Snake]

If you cant control yourself, or have doubts about the outcome, dont do it. It aint to different from a schoolyard dust-up, cept for the fact that the participants are -trained-.
The purpose is to establish dominance, not general mayhem.

Snake
25th ID(L)

[LRSC Grunt]

I guess thats where the term corporal punishment originated from.

In my 3 years i have only seen 2 people get promoted to corporal. It wasnt a backbone a campbell.