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Monday, June 06, 2005
Frustrations
As part of being ‘trapped’ as a Specialist (aka ‘Full Bird Private’), I’m unfortunately limited in what I can learn here. I was ‘looking forward’ to the deployment at least as an opportunity to learn a lot about the military but, now that I’m certainly up to speed in everything by now, I’ve learned that there are very few opportunities to actually learn much.
Our patrols are boring (thank god) and repetitive. Our weeks are set patterns of patrols, night patrols, and guard duty. Acting essentially as patrolling policemen, we don’t have a lot of opportunity to think tactically. We try very hard to never get complacent, but it’s often harder than you might think, especially with the weather routinely hitting 100
degrees now.
And while I ask for more to learn and be responsible for, I often find that either people really don’t want to take up their downtime going over military stuff, they don’t really know much themselves, or I’m directed to a tedious and agonizingly thorough manual. Plus, when there is something for someone to take responsibility for, our NCO’s (sergeants) are all over it, both because our squad has good NCO’s and because they are constantly hungry for something to be responsible for and thus prove themselves and/or
exercise their paltry ‘authority’ over guys like me. It’s frustrating.
And, unlike active duty, there are very few opportunities to advance. Active duty guys have lots of units to move up through and plenty of dimwits to drop the ball, allowing others to take their place. With the Guard, you are pretty much stuck with your unit, thereby having much fewer slots to move up into. Plus, the Guard is bursting with older, more experienced guys who are all already in line for any open slots that come up. And it’s all based on time in service, so even though another Specialist might be a total
screw-up, he is not only technically superior to me, he would be first in line for a sergeant slot.
An example: the 25th Infantry Division guys that we took over from were full of Privates and Privates First Class and their NCO’s were often in their mid-20’s. A normal squad for them might have several privates, a few Specialists, two buck sergeants, and one Staff Sergeant. As National Guard, we might have one or two privates in our entire company and have so many NCO’s that my platoon has one squad of almost all sergeants!
Thus, I will bypass the whole thing and go directly to OCS, do not pass ‘GO’. The good news there is that apparently there is a shortage of officers in the Guard so I might have more opportunities there, especially if/when there is the expected (national?) mass exodus out of the Guard after this deployment.
Our patrols are boring (thank god) and repetitive. Our weeks are set patterns of patrols, night patrols, and guard duty. Acting essentially as patrolling policemen, we don’t have a lot of opportunity to think tactically. We try very hard to never get complacent, but it’s often harder than you might think, especially with the weather routinely hitting 100
degrees now.
And while I ask for more to learn and be responsible for, I often find that either people really don’t want to take up their downtime going over military stuff, they don’t really know much themselves, or I’m directed to a tedious and agonizingly thorough manual. Plus, when there is something for someone to take responsibility for, our NCO’s (sergeants) are all over it, both because our squad has good NCO’s and because they are constantly hungry for something to be responsible for and thus prove themselves and/or
exercise their paltry ‘authority’ over guys like me. It’s frustrating.
And, unlike active duty, there are very few opportunities to advance. Active duty guys have lots of units to move up through and plenty of dimwits to drop the ball, allowing others to take their place. With the Guard, you are pretty much stuck with your unit, thereby having much fewer slots to move up into. Plus, the Guard is bursting with older, more experienced guys who are all already in line for any open slots that come up. And it’s all based on time in service, so even though another Specialist might be a total
screw-up, he is not only technically superior to me, he would be first in line for a sergeant slot.
An example: the 25th Infantry Division guys that we took over from were full of Privates and Privates First Class and their NCO’s were often in their mid-20’s. A normal squad for them might have several privates, a few Specialists, two buck sergeants, and one Staff Sergeant. As National Guard, we might have one or two privates in our entire company and have so many NCO’s that my platoon has one squad of almost all sergeants!
Thus, I will bypass the whole thing and go directly to OCS, do not pass ‘GO’. The good news there is that apparently there is a shortage of officers in the Guard so I might have more opportunities there, especially if/when there is the expected (national?) mass exodus out of the Guard after this deployment.
Posted by: Unknown / 1:09 PM 
