Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Too often similar occurrences are due mostly to the system deciding that the NCOs are incompetent and bypassing them by having an Officer do 'stuff.' That trend started in Viet Nam in the late 60s and is endemic. The symptom that hurts is that the NCOs perceive, rightly or wrongly that they aren't trusted and the reaction of most is to get their feelings hurt say 'No prob, I can sit on my a$$.' The solution is to let them do their jobs.
Ken, the only reason that I know you were not my first Platoon Sergeant is because you are posting under your real name. Other than that, what you just typed sounds word for word exactly like the analysis of the situation that my first PSG explained to me. Agree completely.

Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
... most want to do their job but they're human, can be lazy and are generally very practical -- they see no sense in doing a job themselves if you're going to do it for them...That is not a criticism of anyone and particularly not of Schemdlap...
No offense taken. I agree completely. In fact, my Bn XO was frustrated that my response was not to micromanage even more. My explanation to him was (paraphrasing), "sir, I'm not going to treat them like kids. They're going back to Iraq in less than 6 months. They need to grow up. They told you a blatant lie because they thought they could get away with laziness and I called them out for being limp dicks in front of you. If I need to do more than that, then I'll address it when it arises. That's their freebie." That wasn't what he wanted to hear, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do about it. I'm not saying I was the best XO ever, but I was good at my job and I think his plate was a bit too full to try to find a replacement for me. After all, he had 6 other companies to micromanage.

But, back to the e-reader / electronification of stuff issue, I found digitized streamlining of processes like this to be really helpful. One thing that I created as an XO was the mother of all databases that I used to track maintenance. All I had to do was decipher the chicken scratches on the 5988Es and type it into a form in the database. I could then instantly verify whether the faults were 1) real faults (as opposed to the random crap that some Soldiers would scrawl on the sheet like "road wheel is old" - wtf?); 2) checked in the correct order (there's a reason for the order); 3) if the faults from the prior PMCS were still there; 4) if so, whether the part had been received (which meant the crew either didn't get it or failed to replace it); 5) quickly cross-check all faults with orders and order status so that I could gripe to Bn about parts not showing up, not getting ordered, etc; and various other consideration that have since faded from memory. This is essentially technical work. If it can be streamlined electronically, then frees up leaders for actual leadership stuff.