Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Officers probably need to get used to the thought of having SFCs and SSG as acting platoon leaders. They'll do okay. I've seen SGTs as Acting PLs and one serving as a 1SG -- all of 'em did a good job. One gets responsible behavior when one expects it; if one expects poor performance, that's generally exactly what one will get. And certainly, IMO, deserves...
I'm currently reading the David Weber series on Honor Harrington. In the book, "In Enemy Hands" he quotes a mythical Fleet Admiral as saying: I'd rather be short-handed, than have incompetents running things.

Back when I was teaching ROTC, an Active Duty CPT and I would often sit around and shoot the #### about how a crappy officer actually made it HARDER for the NCO who was really leading the platoon to do his job.

And then, when you promote said crappy officer, he makes it hard for the NCO by being a crappy Company Commander.

While it's a lot easier to have an even marginally competent officer to pick up the slack, the bad ones are just bad and we should just give up trying to fill the slots.