Count that among the reasons that I got out. No unit that I was in would have had the time, inclination, or spare manpower to jump through the hoops necessary to make this "morale booster" happen for the same reasons that I doubt this unit would have. On the contrary, it would have just pissed us all off that higher echelons would concern themselves with such foolishness when we're busy focusing on the mission.Originally Posted by Cavguy
Everytime that someone 6 degrees of separation away from the guys on the line came up with some bright idea that would be "good for morale" it was almost universally met with anger. For example, a Sergeant Major on one of my deployments who always seemed to have a fresh clean uniform and an interceptor that looked like it was fresh out of the plastic thought it would be a "morale booster" to pull a fire team away from our company for 48 hours at a time and send them off to a giant FOB to "decompress." Aside from the trip being a several-hour hassle each way, and aside from the unneeded additional strain that this put on an already undermanned and overtasked unit, one fire team did it and they were so disgusted upon seeing the Fobbit lifestyle that they requested to never be given such an opportunity again. Fortunately, the chain of command stepped in shortly thereafter and veto'd future trips because it was too much of a logistically intensive nutroll to justify. And they also realized that this was just an opportunity for 3 or 4 guys at a time to get a glimpse of the people who, instead of repairing their weapons and filling their supply orders, were going sunbathing and shopping for condoms and CDs at the PX. I am sure that Sergeant Major, afterwards, told his fellow FOB dwellers (over a relaxing dinner at the KBR DFAC) that he came up with an ingenious plan to assure the morale of the troops, but that it was quashed by some out-of-touch officer.
These gestures sound really neat in the palace that they're written in. But the message so often received is that the guy who wrote it is out of touch. I can envision how my Soldiers would have received the two-beer message: "wow, two beers. Should I drink one before I help the mounted crews change track on the Brads and then the other right before I head out for a 48-hour shift on a 3-man OP? Or should I shotgun both before I get my 4 hours of rack and hope that we don't get attacked for 30 minutes or so?"
My hunch is that the farther removed from the flag you got, the less well received it was. But hopefully I'm completely wrong. If I were concerned about FOB morale, then I would push a beer night, too. It's probably the only amenity that they don't have. But for the guys in the PB's and COP's, numerous other options come to mind.
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