At the risk of stepping on some collective toes, here, I noticed a basic lack of senior NCO competence in "taking care of the troops." To be sure, we were a CSS unit, so we didn't have a good infantry or armor First Shirt, but our 1SGs and CSMs were extremely weak in caring for their troops. They were hell on uniform violations, but when it came to a basic feeding plan, improving the Co./Bn area and even running a DA 6, they were either incompetent, or were too busy taking care of themselves, first.

I had the honor of serving with two staff E-8s who were constantly picking up the slack for a wide variety of subordinate and superior unit NCO chains of concern. Little stuff like ensuring their troops were being fed, weapons were clean and in good repair, and knowing the pulse of the unit appear to have been neglected, and been replaced with "higher orders" of NCO business such as Powerpoint development, etc..

My Staff E-8s and I would spend 30 minutes or so in the chow line, prior to going through it, either correcting soldiers' weapons handling and/or cleanliness, or addressing soldier concerns. The funny thing was, when my E-8s would violate the other units NCO chain of concern in order to solve a problem, the senior NCO whose turf it was generally didn't appear to care. If I were a senior NCO or Commander, and some other units' NCO was in my business, I think I'd blow a gasket.