Cavguy says:

It's leadership, stupid.
Ken says:
What is the Sergeants Major Academy doing to those guys?
Allow me place my last post in context. Throughout my three tours in Iraq, I witnessed excellent leadership from senior leaders (both O and NCO). During the Surge, Brigade and Battalion Commanders lived/visited patrol bases and shared the burden as best as possible with the troops. My squadron commander personally cleared trenches during a ten day extended operation to clear an Al Qaeda training camp. Furthermore, I observed BN and BDE CSMs inspecting patrol bases and demanding that quality of life issues are addressed.

However, on larger FOBs, I observed senior NCOs obsessed with maintaining "good order and discipline" outside the parameters of common sense (i.e. when a soldier conducts three four hour patrols a day, his uniform will appear dirty particularly when he washes his own clothes).

The shortage of parts, equipment, ammunition was simply the product of "Surging" a division (minus) worth of troops into a FOB recently held by a battalion (plus) not a lack of initiative/effort on any S4. The shortage reminded me of the initial occupation of Baghdad after the Thunder Runs. Remote areas like the Diyala River Valley were farther back in priority than Baqubah and Baghdad. Limited resources were focused on survivability of patrol bases (a good thing) as the area was still controlled by Al Qaeda.

The post was meant to demonstrate the graveyard humor of soldiers while trying to explain that there really is no true refit in combat ops not knock the chain-of-command.

That's why they still call it "The Suck."

v/r

Mike