ARCOM for calling out inappropriate use in Social Media. Appropriate or not?

You have soldiers who deploy who don't get ARCOMS!

Maybe I've been out too long and maybe am...ah hell I'm going to say it. Of all the 1st Sgts I know, I know they have a hell of a lot on their plate. If she has nothing more better to do than to spy on her soldiers on social media then I personally believe she needs more work to do or to get a life. I'm well aware as a federal employee what conduct I am to uphold. I have coworkers and even my boss as facebook friends but I also know not to post anything I'm going to regret. I also have them restricted to only certain posts on FB. It seems to me that they are expecting Senior NCOs to be babysitters and that frankly isn't your job. Wow, just Wow. she got an ARCOM for this? I'm doing a facepalm.

nope...Nope....NOPE! Yeah, I'm done. Lets just start passing out awards like candy.

It's time to retire!

SFC (Join to see). So . . . do we give the entire Kunsan AFB Legal Team a medal for herosim now?
Warmest Regards, Sandy

I'll just say that I answered No.

What a joke. Grunts have to go through Hell and feel lucky to come out unscathed to get that kind of medal.

That was definitely not ARCOM worthy. Personally, I feel that she should have that ARCOM rescinded after she trolled the writer of the blog and called him an "asshat".
(sarcasm)That's very professional of you, Top!(/sarcasm)

So a 1SG steps in on a social media website, pulls rank and stops some Soldiers from doing wrong, which is the same thing a civilian or pvt could do as well, and because she did that, she received an ARCOM.

If that's that considered a standard to receive an ARCOM, I'd love to see the bullets used and citation. That way my Soldiers can see why their actual army achievements that are downgraded to AAM's/COA's in comparison to this joke.

She was right to call them out! Soldiers are Soldiers 24 hours a day! Act like one and do what's right in any public forrum. A public chat room is a public forum. If you want to act like a jackass in a chat room...join a private room!

As for the ARCOM, Hell NO! But I am not surprised! I have seen Soldiers receive an AAM for having with the Colonel said during a Command Inspection was, "the best room in the barracks!" Not only should the commands be embarrassed for recommending either one. However once it was decided to be awarded to her, she had no say!

I do give her a thumbs up for taking the action she took, as it did reflect an active duty Soldier acting inappropriately, infact, several soldiers from 3 different commands. SHARP is a probem in the Army (not just the Army) and zero tolerence is the only way to combat it. Some may disagree, but thats their choice!

OBTW...LTG Bromberg was my Battalion Commander during my last assignment as 1SG before coming out on the SGM Promotion list. A damn fine Battalion Commander, one of the best! I am not surprised at all that he followed up and took action as Dep. Chief of Staff for Personnel!

Not worthy of the award, she did her job, that's it. Now, here's the devil's advocate questions, does her actions set a precedence? Does this open the door for any service member to make reports via email and send said email to the SHARP director jumping everyones chain of command? I believe she initially did the right thing by reaching out to them to do an on the spot correction, but I also think she crossed the line by using the language she chose, by meeting them equally in calling them idiots, and then by goading them into arguing back some more.

1SG Moerk didn't notify the 1SG's of the other commands; she jumped her entire chain of command and their's.(by her own admission) If a private were to jump the chain of command to the CSM, the private would've been destroyed for not following the chain of command properly. Was there a fear that the other commands would brush this under the rug? Not only is that Soldier's unit under the microscope, every unit all the way to the top is now. Some high ranking officer is probably asking their leadership "how screwed are we and how f***ed up are we". Every SHARP/UVA representative is going to called to the mat trying to find out what the hell just happened. Its already a media storm. I'll bet every service branch is squirming right now, that all it takes is some email sent to the very top, saying something is wrong in some unit in regards to SHARP. Ok perhaps it's a bit of a stretch, but could it be feasible?

SAPR really kicked in 2004 and now in 2014, and we've made significant changes in the attitudes and behaviors regarding sexual harassment/assault, it's been 10 years if using that timeline. However, SHARP is trying to correct a behavior that is so immersed itself in military culture that we're a long way changing this behavior. The behavior we need to change are the people that think this is harmless.

From a 3-star general, no less! Wow, I guess if you live long enough you get to see everything.

Now, given she's in intel, she SHOULD be monitoring her people's blogs for possible OPSEC violations and that kind of thing. No problem with that. That's part of her job as it is for any senior NCO.

Do either of those things, in and of themselves, warrant or constitute the level of recognition inherent in an ACM? No way.

I dislike that they are calling what she did "Trolling" because being a troll really means pointlessly harassing someone on the internet. The example from Urban Dictionary:

Guy: "I just found the coolest ninja pencil in existence."
Troll: "I just found the dumbest thread in existence."

I don't think she should have been given an award of any kind, but I do think the situation should be publicized to generate online awareness.

That said, two things:
1) I really, really, really do not want this to become part of my job. I do not "friend" my Soldiers and I do not want to be ordered to patrol their online personas.
2) The point here is not to "shut up" objectionable speech or force it underground by having Soldiers create fake profiles, block access to their accounts, etc. It's to have a dialog. If Soldiers feel like they cannot talk about their racist, sexist, etc opinions, they will probably always hold them. Talking about them should not be taboo.

And to again clarify, this is NOT a free speech issue because they did it in uniform. That is the violation, not necessarily what they did or said. What they did or said is a point for discussion with their leadership. What they wore makes it UCMJ actionable.

oh wait, its about SHARP. I don't think that's trolling is it? its seeing something stupid and calling it out.

I'm sorry since when do we give out specific achievement medals for doing your job? She's a First Sgt, so she should correct folks when she see's them doing something wrong.

If anything she does look a little sheepish receiving the medal, but her comments in the articles isn't very flattering to a SNCO.

I agree with a very large majority here...Not only NO...but hell f#-%& NO. If that NCO spent that much time on the clock... My first question is...how do you plan to make up that. Time back to Uncle Sam? Second....I would drag her commander and her to my office and chomp a piece of their asses off for abusing govt time.
A pat on the back... With great initiative....extremely BAD judgment!

No... if that's the route we're going to go and we're going to start giving out ARCOM's for someone doing their job, the medal will lose all impact completely. Maybe I should receive an ARCOM for doing a good job too. She is a 1SG and she did her job... it was definitely not deserving of an ARCOM.

As I read the article I thought for sure it was a joke or a Duffel Blog satire page. This SNCO actually went searching for people in uniform to call them out for making offensive and sexist comments. "I looked them up, introduced myself and explained to them why they were stupid," and then said "look what I did" to senior leaders and got a medal? Wow!

Would this means that CPT (Join to see) should get the Legion of Merit for the amount of trolling he does on here?? ;)

SFC (Join to see), I vote no. Totally absurd. Politics or public relations.