CQ on New Years Eve after last minute change and after no holiday leave; suck it up or would you complain?

I don't know about the details on whether he should pull CQ duty on New Years Eve, but from everything you described, it sound like there is a generally over the top and UNNECESSARY "suck it up" mentality -- which is not positive leadership, and therefore fair reasons for feeling like the command doesn't really care about him. Reasons:

- The nature of the "last minute change" seems suspicious to me. Everybody has to pull undesirable CQ sometimes, but "last minute changes" with no explanation breeds suspicion and ill-will. You can't just throw that at somebody with no explanation the day before New Years and say "at least you saw your family for Christmas" and not expect them to lose some faith in the command.

- Not getting to even ask for holiday leave? Anybody should be able to ask for holiday leave. If somebody wants to turn him down, then that 1SG or whoever should put their name to the paper and turn down the leave and stand by it if questioned later. It sounds like he was intimidated into not asking, which is a leadership failure.

- Going to work EVERY day right after a 12 month deployment, and not getting a single half day off to try to take care of his household goods, family, or general welfare? Somebody should have at least talked to him to see if there was a need for it. Not even asking him is what creates the perception that nobody cares about him.

In short.... CQ duty may be fine, but based on the information you gave, I think that any Soldier should have some concerns about whether his chain of command really cares about his well being or not.

You need to bite the bullet and do your duty. Once it has been completed, a visit to your 1SG is in order. There may well be a very good explanation that just wasn't communicated.

If a Soldier needed to be somewhere due to an emergency or something important, it would've been my honor to pull the duty myself, even if I had other options. There are times when we as leaders get an opportunity to take care of Soldiers and set an example, and this is an excellent example.

I would say that there are some issues here that would need some more explaining. If his name got dropped for the last minute duty and he is being told about it is already too late. I would have hoped someone would have advocated for him seeing how he was deployed. Once he was given the duty at the last minute a valid reason why. When an NCO gives an order some are to be followed without question. This is not one of them. A courtesy of explaining why is being given to him at the last minute to save him some grief.

I am not a fan of the "Suck it up butter cup" when it comes to something like this. If it was raining in the patrol base and you are getting wet then you just need to "Suck it up" but something that not only affects the soldiers but his family as well should not be treated in such a way.

I wonder if his unit casts him as an outsider as they may have not integrated him back into it. In a fashion they wanted to take care of their buddies and he was that guy that just got back so lets put that guy we really don't know on duty.

On top of all of this he is going to complain. If he didn't I would really be concerned about his state of mind. It is natural to complain about something like this.

I have to agree with some of the comments posted previously, the Soldier has been back for over 90 days from the deployment and is back into the "swing of things" regarding duties and responsibilities. Now, while the Soldier may have not been reintegrated back into the unit properly, he was given leave time following the deployment, now unless there is some policy letter within the unit that specifically prevented him from putting in for Holiday leave, which as far as I remember in all the units I was in except for Recruiting, is usually a Block Leave period set forth by the Post Commander, he should have gone ahead and put in for the leave and let the command group approve/disapprove. Does seem "squirrelly" that no one notified him of the change to the roster ahead of time, but it does happen...he got shafted, it happens. I do not know whether it qualifies as bad leadership, but I would say that there may be the appearance of such from where the Soldier stands. I would caution against anyone saying that they should have put someone single on the roster instead, we have gotten past those days I had thought. I would say he has a legitimate bitch/gripe/moan, but am not sure that it equates to him being "abused".

LOL I have duty tomorrow 01JAN... I was also on duty on Christmas and Thanksgiving as well.....Who did I piss off?!?!?

As a battalion commander I would want this Soldier to use the CoC up to me if necessary to express his concerns.
Obviously that is easy to say from my seat, but if my company leaders couldn't resolve this I would want my CSM and I to get involved.

I guess my question would be why the soldier didn't put in for a four day pass? It's pretty common knowledge that if you don't put in for a pass for unit four-days you risk being assigned to staff duty or CQ over the holidays. The soldier has now been back over 90 days and is fair game to be assigned to duty rosters again. It sucks that he didn't get a lighter schedule post-deployment, but it does sound like the unit allowed him to take post-deployment leave, which is fair.

I'd say that once you find yourself on the duty roster, it's your responsibility as a soldier to find a replacement if you need one, barring exceptional circumstances (i.e., the unit messed up and double-scheduled you - then it's on the unit). Maybe be a good friend and offer to pull it for him on the holiday if he'll return the favor later on down the road?

I always said, "Air Cav!!!" and pulled my duty. Asking to see the DA-6 might be the way to go in the age of hurt feelings, self-awareness, politically correct, cage-free, soy bean goodness. I never saw the big deal of New Years. Then again, I am posting a response to this thread on New Years Eve so I'm a nerd any way.

I'm sure there is more to this story, but it does have the beginnings of both failed leadership and a weak Soldier. No one should be so intimidated by their leadership to fear requesting leave. At the same time, active leadership involvement could have identified this Soldier as needed extra attention due to a recent deployment.