Posted on May 15, 2014
Does anyone think we ask too much of our soldiers when it comes to personal responsibility
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I think I have heard just about every excuse in the book but it is not very often I get a soldier that takes responsibility for his/her actions. It always seems to be someone else's fault. The Soldiers I come across will use everything from local policy, AR or just plain BS to justify their actions rather then say I made a bad decision. This does not just apply to new Soldiers either cause I see my Battle Buddies do it to. I have found that mentoring these new soldiers as they continue through AIT helps but is not complete by time they leave. What training do you think you can give to improve this issue? Does anyone thing that this is not a problem with our Soldiers?
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Posted >1 y ago
This is a duplicate discussion. Click below to see more on this topic.
A comment in another thread sparked this discussion question.
Since when did we lose focus on accountability?
Some things are a leader responsibility. But the Army has become much like the rest of America: it's always someone else's fault.
Example: a Soldier fails his APFT or HTWT. They start blaming the SL. Even though the SL has told the Soldier you can't eat mcdonalds every day if the Soldier does it's still somehow the SLs fault.
A Soldier misses his medical appointment (this is huge where I'm at) and the PSGs gets a letter of concern.
A Soldier goes out and gets a DUI and they wanna know if your safety brief was good enough.
Sadly it extends to more important things like suicide.
What I mean by that is the Army has become a giant series of check the blocks to CYA. The moment someone is remotely upset we force them to go to the chaplain, MFLC, and a million other programs the Army has paid for rather than being 100% concerned about the problem. For example I'm ASIST T4T instructor. But if someone approached me with suicidal thoughts instead of fully talking to them as trained we take them to the million agencies to check the widgets first.
Don't take this as someone trying to shirk responsibility.
I'm just annoyed that the Soldier rarely gets fully blamed.
If a Soldier fails HTWT this is an individual responsibility. It shouldn't be the leaders fault that the Soldier eats like crap when they go home (assuming said leader has counseled them on proper eating and sent them to the nutritionist). Or if they fail the APFT it's suddenly the PSG fault even though the other 50 people passed.
The final straw was my objection to my PSGs getting LOC for their Soldier missing a medical appointment. I was told that it's the PSGs responsibility to ensure PFC Smith gets to medical. No. The Soldier made the appointment it's their job to get there. We are all adults. If we continue to treat Soldiers like children they will continue to act like children. The only exception would be if PSG Jones keeps PFC Smith at work and prevents him or her from going.
Thoughts?
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