How do you feel about Soldiers asking "why?"

PVT Schirach, 1996 Korea. I was in country about a week, fresh from AIT. I was part of a detail setting up for a change of command, I knew no one in the company outside of my roomate, my team leader and my squad leader.

Well this MSG who turned out to be the operations Sgt, told me to rush back to the company area and draw out my M9 to give it to him. (he needed it as part of the ceremony) Anyway, I didn't know who this guy was, I have never seen him before, as a brand new PVT, I think this was the 1st MSG I ever saw. Anyway this strange MSG wants me to draw my weapon and just give it to him? Hmm, my private brain did not trust him. So I asked "why?". Of course this being 1996, and not 2014 said MSG ran up one side of me and down the other, chewed me up and spit me out. In the end he got my M9 for the ceremony, and I got my backside got chewed out good.

Later my Team Leader was like WTF were you thinking? I told him what I said above, I guess he kind of agreed with me cause nothing more happened over it. After that time I learned not to ask "why".

I guess what I am trying to say is, its not just todays Soldier that asks "why".

If I have the time I ALWAYS answer a soldiers "why". Makes them feel like a part of the team, and not just "hired help". Lets them see the bigger picture and understand why they are doing what they are doing even if their little private brain doesn't understand.

I'm not sure I understand the full context of the question but if I were to read it as it's written I'd presume that you're referring to when you tell a soldier to do something and they ask "why?"

Giving orders or tasks for the day isn't a "why?" situation. It's a "the job needs to get done" situation. A lot of new soldiers will ask "why?" because they've been groomed that way. I find it disrespectful and it certainly slows the forward movement.

Now for someone to ask "Why" in reference to why something gets done a certain way, I find that to be more of a teaching and training opportunity. For example new troops may learn how to do certain things at Basic Training but they may not understand why you can't do it a different way. In my career I had a lot of leaders that I had seemed to welcome alternative methods of completing the tasks. That whole "Work Smarter not Harder" thing comes to mind. In that case perhaps if the leader asks him/herself can this work? Why might be appropriate in that case. But asking why after being tasked to do something makes me think of a conversation.

EM: Why should I clean the latrine?
NCO: Why should I consider you for promotion or for Soldier of The Year?

Or

NCO: Why shouldn't I smoke the ever living crap out of you for not following orders?

Or

NCO: Why should I let you go on pass?

This why thing is destructive in accomplishing the mission and is more destructive to morale because troops that don't ask Why? want to get the job done. The ones that ask "Why?" are usually your lazy troops. In which case that's when NCOs need to be NCOs and show that soldier the loving attention that they so desperately need by way of remedial PT.

That's my thought.

To all that answered this question/discussion, thank you. I'm glad that I received as much insight on this topic from such a vass spectrum of knowledge of all levels in the rank structure from the lowest to the highest.

If the mission is accomplished and done with and I am asked why we did it a certain way then I had no issues with it; if it was a time sensitive mission it irritated the hell out of me, and I would tell them to just do the deed and we'll discuss it later. I agree with CSM U, if the Soldier listen's/had listened more carefully, chances are good that the WHY was taken care of in the mission brief/OPORDER.

Unless its an emergency or I am in a hurry, I don't give my soldiers a chance to ask why and I don't say, "1SG said so".  I will go ahead and tell them why most of the time.  I remember when I had an emergency at home when I was on patrol.  I called another superivisor and informed him he needs to take over because of my emergency .  I simply did a net call on the radio and informed the suboardinate patrol to take all commands and send all information to SGT John Doe.  The soldiers were wondering about me and some of them were actually worried.  When they were told I had a non life threatening situation, they weren't worried anymore.  I don't want my soldiers walking or driving around thinking about what happened to me so I allowed some basic information to be put out to them. 

Read - A Message to Garcia

Why should not be used unless there is a safety concern to you or someone around you.