How do you maintain unit morale and fight complacency during a deployment?

2017-04-09T15:54:11-04:00

My military science instructor asked me to give a presentation on this topic based on whatever information I could solicit from experienced individuals. Community: How have you maintained morale during a deployment? What have you heard that others have done? What initiatives have you seen commanders push? Is there a causal relationship between morale and complacency or are the two unrelated?

Response by SPC Margaret Higgins made Apr 9 at 2017 4:22 PM

2017-04-09T16:22:32-04:00

2LT Private RallyPoint Member:
I was never deployed into combat; however, German terrorists were bombing American bases- during the time I was stationed in Germany- during the Cold War. (1975-1977)
I was a Squad Leader; and I maintained morale during deployment: by respecting, honoring and loving my Squad members- prayerfully, more than myself.
Morale supersedes complacency, in my opinion, Cadet Sergeant; and morale contraindicates-in my opinion-complacency.
May God eternally bless you and yours; on this beautiful Sunday morning- Cadet Sergeant Riford.
Most Sincerely, Margaret C Higgins US Army (Ret)

Response by WO1 Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 9 at 2017 4:38 PM

2017-04-09T16:38:37-04:00

During my combat deployment, how I sustained morale was through conducting Physical Training. It being playing a sport or the two times I visited the gym, a day. Its easy to become complacent when there isn't much going on that is "exciting", such as, the monotony of the same daily grind of work.

Response by CPO Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 9 at 2017 4:52 PM

2017-04-09T16:52:20-04:00

That is a very good, but hard question to answer. When forward deployed depending on types of units and mission commands will have troops all over and numbers will very.
You have FOB's that are large and than COP's and outpost so activities you can do will be limited to where and what you have.
You can if command and mission allow have SQD or unit maintenance day's and during that period you can do team work stuff like cleanings and other thing's but try to make it fun. You can do time challenges when cleaning weapons and other events like team stuff with Crew Serves.

You can also do like movie times together, but remember depending on missions the guy's need time part from each other. The movie thing can be two fold like The Security Team chief had his guy's watch Generation Kill, this helped maintain awareness and helped with complacency issues.

You also need to let them have pay grade time together, Like E-4 and below and E-5 and than E-6 time, depending on numbers you can mix up and down. This can be things like military training and or talk sessions and roll play stuff make it fun.

Some of those will help with both are they tied together yes and no, it all depends mission and unit.
The compliancy issue when you do briefs or intel stuff have other s give them not same person unless intel requires. Do drills and switch it up like make others do other jobs, and grade them or give good feed back. What I mean by that is do drills but take one or two members out and have them observe and they can point thing's out, like being complacent.

I hope some of this helps as I said it is hard depending on unit and mission.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 9 at 2017 5:39 PM

2017-04-09T17:39:09-04:00

2LT Private RallyPoint Member A periodic break or stand down. When I was in Vietnam, I was on one operation that lasted 34 days and another that lasted 44 days. After both, we went to China Beach, Danang for a 48 hour in country R&R. We went to a compound on the beach where we turned our weapons in and were issued new jungle utilities. We had hot dogs, hamburgers, all the beer and sodas you wanted and no responsibilities. They played a movie at night on a plywood screen. When you were in the bush, you wanted to be back at the combat base, and when you were at the combat base, you wanted to be back in the bush. Staying busy and having a change of pace helps.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 9 at 2017 6:59 PM

2017-04-09T18:59:04-04:00

Currently deployed with the grossest of missions, fob security. My guys have trained hard, and heard lots of stories how the war used to be. So this mission set isn't exactly what they had in mind. The best way to fight complacency is to keep the guys busy, train, do pt, anything that they can learn, have fun, and not sit in their rooms. Whatever you do, make it worth their time so they dont feel time has been wasted. We hold competitions of various sorts with different perks of winning. Winnings could include time off, making a senior leader pull your shift, trips to the few places we can go off our fob. This also helps keep up morale.
I believe there is a connection between morale and complacency, but it is not definitive. Complacency is generally caused by boredom and doing a job so long corners start to get cut. Nobody has to enjoy their job, they just have to do it. While the higher the morale, the more motivation and job satisfaction you have, it is not required to accomplish the mission. People not doing their job, or doing it poorly seem to fall into two catagories. Either they don't know, which is a leadership failure, or they don't care. If they don't care because of their morale, and you have fostered a good command climate, then there are other ways to motivate them to care, ie. UCMJ.
Our biggest problem is our junior NCOs. While they may have excelled in training, some have decided they don't care. This attitude must be smashed immediately before it affects the junior enlisted. We are just over 90 days into a 270 day deployment and 2 of the 3 Article 15s done were for NCOs.

Response by SSG Dale London made Apr 9 at 2017 8:49 PM

2017-04-09T20:49:24-04:00

Boredom is your biggest enemy. It saps morale, allows friction between troops to blossom into open conflict, and gives the troops time to brood over how crappy their situation is. Keep them busy with anything that will tire them out and restrict the time available to gripe. PT, competitions, team-building exercises, community building activities, even encouraging cross-training into other specialties within the unit help. Don't forget the spiritual component either. Get the chaplain involved too -- not just for church services but as an impartial referee or organizer for different, non-combat oriented activities. Most of all, keep your soldiers informed as to what is going on. The rumor mill is quick to fill gaps in information with garbage that makes the situation ten times worse.

Response by SGT Philip Roncari made Apr 9 at 2017 9:01 PM

2017-04-09T21:01:58-04:00

Cadet SGT James Riford -I will concur with my Brother ,SGT Hallock,my unit also did extended operations in Vietnam and just to come in from the field even for a short time did wonders for the morale,and if they left you alone without the chickenshit details it was really appreciated,how our current Service members do it with their multiple deployments is something I cannot answer,only marvel at their professionalism and bravery.

Response by LTC John Mohor made Apr 9 at 2017 10:27 PM

2017-04-09T22:27:05-04:00

C/ SGT James Riford sometimes it's the little things that help keep the morale up and try to prevent complacency. While in Germany one time I had a Senior NCO that noticed the strain I was then currently under as a 1LT so he took me to the side and asked if I'd make a comms check on a unit cell phone (this was 1990 so not common) I called my wife back in Garrison and it made my day. I realized he did that as a morale boost and I've never forgotten the lesson behind it. In Iraq in 2004 I deployed with a five man advisory support team. We had one SAT phone assigned. We gave one another a 10 minute monthly morale call home(It sure helped the morale). On the complacency thing you have to always be looking out and avoid taking a careless short cut! As a future leader part of your responsibility set the example and maintain high standards. If you're in tune with what's going on keeping your troops informed fighting for them when you have too it'll work out. Standard Operating Procedures, reviewing the procedures changi g it up a little bit helps keep the edge. Did you se the seen in We were Soldiers once and Young? Remember the scene when the Battalion Commander LTC Moore (Mel Gibson) runs up to the helicopter as it lands and tells the Platoon leader and Platoon Sergeant their dead now what do you do and the actor playing SGT Savage gets everyone else off the helicopter? If you have you can see part of what I'm trying to say if not watch the movie some time! Good luck on your presentation!

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Apr 9 at 2017 10:57 PM

2017-04-09T22:57:02-04:00

Doing training of tasks and drills helps fight complacency. The soldiers see the so what on their next patrol, so it is not a waste. Cross training also keeps up morale. Soldiers see it as a force multiplier that may save their lives. Focus on high risk and high pay off tasks. All activity must be value added as much as possible.

Leadership involvement keeps up morale. Doing missions and training with your subordinate units and teams goes miles to keep morale, and raise lowered morale. Watch subordinate leader morale/attitude, soldiers mirror what they see and hear.

Careful staff analysis of missions and command visualization of the battlefield helps keep up soldier morale as you are not sending them out Willy-nilly. Soldier morale is high if they understand the importance of what they are doing. especially for sustainment soldiers. I would tell them what that particular mission was for and the impact to the unit (i.e. The Platoon your resupplying is black on mortars because they keep getting probed, these rounds will keep the enemy off them if we can get them there). It is your orders but their asses. Never forget that. Make the mission count.

Leveraging your chaplain, support channel, and chain of command to identify and help soldiers with issues early on. Helping soldiers solve personal problems, leveraging rear detachment, and simply giving the guy someone to talk to improves morale and builds vertical trust. Keeps them in the fight as opposed to working on a Red Cross initiating event.

Enforce discipline, hygiene, readiness, ROE, and SOPs. If you don care, they won't either. Once they don't care and believe no one else does, malaise and depression follow. Handle breaches of these at the right level. firm and fair. Plan for PT at the appropriate level as much as you can based on conditions. If you are operating off FOBs this is much easier and likely. If you are fighting direct action offense or defense it is less important as you will have stuff to do. Idleness for extended periods lowers morale (i.e. What the hell am I doing here?). Value added activity keeps morale up. Balancing rest/work is somewhat art. Enforcing general orders and ROE are important, if you do something you know is not right, you will feel bad about it, and you will have to carry it with you forever. Keeping people on the straight and narrow protects them emotionally and spiritually.

Thoroughly integrate replacements and late deployers. Ensure their immediate leader is focused on training them, ensuring they know what everyone else does. Their next patrol/mission may be that dare to be great moment. They must be ready. Make sure they have a buddy.

Response by SGT Matthew S. made Apr 9 at 2017 11:34 PM

2017-04-09T23:34:58-04:00

My first deployment, we played several sporting competitions between the platoons (football, wrestling, etc). Gave us something different to do, and kept up a friendly, healthy rivalry between everyone.

The second time around, our main morale boost was Platoon cookouts once a month or so (we were detached from the Company in a different location).

As for complacency, I don't know that it is a direct reflection of morale. High morale definitely helps, but - as others have said - it largely comes down to boredom and cutting corners. It's up to the leadership to nip it in the bud when it rears its ugly head, as well as not becoming complacent themselves.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Apr 10 at 2017 12:48 AM

2017-04-10T00:48:13-04:00

Worse thing any skipper can do to his unit is to allow undertasking. Second worse is dreaming up nothingburger work to offset it. So when I was skippering, there were two kinds of missions; actual and contingent. Actuals are easier because you can evaluate the level of effort and search out sidebar stuff that helps somebody else's mission along. Use your OPSO and SEL to poke around. Contingent missions are a real bugger. My Command had wide area decontamination post 911. AR tried to hang 80,000 body bags on me. No, it's Mortuary Affairs, pound sand. You need real work. So it meant developing a shopping list of other valuable work, usually for the MC, that could be done quickly, yet able to punch out of to do the primary mission. Hit the ground, properly stow the primary stuff and go over and pick up the keys to stuff you can start making a difference on tomorrow. Bottom line, if your Skipper, OPSO, and SEL are not looking outwards to make sure the crew is challenged with real meaningful work, something is amiss. But then again, we're Seabees, and we hate sitting still. So we never do.

BTW best job I ever had? O1-2 Engineering Officer down in Antarctica. Build things, blow up things, run Surface SAR. Not bad for a kid. We worked 6-10s at least with Sunday off mostly. Saturday nights at the bar were epic. No shortage of real work to do.

Response by PFC Dalton Rupert made Apr 10 at 2017 4:38 AM

2017-04-10T04:38:15-04:00

well down in afghan my 1sg would always take care of his guys same with the commander. jokes help and not only that the little things also grabbing an energy drink or Gatorade from the chow hall was on there. they also never belittled us and even pranked us and had us help prank the upper echelons. most units are different and it all varies from soldier to soldier, got a nerdy guy on your team or formation they would talk with him. I had a PSG that would ask me about the recent video games or books and my thoughts and even ask for recommendations. if you wanted help with getting in better shape like I did and needed to him and my first line and other members of leadership stepped up and took care of us. Garrison is way different from being down range, and down range is where you see the family and one team one fight action really take place and see what you can't in garrison.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Apr 10 at 2017 10:10 AM

2017-04-10T10:10:08-04:00

Complacency leads to boredom. Boredom leads to trouble. Trouble leads to punishment. Punishment leads to low morale.

The biggest way my work centers fought complacency is through competition. Doesn't matter what it is. Only thing that matters is being number 1. Who can do the most pullups? Who can run the fastest? Who has the better fantasy football team? It doesn't matter, because it keeps the mind occupied. We'd also have little get togethers before and after the deployments for morale boosting. Maybe have a BBQ in someone's backyard or go out to some restaurant where we can all relax in a non-work environment.

Response by MSG Tim Gray made Apr 10 at 2017 11:23 PM

2017-04-10T23:23:54-04:00

Think outside of the box! My wife and I are both retired, but we pick up the ball for her brother who is deployed. We orchestrate care package shipments with larger corporations. And I supplement the packages with things like mamba slings, Velcro patches that are amusing i.e. Space shuttle door gunner, Havalon pocket knives etc etc. there are lots of churches and other organizations that will bend over backwards to show our deployed soldiers our appreciation. As an infantry soldier I have letters from Desert Storm to OIF 3 in my keepsake box. Showing someone that their sacrifices are so very important to others is almost like putting on a superhero cape!