How far as a Leader have you gone to help a Soldier?

I was never a leader.

But I once had an E-1 come to the unit right after ABN school who had gotten married at some time after enlisting.

I had a place on post for my wife and I with an extra bed/bath, so I had them stay with us until they found a place.

I was assigned as the rear-det commander for an AR unit deployed to Iraq for 9 months. I got wind of a scheme to get rid of the Rear-det reservists NCOs so that the group forward could promote their buddies into the soon to be vacant E-6 to E-8 slots and pay them more money for a few months.

All of the nondeployables had medical, legal, or family issues that prevented then from deploying this time, and many had over 15-19 yrs of reserve service. Many were good guys that the Army had used for multiple deployments, but that didn't matter. I was told "to get rid of them", and the command actually sent a memo directing transfer or discharge, within 2 weeks. Anybody who knows the reserves knows that nothing happens that fast, especially a forced removal.

Being former enlisted, I engaged help from mentors and allies from the RA community, and eventually the toxic Senior Commander got his hand slapped hard for this blunder, and it held up his promotion to BG. All of the guys were able to finish and get their 20 year letter and retire.

I became the target of this toxic leader and his cronies, which led to bullying, intimidation, bad OERs, GOMOR, and the toxic leader convened an Adm Sep board where he testified as a witness. I ended up being forced out of the Army but some of those guys still call me and thank me for sticking up for them.

I was never an official leader on paper, but I always saw myself as a leader (I guess). I remember it was 3AM in the morning, and another female troop called me crying because her significant other would not return her phone calls (she believe he broke it off). She said she was ready to jump off the balcony, brought up thoughts of suicide, etc. I quickly got up out of bead and headed towards her dorm room. Sat with her for most of the night, and took her to a close friend of hers house. I informed her friend to look after her and told her about her thoughts.

After leaving her with her friends, I told her friend to keep close contact with me in case anything happened. I informed my leadership about what happened. They told me that since nothing happens and she seems to be in good hands, they won't escalate it. They told me to keep a close watch on her since she trusts me and if I feel that it needs to be escalated bring it back up immediately.

She is now happily married with the man she believe she broke up with. Not sure if I possibly saved a life or was she just shouting threats, but I don't like to take chances.

There is another situation that happened close to when I was separating. There was a constant stream of negative posts on a troops social media, and this troops is also well known to be a downer. I chose to ignore it, and one day, we had a unit roll call. In the roll call, they told us that troops had a suicide attempt and was in the hospital. I wept in tears because I could've helped prevent this.

Given my last dollar away more than once

So, turns out this new to the Army kid had somehow been told by his recruiter and others that he was assigned to my unit. I run a Preventive Medicine unit and this kid was a HR Specialist. I found this out by a convo from one of my actual Soldiers....who just happened to be in the Pocatello Recruiting office. So my Soldier contacts me and tells me this. Bear in mind that this was right after one of our BTA's and we had about 2-3 weeks to go before our next BTA. So, I call the kid and get all kinds of info on him. In the course of the time of when I was told and our next BTA, I made all kinds of calls and emails to our Division, the CSH I fell under, my BDE......pretty much everyone. As it turns out, his recruiter pretty much figured that since he was going to be assigned to 807th down at FT Douglas, and my Soldier being there....a pass the buck situation happened. After my investigations were done, I found out this kid was actually assigned to HHC, 807th MDSC. And yet, even after all my calls and emails, this kid still had not received contact from his unit about schedule, lodging, unit location on base...anything. So, come our next BTA....and luckily his actual unit was there that same weekend....I drove him down, got him hooked up with a room with my Soldier that first met him....and walked him to his actual unit. Even though this kid was Pre-IET and had no obligation to attend BTA....the fact that he wanted to meet his unit and his unit failed him (oh man did that chap my six something fierce), I got him taken care of. Even went as far as apologizing for NCOs in general as his had failed him badly. Pretty bad when a lowly 12 pax downtrace unit has to help square away someone assigned to the HHC of the Big Dog.

Had a Soldier in another Platoon that was so embarrassed about letters ect. He wouldn't even bring them to his squad members or platoon. I let him bring to them to me and I started reading the mail to him (as I realized how wrong this was I just kept doing it). I would write the letters for him from his comments and read them back to him to make sure we were getting it right. After a Month or so of this I started a huge Stink with the IG. How in the Hell could someone get in the service who could not read and write. Long story short Army got him in school and he reads and writes now. His Recruiter? He caught a whole shit load of charges. I would never when I made acting SGT. I never asked a soldier to do anything I couldn't do and you lead by example in all things. The above was not the only or the first time.

I once gave an IV to my aquad leader. He was about to go down after a 25 mile march in Saudi Arabia. Combat Lifesaver course taught me how.

SFC (Join to see) I have done whatever is needed... no matter what.

We had a new AZ1 check in to the command with literally the clothes on his back. Everything his family owned was under water in New Orleans...the CO passed the hat to get him and his kids clothes, my wife and I ponied up some spare furniture and HHG, along with everything else the messes chipped in, so that they could at least have a furnished home to come to. He was the odd duck for a bit, the only SM who was at duty wearing civvies for a while! (Navy squadron on aN MCAS)

I was in ACAP, 90 days or so from retirement and on rear-d. A young SPC, from my last Platoon was in NTC. He called me from NTC to ask to go take care of his wife as their daughter was born two weeks earlier than planned. So I spent two days in the hospital, picked up his mother-in-law from the Airport, brought them al home from the hospital and checked in on them everyday for two weeks until he came home.