Posted on Oct 16, 2016
LTJG Ansi Officer
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Here's the background. You're a senior E5. Your troops are in formation and you're handing out work for the day. You hand out an assignment to a fresh E2 with less than a year in and only a few months at your command. They blatantly complain and tell you to choose someone else. You calmly tell them they will do this task and they tell you to shove it and give it to someone else. How do you react?
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MSgt Health Services Management
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Drop him
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SSgt Daniel d'Errico
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This question has been asked about four times before. You might want to read all the answers given below, if you are new to this problem. Anything from extra duties for this dung heap, to Article 15 procceedings can be brought on this sailor/soldier/airman or marine.
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CPT Tzvi Mejer
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My reaction is very simple: Call the Sargent Major ( in charge of discipline in the battalion) Place the Private under custody for the required time to file the court martial papers by the Sargent that originally had the situation, when the private is presented to me for judgement I would give him the maximum allowed by Military Law to my rank ( Captain ) which is 21 days in the stockade. If his attitude does not adjust after this and the issue is repeated by him I would send him to be adjudicated by the Battalion Commander which may serve him a 6 month in Military prison.
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SGT William Bill Turner
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I was in the Army in the late 60's and I know what would have happened. KP and Guard duty a lot. No off post fun, pulling weeds around Company area on hands and knees and maybe an Article 15 at least. His life would be miserable in general. Don't know if you can do that now.
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PO3 Andrew Kelly
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First off you do not allow yourself to lose your cool. You inform him and his section leader you wish to speak to both of them in your office after formation is dismissed and then complete the task of handing out assignments. Once you have both in private you ask the E2 to explain himself. If there are reasons behind this behavior and the young man has not had a record of this behavior you explain that while you are sympathetic to his situation you also can not let it go and deal with the situation at your level. If he does not have an underlying reason and persists then I would pass him up to the CO for Article 15 proceedings. The section leader would also be asked to explain why this situation had been allowed to get to this point and be made to understand that this was a failure on his part in taking care of his men. At all points be professional and level headed as this will deliver to your command as a whole a confidence in your leadership.
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Cpl Jeff Ruffing
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Wow! Well, have SNM stand in the back of the formation, dismiss the rest, have SNM report to the company HQ, type up the article/ UCMJ as SNM stands by. Make a talk with your superiors as you hand the Article to them. From there, SNM stands in front of the man, receives his just dues, and you Charlie Mike
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Sgt Jordan Foster
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I would kindly step back ask who his Cpl is If I didn’t already know give the work to all of the squad leaders and be in my office the majority of the day. Address a formation at 1630 with a brand new attitude.
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CMSgt David Bridge
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Get in his face and repeat the command. Tell him it’s not a request. If he still
Doesn’t comply, I would start discipline action and get with first sgt.
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PO3 Smokey Bittler
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Take Seaman apprentice shit bag to the conex box for some counseling. Had this happen more than once in my time, work their asses into oblivion that way they are to tired to complain
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MSgt Allen Chandler
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I agree with all the comments that I’ve seen this guy is out of hand and Hass to be dealt with. The one question I have is why did they say your senior E5? If your knee five your knee five I don’t care if it’s one day or six years.
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SGT Stephen Crawford
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In with GySgt has that shit happen in the desert. Not much support from my 1st shirt. Not establishing the rank structure early on can put lives at danger later.
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PO2 David Allender
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Must be taken care of quickly and without losing your temper. You are in charge. The way you handle it will last the rest of the time shit bird in in the service. What is required is instant obedience to orders. Failure to comply is a General Court Marshall. Do I make myself clear? There is no other way for that action to be carried out. Do it or else.
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SGT Ben Bearden
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I don't know if things are that much different than they used to be, but Extra duty was my go to. Private No Go don't want to do his assigned work? Fanfreakingtastic! let's start with some extra duty! go to Battalion HQ and strip and shine the floors/shine all the brass/paint the molding, you get the gist. explain to them that had they done their assigned duty they wouldn't be losing their free time. Also enforce it by explaining that failure to complete the extra duty task to satisfaction will lead to more extra duty, further if that is not effective your will then resort to paperwork (Art-15) to result in additional extra duty AND loss of pay. TIME and MONEY speak volumes and can motivate the shammiest of shamers.
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SGM Jesse Davis
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My first question is, was this response from the young Soldier out of character. If so try to find out why the Soldier responded that way. There my be something very serious going on in the Soldier's life and he may be trying to punish himself for it. I'm speaking from experience and a good NCO will know his or her Soldiers, and believe it or not, a three (3) day pass may be what that Soldier needs.
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1SG Jason Almond
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There’s a ton of great advice / options. I think I’d simply look at the SL and simply ask, “you got this, right?”

My point is that if you’ve built what you want to have built in your SLs.......all you’re doing is continuing that development process.

Like if I was standing out front and one of my SLs shot his mouth off to the 1SG.......

I’d look at my 1SG and say, “I got it, top.”
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SGT Edward Greenslit
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30 years ago when I was in we would have gone on a trip to the wood line or to the inside of a conex. I’ve seen a few smart ass soldiers get their attitude adjusted. Charlie’s Chicken Farm (IDF) was a great option as well. After 30 days locked down moving piles of dirt, digging and filling in holes and filling sandbags the dirt bag came out with a whole new attitude.
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PO3 John Dill
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This praise in public and discipline in private idea is not always the best solution, unless you're a politician!!!

Because the ill-advised comments and attitude occurred, not only in public but in ranks, the situation should be addressed right there, right then, so no one misunderstands or gets the G-Rated version (or worse) after the fact!!!
I'd dress that E-2 down like he was in Boot Camp all over again and under no certain terms would I ever tolerate that kind of disrespect without the E-2 being written up and it becoming a permanent part of that individual's service record!!!
In addition, to further curve the E-2's (or anyone else's) appetite for speaking out of turn while in ranks, the work load on the entire squad just doubled. Any further ill-advised words and/or attitudes will not be tolerated for one second... And in the words of Sergeant Carter...
Do I make myself perfectly clear???
I can't hear you!!!

This lace drawers wearing bunch of idiots that have infiltrated the U.S. Armed Forces have 2 choices in my book...
Either Shape Up or Ship Out!!!
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Check this out, this is some of the problems with todays Army, hell new recruits come into the service questioning authority figures.A Sense of Entitlement'"What leaders have observed in general is they believe that there is too much of a sense of entitlement, questioning of lawful orders, not listening to instruction, too much of a buddy mentality with NCOs and officers and a lot of tardiness being late to formation and duties," Frost said. "These are trends that they see as increasing that they think are part of the discipline aspect that is missing and that they would like to see in the trainees that become soldiers that come to them as their first unit of assignment."https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/02/09/low-discipline-new-soldiers-prompts-army-redesign-basic-training.html?fbclid=IwAR1gyxaN6Z8bYXcU3vZ1C03GWKvVp65vBzR8LOjeDZot6eUTQxI4zDeJXaY
MSgt Michael Cronin
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I would discipline him in front of the squad so everyone knows it will not be tolerated!
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COL William Oseles
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What they are doing is Disrespect to and NCO in the performance of his duties (Article 91) and Disobeying a lawful order (Article 92).
Call the formation to Attention and if they refuse, ready the charges and a Chapter.
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