How would you react to an E2 who "smart mouths" you in formation?

A morning of secluded front-leaning-rest usually instills a proper perspective in these fools. I had one who actually tried to get physical with me. (The old bent finger works great) After that the LT and the MPs took over.

An E2 with a discipline problem?
This can't really be an issue can it?

I had a situation where the son of an E-9 was in my unit. The E-2 was caught turning donuts with his car in the base parade ground. Before any action was taken, his dad (the E-9) called to plead for a second chance for his son - which was granted (how often does one get a call from an E-9?). A month later, the E-2 had another "significant issue" and I received a second call from his dad. After a short discussion, the E-2 became a civilian. His dad understood my position but felt compelled to give it a shot. In many cases, it's difficult to determine the right course of action. In others, it's pretty clear...

With calm self assurance everyone must know that this private is going to regret those words. Develop a history of good leadership and these instances usually occur with only the usual troubled soldier.

insubordination is a UCMJ offense punishable by an Article 15. With a group of you arrogant military personnel; at times you have to hang a Crow on the Fence to curtail total loss of control. Action not necessarily agains the individual but against the specific circumstance. Comman d and control must be maintained!

I Tell Him to get His team leader or Third class / E-4 and have them come to my office, in 45 min, I would pill his jacket, to see if he has a history of being Disrespectfully to his senior personal, if not, when he comes into my Office, I would ask him what is going on in his personal life? did he have a fight with the wife? Girlfriend ? is there a family Issue? if he is having these family Problems, I would explain to him not following orders, and going off and disrespecting a senior personal, is not going to make things better, that the service has a system in place to help him. but he should not lash out, he should come talk to his supervisors, for help, and guidance.

if he is just a problem Child , and he wants special attention, well he has come to the right person, I have now just become his personal mentor, with the E-4 as my witness I Have just Give him His 1st verbal warning, and I am Informing him that me and the E-4 that is Present, will continues to make sure he improves his situation, that he is to be on time every day, in work uniform and ready for inspection, his Uniform and everyone in the squad, shall be ready, my department will be Volunteering for every extra cleaning detail, until his Attitude Changes . me and him will be working together as much as possible, I do not mind staying late to mentor a shipmate or fellow Solder, Especially if it might save his life one day.

Pride starts with the Uniform and Knowing your Service History, make sure he is SQUARED AWAY EVERY SINGLE DAY, Give him a homework Assignment, make him look up his service history.
if you have any Service members that served in combat or was wounded in combat, make him do a meet and greet of your senior command on your base, make him interduce himself , and tell them why he is introducing himself , to learn respect!

Pull aside. Why the smart mouth? If he apologizes great. Never mouth off again.

Some corrective action need to be done immediatlely, in private, either physically or administratively.
Although this sounds like the NCO and the fresh E2 became buddies. I believe the PSG should do a little shuffling of the teams as leaders and subordinates can not be friends. What do I know though... I was in leadership positions for 21 of my 25 years.

Easy answerer ,He would Only do it ONCE!

Apologize for you outrageous conduct. Beg the privates forgiveness. Offer to buy him lunch if he doesn’t file a complaint and ruin your career.... then bury the little bastards body where they won’t find it and say he went AWOL

Been there, this happened, and when you get promoted to an E5 faster than your coworkers, AND you have to set the detail for the day, I had one say that, like the E2 and I stated, you have a choice to do it, or be written up, I have no issues with doing that today, make it happen and get to work. The other one was much sneakier, the E3 who wasn't promoted, he said, ok, got it, and disappeared on me, after I found him in the barber shop of our boat, I stated get back to work and he was a bigger guy than me, and he started to point his finger at me, and get in my face, and he was upset, I was telling him what to do, I stated, the next thing that comes out of your mouth is sorry and I will get to work, or I will escort you to our division officer and we can have you at xo mast tomorrow. If you ever point your finger at me again and do this crap, I won't even talk to you about it. He transferred off our boat the next month. It wasn't boot camp where you can yell and get into their face, it was a ship that wasn't that big but buttheads did exist. The E2 scenario is pretty easy to deal with, there are more challenging scenarios out there where people push the limits, but you have to deal with it immediately. I was pretty young, 20, and still learning, but I got a quick indoc on slackers and the games they play.

Also you could give members that do respect you some type of incentive for doing the right thing. Every time they turn down a task whoever steps up and take it for example, Gets a longer lunch break,a morning to skip PT, a day off, or whatever is feasible in your situation. Just do not announce the incentive until after someone step ups!

They obviously do not understand how frustrating it is to be the person in charge, Therefore overwhelm them with responsibility and delegate things to them that require them to act as a team leader and get their fellow members to listen and follow their instructions. Thats how you get respect and build a respectable member at the same time! It also shows that you work well with adversity.

I agree this needs to be handled immediately. But I would factor in that this is a boot camp. I would tell the apprentice to stand by after the formation is dismissed and counsel with Extra Military Instruction and document with a Counseling Chit. And make it known that the insubordination will not be tolerated and continuing insubordination will lead to further administrative action which could lead to XOI, Mast, other NJP or OTH.

In my day an E2 didn't smart mouth anyone

I don't care if that E-2 had less than a year or not, he'd need a new face and it would take a combat engineer to dig my boot out of his rear end.

I had this very thing happen. I told her I'd give her one chance to obey my order OR be standing in the Commander's office at 1700 getting disciplinary action. She squeaks back "I'll take my chances with the commander." So I order her to go stand over out of the way at parade rest until we were finished (washing vehicles from the field). I did that so she couldn't change her mind 10 minutes before we were done, jump in and help at the last second and say I lied on her and that she really did obey. Within 48 hours she lost a stripe. Done deal! 14 days restriction (which she broke and got her civilian clothes confiscated), lost of a pay grade, and I believe loss of some of her paycheck.

UCMJ...ensure your counseling is current; proper documentation showing what is expected of the Soldier upon their entry to the unit. Then recommend UCMJ for failure to obey an order!

Put em down and make em do the Chicken..

Back during the Nam, l would have put my foot in his, well new Military sucks, Sempi Fi.