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

Did happen. I was happy to oblige. Instead of the four hour road trip that was under question, my annoying troop found himself waxing a school bus for two days. Never had another problem with him.

It's simple. Address it immediately while in formation and then take the wayward lad somewhere private and tear him a new *******. Also, give written counseling so that you have proof if/when he/she does it again and in becomes necessary to take him/her to Captain's Mast (Article 15 or NJP).

Rallybook should have something like GoToMeeting where we could all log in and role play stuff. Hope I am still alive when they figure out some type of large virtual reality thing where we can really get into it.

Wow... when you said smart mouth, I assumed you were talking about cracking a joke and then I would have assumed you had a lax work environment. But that is blatant disrespect regardless how much time he has in or how long he's been under your charge. He needs to be taken to task immediately because that is a severe lack of respect for authority and can undermine your authority if he gets away with it.

Chances are he is someone who is literally trying to get kicked out. Maybe he is disillusioned with why he joined in the first place.

First, separate him from the rest of the platoon. Send the rest to do their work or whatever it is you were tasking them with. Talk to him on a one on one basis. Figure out what's going on. If the disrespect continues, then you bring it to the next chain higher whether it's your SNCO or workcenter supervisor or whomever. Brief them on the situation and then get to the bottom of it.

2 things are going to happen. You guys are going to break through to him and figure out where the lack of respect is coming and nip it in the bud. Or he's going to continue with his disrespect and then you'll probably be forced to do paperwork on him and punish him with cleaning the COs toilet after working hours. But if he's trying to get himself kicked out, make sure he knows that it's not going to work. We can make his life a whole lot more miserable if he thinks the military life sucks.

Either Fall In Line or Accept the Consequences

Bring him to a closed door session with another leader preferably your squad leader, with a counseling discussing the negative treatment. The way the army is now and they way that soldier is corrective training wouldn't work. remember now a days in the army corrective training isn't gonna sort out everything. He soldiers these days feel entitled and think they know everything. Look up article 91, easiest one to throw around and use against a bad mouthed soldier. Especially after a first offense you wouldn't need a paper trail for disrespecting a NCO. Do your homework and research that's basically 85% of your job.

I would react with mild shock because I would be trying to figure out why an E2 was in my formation.

Step back and call out his section leader and him
Dismiss the platoon to continue the work detail
find out what is going on and what's with the attitude/ while giving a formal written counseling
Send him back to work detail and have section leader report back if any other problems arise

HE OR SHE WOULD HAVE A ROUGH FOUR WEEKENDS OF MOTOR POOL, CLEANING HEADS, IF IT HAPPENS AGAIN THEN THEY WOULD TALK TO THE OLD MAN.

You still have them do it and you wright them up and give them more things to do.

His team leader had better be all over him. That's what I would have seen in my units. Team leader would have blown his top.