Should SHARP be the #1 priority for the Army right now?

Option F: Tactical/Technical proficiency

I think SHARP is important but we need to focus on being an effective fighting force.

Win wars...and tell politicians to go screw themselves when they intentionally want to hurt soldiers and veterans....that has been happening since 2008

Tachtical and technical proficiency. PT and soldier skills. With our slang, jargon, and euphemisms the military is offensive and aggressive in nature. We are shaped this way ftom the begining of our enlistment. Should females be assaulted sexualy, or harrased, HELL NO. Should someone's sexual orientation define them as a soldier, HELL NO. Should any and every soldier meet and exceed the standards placed before them, HELL YES. Should all soldiers be held accountable for their actions and decisions, HELL YES. Kinder gentler get out of our way, let us kick ass and take names. Those who cannot meet the standard, fall in line, and take offense over b/s go back to society where you can be a soft indaviduals and get out of my military. The enemy is learning how to kill and destroy us, not sitting in a briefing learning the words he can say.

Personnel and equipment readiness

Actual training and maintenance of both personnel and equipment. Stop wasting valuable time on repeated "death by powerpoint" classes. They've all lost their effectiveness, because of over-training. There's a time and place for each subject... we just go way overboard, until nobody is listening anymore.

We need to focus on retaining the right service members as this draw down comes to a close. That means getting rid of toxic and ineffective leaders as well as being honest and constructive in our evaluations. This shows boards periods of personal growth which may be a greater accomplishment than sustaining over time. We talk about growing leaders but where is the proof when the majority of leaders are receiving 1/1, 2/1, 1/2, 2/2. Threes do exist and still mean 'promote'.

Another part of retaining is pay and benefits. It will be fun to see the new Cyber Warriors (offensive and defensive) get trained up, receive a bonus and incentive pay, do their ADSO, and go forth to that six figure job outside of the service.

SHARP....we get statistics on how many assaults happen but you have to datamine the internet to see the results of punishment. More will report when they see the process working and we can get rid of the bad apples.

EO is the same as SHARP. We can get more results when people have more faith in the system (and each other).

Suicide - We've tried all the methods and nothing is changing. Is there an effective answer? If you have it you can patent it.

I am SHARP-VA, MRT, and EO.  I get beat to DEATH on giving SHARP stuff and then MRT stuff and when they think of it then they want to know where we are on EO.  Usually it is when we have an issue (I try to stay on it before hand, at least I did before I started getting ready to clear and handed it all over to others).  I don't really see a change in the numbers.  They are quick to say that the MRT program is a failure.  Stupid stupid observation in my opinion, they are looking at it big picture and when you look at SHARP then you can call it a failure too, because big picture that is where the issues are.  Small picture, local is where the numbers are different.  (i.e.  In my location, we don't have high suicide numbers, so MRT could be considered a success right?  SHARP could be considered a success because SHARP cases are not huge) Anyway, all of this focus is on these programs because they are PUBLICITY.  That is the bottom line.  They give black eyes, if we are being honest, lets be honest.  Our pay and benefits are something that people do not think about except for those that are affected by it.

Job Proficiency

Yes however the approach is fallible. Case in point: my NCOER is now having a senior eater bullet STOLEN for a simple check the block statement on whether I do or do not support and promote SHARP. Yes, there are turds in any organization of varying aptitude and verocity of their unprofessionalism. However the knee jerk reaction across the board referring to my/our ability to play nice with others and maintain an already demonstrated and well expected notion of basic human decency is foley.

It shouldn't even be in the top 10. Things like weapons training, field operations, close combat instruction, Small unit tactics, anti-terrorism training, close order drill etc etc etc. If someone commits a crime punish them quickly and to the extent the offense warrants.

If you have people that do not know that assault and/or harrasment is wrong my guess is classroom training will have little effect. I think the lack of progress demostrates that adeptly.

Its very depressing to see our pay and benefits shrink and become more stringent every year. Have the demands of training or threats to our nation diminished at all? I didn't think so. when seasoned service members bring this point up the answer is always the same . " well you can always just get out sarnt" How can you say that to peoplethe majority of whom answered our nation's call when the war on terror first kicked Off. Sexual Assault, Equal Opportunity and Suicide are all critical focus points. None more important than the other. However we should really start looking at these issues from the top down. Every SHARP class I've sat through generally has lower enlisted and some Junior NCO's in the videos. ... I don't know about you guys but I did see that documentary " the silent war" sure were a lot of upper echelon individuals being indicated. Im sure I'm just supposed to ignore that. Why is it that the class six is always stocked and open nearly every day? you can find a greater variety of alcohol than any other item sold on any base exchange. That means you a greater selection of beer than soap.... kinda sends the wrong signal doesn't it. I mean we do know thar 90% of sexual assaults involve booze. We also know that there aren't enough medical resources available to support members who need it which contributes to depression which leads to suicides. .. in regards to EO I honestly think we might be a little too vigilant in some areas been a long time since I've seen a minority as SMA though just saying

Suicide, SHARP, and EO are all things that are hurting us. Most units have been affected by all or most of them. Even if it's just a Soldier in the unit who knows someone who was affected. They give the Army, and the Military a big black eye.

I would love to spend more time on my benefits. I would love to know more about the draw down, and how it affects my unit, and me. But until the PR nightmare that the other problems create is dealt with I don't see it changing.

I can't/shouldn't vote for two reasons. 1st, I am retired, so my opinion is now dated and irrelevant. 2nd, Sexual Assaults are huge problem, that I dealt with as a MP, a Company and Battalion Commander, and finally for 37 months as a Garrison Commander as we rolled all these changes out. But, it is not the only problem. I think we need to also focus on the suicide issue as well. The other three pale in comparison.

The army needs a better way of screening potential Soldiers and transitioning Members for Suicide prevention. We loose so many of our brothers and sisters to it every day.

NO...SHARP should never HAVE to be the #1 priority for the Army EVER! Military PROFESSIONALS should be just that...PROFESSIONALS!

I would prefer we focus on personnel and equipment readiness. That is what wins wars. All other initiatives should fall secondary to that. The last time I checked our rate of sexual harassment and assault is lower than that of the general populace. While I agree we need to continue to work on eliminating SHARP issues within our ranks, if we have a problem our society has an even bigger problem.

As we all know, sexual harassment is an issue in the Army. I have been in a units that seems as if we are doing SHARP traing every week for 6 hours, and is because someone on post was sexually harassed. As this is becoming an issue, I beleive that our standards as an Army as a whole is going down, specifically discipline. We are letting the wrong people in and kicking the right Soldiers out / or letting the right ones go to fast andeasy. this is not good for business. I have seen so many of my good buddies leave because the Army is not enforcing standards, discipline, regulation, values. They would rather become or risk becoming homeless on the outside than deal with the BS. Me, I stayed in hoping I can make a difference. The army wants to move more towards the way a fortune 500 company runs, sounds nice, maybe a few ideas can be brought over but the fact is, because of the militaries business (War) and other stuff, we can not run like those companies. I remember when i screwed up, i got my ass chewed off and the smoked the hell out of. im not saying bring that back peersay, but not everything needs to be put on paper. But discipline is not being taught and instilled in a Soldier in Basic or AIT anymore. Basic use to beworse thethan the unit, we looked forward to it. Now the Soldier comes to the company with a rude awakening because they are expecting the NCO to bow down to them and tend to their every need like the drill sergeants did (or whatever they are called now). Bringing back discipline wont solve all the problems in the Army, but I beleive it willbbe a big start.

ROTC isn't exception to the dreaded SHARP training, but... I would say that no government program will ever stop sexual harassment/assault... not just in the military, but just about anywhere. It is the same thing as telling an idiot to stop stealing. You can't fix stupidity.

Yes, sexual assaults in the military seriously undermine the Army readiness and its Army values, but... It is ultimately up to each and every one of us to actively step in/intervene when there is a risky situation. That seems to be the only solution. Elimination of all sexual assaults would be ideal, but in reality, there will be bad apples in every apple tree.

A lot of times folks from Cadet Command come down to ROTC battalions and conduct post-SHARP training climate survey and the questions they ask is just so pointless... such a huge waste of our time to just stand around so early in the morning just so that these people can ask some stupid/vague/general questions that won't even help prevent any sexual assaults.

Honestly speaking, SHARP should be common sense. Sometimes it's hard for me to understand why things have gotten so bad to the point that government would have to create pointless programs that bombard the employees/members of the armed forces with hours of sexual assault prevention education programs. And especially in the military. It's just hard to believe so many people call themselves the members of the armed forces and do stupid things that is contrary to the values that the military upholds.

What about the soldiers that have encounter injuries due to service that have been misdiagnosed, due to medical personal not taking the proper time with the service member. I hear it from veterans all the time, why didn't they catch this or that!

I've seen what sexual harassment can do to a female solider/Vet. At the VA, a lot of the trauma patients have had sexual harassment or assaulted, or both. Besides the PTSD, now they have to face their other demons. I've helped a few out by gaining their trust in men and not feeling ashamed of something that wasn't their fault. It didn't happen overnight. It took months of coaching and friendliness towards them. Ive always looked at it like what if she was my daughter or wife. I really think SHARP is what all the military should concentrate on.