What are some things the Army does regularly that you believe serve no true benefit to the Soldiers or organization? What is your solution?

SGM, I completely agree with a lot of what you had to say. One thing on the National Guard side that truly hurts us, is SSD. When SSD was first introduced, I could say it likely had some validity, but now, Soldiers click through the modules as quickly as possible, and once they reach the test, they simply use an app or google to answer the test questions. What true benefit is that providing to the Soldier at that point? Sure, integrity falls into place, but when they're being pressured from all levels to complete it, Soldiers are going to do whatever it is they have to. With the ever growing online training that Soldiers are being tasked with, and on the National Guard side of things with already limited training days available, Soldiers are losing out on crucial individual and collective tasks to satisfy an online training requirement. Not to mention, the complete lack of computer systems that are available for use during IDT weekends.

SSG (Join to see) - So because the Army did not build a cheat proof training system, SSD is useless and "hurts" the SM or unit?
Because Sm's are cheating, lack motivation and personal pride, no moral compasses the system is flawed?
Long before your day,,, enlisted members had a annual MOS Skills test .. Failure of that test "could" mean separation, not sure that was ever done..
The Tests were done at each post, under observation of a proctor. This was before smart phones and Google searches...but in that day and age, the Tests were maintained reasonable secure...and a SM had only what others could remember about their test when they took it to "cheat with" yet it still happened. Mostly you would hear about some off the wall questions that stuck out.. Misfire waiting time on the M79 grenade launcher when using the flachet round ... At the time that weapon system and ammo type was no longer in the inventory .. but it was still "in the books" so a valid question.... Of course only those that had a personal interest in that weapon and retained the random unusable knowledge got the answer right or those that heard about the question and looked up the answer before testing dates for their post and unit came around.
My point.....SSD is a good thing.... the implementation is flawed, because the demographic at large is prone to cheat...and the system does not prevent it.

SGM Erik Marquez - Human beings as a whole tend to try to gain the most profit with the least pain. If you catch the cheaters and kick them all out you then have the unfortunate consequence of compounding the Army's recruiting problem. The Army is finding it increasingly difficult to find new recruits who are both willing to join and capable of meeting standards. There is no right answer when both possibilities suck.

I was just going to say that. A few years ago an officer wrote a paper tallying all the time it takes to complete mandatory training. If we actually did all the mandatory training, we would have 10 days of actual training left in a year.

SFC (Join to see) - I also retired in 2014, most of the mandatory training was on line, if you did it at home with your super speed computer 10-15 minutes per course, but you don't get paid to do it at home, one of the biggest reasons I heard, so now you go to the unit and have to do it there with supper slow computers and use up drill time, the officer that wrote this paper did he/she take in account doing it at home, I belonged to a CA BN, when we had mandatory training on line it was expected to be done by the suspense date period without affecting drill training, in the reserves you are still 24/7/365 and there may be some sacrifice especially the higher you go, but it needs to get done, did I like the BN or Brigade conference calls every week after working 10 hours that day, no, but I was in a position that required it, I didn't get paid extra but it was still done, or the extra time chasing down sm's that didn't show to drill, checking in with my platoon sgt's and updating them, the list goes on, the rc and ng are different animals compared to the active duty we have to do more on our own time it sucks yes

MSG (Join to see) - Thanks for your input-We also used to do some of this at home but like you say many would not complete it. If I recall correctly I think we could award retirement points for the time used on a 1380

CSM Thomas McGarry - yes this was a possibility but most wanted hard cash and used the excuse of, I'm not paid to do it at home, points mean nothing to these sm's, they want money, but they also bitch about not being promoted, personally I have no sympathy, as you go up in the chain of command there are certain sacrifices made and points are great, but these so called new leaders want money for their extra effort, that's a sad commentary

I'm personally not a fan of SSD myself. I believe it takes away from valuable training time amongst other things. Why should I have to complete SSD prior to attending an NCOES. Shouldn't they teach me those things at an NCOES? We all know that most NCOES these days are gentlemen courses and it growingly increases with each level of NCOES you attend. I would like to see them bring back the old boarding system where Soldiers actually have to stand in front of a panel of their Seniors and compete against their peers. It should be a total Soldier concept rather than what one looks like on paper. That's just my two cents.

SSD is meant to bridge the gap of what you know currently, and what the baseevel of knowledge you should know prior to attending your NCOES. It's meant to bring the lowest common denominator up to the level of smart people who feel they don't need it.
Just remember, there are people with low IQs who are still hard workers who earned their promotion through sweat. SSD is to help them.