Posted on May 23, 2014
What are the biggest mistakes that newly commissioned officers make?
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SFC (Join to see)
Right on CPT, except, I'd argue it's not listening to the more senior NCOs (SSG and up). A SGT can lead SPC and below, and maybe tell a 2LT how or what he should be doing, but a SSG is where an NCO really starts to shine and has enough developed experience to definitely give advice to a 1LT and maybe even a CPT.
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CPT (Join to see)
I fully agree, listen to your NCOs! I was prior service enlisted in the Marine Corps. I am now an Officer in the Army. The large challenges I faced were one, different branch of the service, there are huge differences that I had to overcome, and also different MOS, being prior infantry, now transportation, need to think a lot differently, I am in the job of supplying the war fighter now, not doing the war fighting. I listened to the NCOs when I was a newly enlisted puppy, and I still listen to my NCOs now that I am running a section. They have vast knowledge and experience I just don't have and never will, its awesome when it all clicks and your section performs like a machine. Can't do it without great NCOs and Soldiers.
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CPT (Join to see)
Let the CPTs lead the SGT on land nav. J/K... Had a LT get us lost when I was a PFC in Korea.
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Wait for it
wait for it
Not Saluting 1LTs!
Sorry guys, should have known someone would go there. HAHA
wait for it
Not Saluting 1LTs!
Sorry guys, should have known someone would go there. HAHA
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SGT (Join to see)
Not forgetting everything they once knew about the Army, so they fit in with the other butter bars.
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Thinking that book smart = street smart. Goes hand in hand with what CPT Swartout said and applies in military and civilian life. I was a 2LT right out of college & ROTC w/o prior service. So I have a newly minted degree and 8 months later I finish OBC, I got it all, I know it all!
RIGHT.
Once you actually get on the job at your first duty assignment is when the real learning begins, and as my esteemed colleague points out your NCOs are your best teachers. You have all the technical knowledge and you need to learn how to apply it to the real world. There are a lot of things you need to do to prove yourself and prove to yourself that you have your leadership confidence and though the books guide you, no absolutes from an Article 15 to an AWOL to your unit's Mission & SOP to your CSM's standards can be found in those books.
Learn all, learn well and have fun doing it!
RIGHT.
Once you actually get on the job at your first duty assignment is when the real learning begins, and as my esteemed colleague points out your NCOs are your best teachers. You have all the technical knowledge and you need to learn how to apply it to the real world. There are a lot of things you need to do to prove yourself and prove to yourself that you have your leadership confidence and though the books guide you, no absolutes from an Article 15 to an AWOL to your unit's Mission & SOP to your CSM's standards can be found in those books.
Learn all, learn well and have fun doing it!
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MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca
Your funeral, so you might as well know now they're right next to cans of squelch in the commo room :-)
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CPT Jacob Swartout
Remember there are even some very high speed PFCs and SPCs that showed me a few things about my job. Now all of them are SGTs today.
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Sgt Randy Hill
Sir learning to mix your NCO's technical experience and the managerial experience of your superior officers is what a Lt has to face. Yes I agree we all need to move past the external gratification that a degree provides and start with the realities of military culture.
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