What do you do when a soldier refuses to listen to your directions?

First if a Soldier outright refuses, be sure there isn't an underlying medical condition.. i.e. just had eyes dilated. An outright refusal of authority requires a firm hand and an intelligent NCO to handle this with tact. Time is not always on the NCOs side. Some Drill Sergeant like authoritative demands may do the trick and put this Soldier in their place. However, never let the Soldier have the upper hand. You have to maintain your position with the rest of the troops. Follow this up with the paper drill if you see this as a trend for this particular Soldier, to let them know that you are serious. UCMJ is only needed if there is outright disrespect, insubordination and for repeat offenders.

The fact that this is a topic of discussion is crazy, i think the question should be what happen that made this whoever think it was ok to say no to a NCO in the first place.

its always quick to punish soldiers. but u see fat nco's who bitch and complain about other things rather than trying to fix their weight issue. high rankings who get away with a lot more shit. i bet if there was a major in formation with the same glasses. that nco won't even open his mouth. and if he did the major can tell him to go kick rocks and that would be the end of it.

Ah, to miss the good 'ole days. The NCO would physically remove them, lock them away, and make said soldier do pushups until the Earth moved out of orbit. All while having other NCOs account for their actions in case everything went stupid.

Hmmm your a SGT. Call said private to attention then remove sunglasses.... say comma, pause...... for effect hulk smash. The worst that will happen is a stern talking to by top, then move on and it will make a good f###!#! Story. IE no shit their I was.

NJP, disregarding a lawful order.

As a retired NCO, I agree there is no place for disobeying an order that is not illegal or immoral. As a father of an E4, I'm ashamed of what the NCO Corps has become. They no longer train and take care of their men. They spend their time checking boxes for the next promotion and disrespecting the troops.

That is outright insubordination. I would probably take them from the soldier and deal with it that way.

There is a disturbing amount of responses here saying to smoke his fellow soldiers for his screw-up. Last time I checked, there is nothing legal for his squad to do to him anymore without him heading to JAG to get the whole lot of them in trouble. Mass punishment does not work nor does it have a place in today's military where everyone runs to JAG and/or EO every time something doesn't go their way.

A Drill Sergeant friend of mine encountered this during the Vietnam war era. A trainee mouthed off to him and refused to follow orders. He beat then living hell out of the trainee on the spot. The rest of the trainees had no problem following orders.