Posted on Apr 5, 2017
What's the most demoralizing experience you had in the military?
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At the risk of running perilously close to the line of good conduct, what is the single thing that had the biggest negative impact on your morale during your military career?
I'll tell you what mine is (so far): Attending a speech by the CMSAF.
2 hours of my life that will never be returned to me, where all the junior enlisted sat in the base theater as Chief Cody (Retired) stood above us all asking for questions, but only so that he could play at being Socrates.
After that event, I understood why the Greeks made Socrates drink Hemlock. He never took a single stance, he never shared a personal opinion, he was unwilling to show that he stood for or believed in anything except asking questions of the Airmen to make them answer their own questions and/or make them look foolish. Junior Enlisted know they're foolish (or should already know), they don't need the top Enlisted memeber in the Branch grinding it into their faces.
Fortunately I had the opportunity to hear a Command Chief speech (I thin it was the 25th AF Command Chief) and the difference was night and day between them. Those two events were a large part of why I decided that I am going to be working to make the AF into a full career. The first left me saying, "I can do better than that!" and the the second left me sayin, "There are still people to look up to, learn from, and work with and for." They showed me that there was plenty of garbage here, but that there was enough good to make it worth fighting for.
So what's your story?
I'll tell you what mine is (so far): Attending a speech by the CMSAF.
2 hours of my life that will never be returned to me, where all the junior enlisted sat in the base theater as Chief Cody (Retired) stood above us all asking for questions, but only so that he could play at being Socrates.
After that event, I understood why the Greeks made Socrates drink Hemlock. He never took a single stance, he never shared a personal opinion, he was unwilling to show that he stood for or believed in anything except asking questions of the Airmen to make them answer their own questions and/or make them look foolish. Junior Enlisted know they're foolish (or should already know), they don't need the top Enlisted memeber in the Branch grinding it into their faces.
Fortunately I had the opportunity to hear a Command Chief speech (I thin it was the 25th AF Command Chief) and the difference was night and day between them. Those two events were a large part of why I decided that I am going to be working to make the AF into a full career. The first left me saying, "I can do better than that!" and the the second left me sayin, "There are still people to look up to, learn from, and work with and for." They showed me that there was plenty of garbage here, but that there was enough good to make it worth fighting for.
So what's your story?
Military Life
Military Career
Morale
Edited 7 y ago
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 279
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Getting back home on combat leave from good ole Vietnam and finding out nobody really gave a shit about the war,it was a long thirty days,only felt comfortable when I got back to my Brothers in green,imagine wanting to go back to the Army,strange,but true
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MAJ (Join to see)
SSG Robert Edwards - If I'd been his boss and found things to be the way you describe 'em, the LT would have been the one in trouble. As much trouble as I had available.
Stick to your guns.
Stick to your guns.
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SP5 Thomas Jameson
And those people (and their entitled kids) are now the same ones that sanctimoniously day “thank you for your service”. Hypocrites!
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SGT Jim Wiseman
That & feeling better returning to the Nam! Col (R) Jack Jacobs fought to get back there after he had an injury that qualified him for the MoH. He wasn't supposed to go, but he finagled his way back to the front. Great man! A living recipient as well! Met him while I was in the hospital in 2010.
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That's easy to answer. It was the day I learned that I was being RIF'd. I had applied to return to Vietnam for a second tour after completing a tour in Hawaii and was told that my services were no longer needed. That was demoralizing.
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SGT (Join to see)
I honestly have too many but 1 was being an enlisted man for many years and failing out of OCS due to health. my wife was brand new to the service and made it, so she was an officer and I was enlisted. I found out that she had been having an affair with one of the black hats in her OCS cadre. I turned it into the IG.....The command of both of them did everything they could to hide it, and sweep it under the rug and made me out to be a cry baby. She got a general letter of Rep in her record and the SFC lost a stripe for about 3-6 months because I raised such a stink.
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SGT Jim Wiseman
SGT Craig Northacker - They're still doing it with different methods. Allowing the privates to run the show, pretty much with their marshmallow ways. Driving good soldiers out...
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SGT Jim Wiseman
SGT Craig Northacker - Would have given my right nut to see some young butterbar tell a CSM that he didn't have to listen to them. I've heard tales, but never saw it.
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Honestly, after doing this for a very, very long time, there has really not been anything that has been completely demoralizing...there have been some low spots to be sure, but nothing that has completely broken me. A couple of the low points would be back in 1992 I attended SFAS and was not selected after making it through the course. Although I had the opportunity to return, I PCS'ed to Korea and when I got back to the states after a year my priorities had changed. Another was in 2006 when a good friend of mine was killed in an IED attack in Baghdad...about four hours after we had lunch together. I would say that those two events were probably the only ones that left me with that WTF feeling, but I learned from each and moved on. All in all, the military, for me at least, has been an amazing experience.
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LTC (Join to see)
SFC Tony Bennett - Honestly, other than my friend still being alive, I would not change anything because my career and my life have worked out perfectly. If I would have been selected in SFAS all those years ago my career probably would have been drastically different, meaning I probably would not have met my wife and ended up with an amazing family. At the time it was pretty demoralizing, but as I have gotten older, and hopefully a bit wiser, I have come to realize that things do happen for a reason.
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SSgt Brad Brunhaver
Completely a win/win and TY both for your service. I too really enjoyed my 10 years in the AF and would not change a thing. I personally grew from my experiences in Desert Storm, to my time in Europe and at Shaw. Met some great people along the way that are friendships for life.
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