What Was Your Best Experience With a Superior While Serving? Share and Be Entered to Win!

Not directly a personal experience, but one that impacted our entire unit.

Serving with the US tank battalion in Korea we got a new Battalion Commander who seemed genuinely interested in getting the battalion straightened out (it had been the poorest unit i had seen).

One of his orders a little while after arrival was that no tank would be towed back to Camp Casey. Any tank that broke down in the field would be repaired in the field and the crew would stay with the tank until they could drive it back. His staff quickly explained that such an order could apply to organizational level maintenance repairs, but not to support level repairs because 702d Maintenance NEVER operated in the field. His response was "We'll see about that."

I cannot attest to the accuracy of the stories that he went to the Brigade Cdr and the CG about it, but shortly thereafter 702d Maint did start working in the field.

While we appreciated the spirit of the order, the general impression among tank crews was "That order will stand until the first time some commander's tank breaks down in the field."

Sure enough, a while later a commander's tank did break down in the field -- that tank was HQ-66, the Battalion Commander's own tank -- and it had sheared a final drive. For all the non-tankers reading this -- that meant waiting at least a week for a part to be flown in from CONUS and then having support maintenance come to install it (actually to watch the crew do all the work of installing it). No one expected the Bn Cdr to stay with "his" tank, especially since Bn Cdrs rarely even set foot aboard the tank that is nominally theirs.

He shocked the hell out of everyone. Yes, he was at his desk in the Bn Hqs each day, and attending staff meetings and all the usual commander stuff (we later learned that the Bde Cdr had insisted on it), but at 1700 each evening, his jeep driver would stop by the mess hall to pick up mermite cans with supper for four people and a full mermite of coffee, then pick the commander up at Bn Hqs and drive him out to his tank where it had broken down in the field. He had supper and spent the night with the crew, including standing watch; then in the morning his jeep driver would show up with mermites of breakfast and another mermite of coffee. The commander dressed, shaved, and ate breakfast with the crew, then his driver took him back to the Hqs where he spent the day on his usual routine - except that he ate C Rations for lunch (just like his crew in the field). He did this every day until the replacement final drive arrived, that day he stayed in the field with his crew changing the final drive and reinstalling the track, before TCing the tank for the drive back to the motor pool.

This, and hundreds of smaller ways he always kept his word, gave us a battalion that would have followed him to hell and been sure he could lead us back out again (a spirit that was more than evident on August 19th 1976... but that's another story)

Being a Visiting Three Star's Driver during an exercise and all we talked about was family and friends. He gave some great advice and then slapped me on the back, shook my hand and gave me his Commanding Generals Coin. That was back in 1982, and I still carry that coin with me every day.

Training the XVIII ABN Corps CSM on functional fitness and just having fun

BN commander specifically asking for me as his SOG for the BN talk. First time I felt like more than a number.

During a hot Fort Gordon summer, we were stuck doing a company change of command ceremony in full battle-rattle. We'd "practiced" for hours, without any of the command present obviously, and were all dying for the ceremony to end so we could get our kevlars off and get out of the sun. Our outgoing commander was not well liked, she didn't change that feeling by giving a LONG farewell speech that none of the soldiers in formation could care less about. When it finally came time for our incoming commander to speak, we were all anticipating to hear his life story and all his plans for the next 10 years... but no!

He basically said "Hi, I'm Captain NewGuy, I'm proud to be taking command of bravo company, that is all"

Needless to say, he was a good commander and he definitely started off on the right foot.

LTJG Ambach, Camp Pendleton, 52 Area Clinic. I was late, I went to tell him I’d arrived and was about to explain why..I’ll never forget..he told me apologize without giving excuses the excuses diminish the apology..I will/have carried this with me always!

I always felt very “safe” when I walked with the leader of our Company. Captain Marsh treated everyone like they were important. I recall one day we went to get the Jeep from the motor pool and as we were walking, rude male soldiers started whistling and making rude comments behind us…directed at me. I will never forget when Captain Marsh turned around and gave them a verbal warning about such actions!

I also remember walking to the office to work one day and passed a “soldier”. He turned around reprimanding me that I did not salute him, as he was an officer! He wanted to turn me in, so I said ok, lets go to the office and you can turn me in. He is the one that got the works over! He looked as if he slept in his uniform for days and did not have a hat on. Captain Marsh had him apologize and he proceeded to write a letter to his superior Officer. I feel that our Captain had our back when we needed to have support!

After reporting aboard the USS Preble, my Division LCPO, GMCS Relyea took a green, fresh out of school GMM3 under his wing and showed me the ropes and became a role model for me. The old term was a Sea Daddy. I know it was his job but he seemed to spend more time with me than other guys in the Missile House. I guess he saw more potential in me.

The time I spent with my ETMC, even before the ET-1 list came out, he took me under h is wing and started teaching me how to be a LPO and run my own department.

A 180 story. Joined a new ANG unit as a TSgt, traditional weekender and got off on the wrong foot with the then SMSgt. Not long after, realized the shop FT personnel were unionized fed employees first and foremost with no time to train and babysit "GD DSGs" (drill status guardsmen). A cry you could hear muttered or yelled and written across the unit. A few drills of this and I had to file a complaint. Sunday of next drill the base theater was jammed full of FT personnel and leadership and us DSG's saw a lot of dragging tails after. My SMSgt had a few words of apologies for us and things turned around. The younger troops who couldn't give up the superiority complex (SrA chewed me, a TSgt out) soon got the lesson hammered in.
Skip forward a couple years and the SMAgt with a Chief stripe coming down is a good friend of and we work well together having stood up the one of the ANG's first LRS QA offices from scratch. Well the annual awards Commanders Calls rolls around. Our newly minted Chief is up handing out awards and is so new at it, begins the introduction for my award with, "biggest pain in my ass who kept the my ass straight and doing things by the AF manual and getting them done first and right. Cue Colonel, Captain, and the other section Chief looking aghast as I break out laughing.
Yep from PITA to partner. And only coworker from that unit to ever visit my home.