Why are so many NCOs afraid to hold Soldiers to the standard?

I am going to reiterate and support many of the prior statements about people being afraid of "catching a case", part of that mentality is fault of senior leadership not currently but prior to OIF/OEF when they gave the power to the PVTs and took it from the NCOs to do their jobs. Next the friendship thing, that is the NCOs fault, when I 1st came in during the early 80s, my NCOs were on a friendly basis, not necessarily friends, but they took care of us and looked out for us as per our safety, ensuring we weren't abused by others and doing the right thing, but they also enforced the standards and made sure that as Soldiers we knew the difference between being friendly and doing what our NCOs conveyed per orders, taskings, etc. This leads into one of the problems with many NCOs today, a majority have been promoted too fast in the name of filling slots and trying to give incentive to retain, which is what has caused this issue, because most have not had proper mentoring, teaching or time to learn how to be an NCO like most of us old dogs from the pre-9/11 phase or even pre-Clinton phase, as I think it started to show itself as a result of the RIF of the mid-90s. We currently have many E6/E7s with less than 6-9 years, which less than 15 years ago was an anomaly, and we have E5s with barely 2-3 years in, with each of those ranks that type of timeframe is no where near enough for those positions as far and knowledge and military maturity no matter how much some on here may argue that they are mature enough for their rank, no you aren't not in reality for what many are doing regularly with standards and misdeeds being conducted.

A decade plus of two wars has also had a major effect on the standards as well, while I am not a big advocate of enforcing minimal grooming or uniform standards in a combat zone, the issue is that many of these Soldiers and the young NCOs have been to the combat zones more than they have been in garrison so that has not allowed them time enough to have the mindset of what is differential between combat and garrison, this is one of the big reasons to not have the accelerated promotions and fast track promotions of the past decade, not saying some of the 6/7/8/9 NCO rank promotions have not been warranted for actions during deployments and in performances while being forced into leadership positions from fatalities of comrades, but they have again not had the time experience or mentoring/training they needed for the rank and positions.

I want to re-hit another aspect of the "catching a case" issue, with the political environment currently from RIF and the media coverage of improper behavior, the environment has been created that you are guilty and have to prove your innocence instead of innocent until proven guilty as it should be, so all it takes is someone making a claim whether true or not and an NCO or Officer (yeh right) career could be over with, so many are staying clear of anything that could affect their career instead of doing the hard right over the ignoring easy wrong. And the young NCOs are not being mentored or trained to do the right thing or how to be a good NCO because many of those that should be doing the aforementioned duties are worried about losing their jobs so if they don't do what is right by their subordinates it sets everyone up for failure, 1st the junior by not receiving the proper mentoring and training that could cause them to be the one being cut by RIF to the senior who are not doing what they know to be right to keep them from being RIF'd and replaced by their younger counterparts, it is a double edged sword for everyone all the way around.

The whole system is broke right now and until we do some house cleaning in Congress and the senior leadership in DOD, and make the cuts at both those levels it is only going to continue to get worse in all aspects of what we have been discussing.

Thanks to all who have listened to my long and detailed rant and dissemination of and old Soldier with 27 years of seeing the system go through many changes in the last 3 decades.

SFC,

My first duty station was with the 101st Airborne Division.  I often tell Soldiers that I was born in San Antonio but I grew up at Fort Campbell.  The standard is the standard.  One 1SG I use to have would always say, "Don't take things personal, It's not personal, It's business".  I hold that to close to my heart.  There are times when I am corrected by Soldiers when my boot lace comes out or there may be a string hanging off my uniform.  I applaud those Soldiers for having the courage to say something.

"Hold me to the Standard", I say to them.  If I am wrong then I am wrong.  I think that as NCOs we need to remember that there is nothing wrong with a little professional tough love. Some don't want to be the one to toss a stone in a pond and make waves but regulations don't change.  The change is in those that hold the standard or do not hold the standard. 

I just think that somewhere along the lines friendships have clouded better judgement.  I don't want friends, I want someone to ensure that I am a Noncommissioned Offer and keep the Corps the Backbone.

I feel some NCO's are slacking in their duties to uphold the standard, because this new Army NCO core that we have now didn't come through the era of inspections at formation, PLDC for us older Soldiers that actually gave you a great foundation of what be...know...and do really means, basic training that instilled a little fear of knowing if I don't get it right my SGT wasn't going to be as pleasant acting towards me.

If they don't know how to enforce standards is one thing but just passing them by when you know it's wrong is just being lazy or they don't think it worth their time to correct it.

A  CSM told me "it's not you against the Soldier, it's the Soldier against the standard"...Soldiers now seem to think we are harrasing them when we correct them.

Soldiers aren't afraid of UCMJ actions unless you send the message that we won't tolerate their mess hard and consistently.

We have a sensitive Army now and it's making us older Soldiers do one of two things.

1. Retire

2. Adapt our approach to meet the current climate we now operate within, then retire