Why do some leaders not follow guidance that has been established?

Stuff like this kills me. I read something about how CSM are trying to write and establish policy. That is not their function. Command policies should come from commanders. The commanders should work with their NCOs to develop their polices and the need for them. So many I have seen 1SGs go out and just make stuff up. It is insane when you seen different companies in the same battalion that are all held to different standards. I had a 1SG try to act as the Commander once. It didn't go down very well. I just spoke to my CO and the 1SG felt that he was going to do what he though was better without consulting the commander. I think NCOs are great and they do great things but they are not commanders. All I want to do is be an Officer. I don't want to be an NCO. So I stay out of NCO business so I expect NCOs staying out of Officer business.

I think sometimes its an ego/pride thing. At Ft. Riley when ACUs came out, it was mandated that 1AD people get the ACU right away. Essentially, no formation would be mixed. However, in my BDE, 1ID, my BN CSM went the opposite way. We had a recruiter come to the unit and had nothing but ACU. He was told to go get BDU as we were all going to be the same.

I really don't get it. Wearing the same thing in garrison during a transitional period does nothing to ensure that more bad guys die and less of us get hurt. Lets focus on those two factors when making harebrained decisions.

I am pretty sure I never went against whatever any CSM said. He could have told me to show in formation in a thong, an M9 and rubber gloves. Guess what SGT Howell would have showed up for formation in?

Unfortunately I can't access the article/site from work

Uniform policies could be dictated on availability also. We got a partial issue of ACUs at MOB Station in July 2005 but our command in defense of uniformity wanted to wait until everyone had ACUs before authorizing their wear. We were in country and received the remainder of the issue in Dec 2005 so the command allowed everyone to wear them in Jan 2006.