Why is being an officer such a bad thing? "Oh, you are an "officer".

I see a lot of Army hatred of the PO2 above, allow me to explain a bit... While PO2 Levin's approach is a bit... rough... to put it mildly, there are times and have been times where JO's have had to be told to step away and not get people killed. There are certain communities in the Navy where this is far more common than others -- but consider the new Ensign reporting aboard a ship to supervise people who have collectively decades of experience doing things that get people killed if they're done incorrectly -- that Ensign's job is to listen and learn, and promulgate policy from the CO as he learns to do his job, not to tell the junior enlisted who know how to do the job the details of what they're trained and qualified by the Navy to do. Navy culture is very different from Army culture in this regard.

Doesn't make the Ensign a bad person, he just has to learn before his lane encompasses the details. That's in part why we have Chiefs and Mustangs in the Navy.

Also... There are jobs where enlisted have letters from the CO or equivalent designating them to do that job -- if someone higher ranking but not designated or qualified attempts to tell me what to do in the performance of my designated duties, watch, etc, he's wrong, and I won't follow his orders -- I can't. I don't know if you in the Army have an analogue to that, but it happens in the Navy. If I'm the designated authorizing officer for electrical tagouts, for instance -- no unqualified officer is going to succeed in telling me to approve an isolation that's unsafe. I'll be respectful in telling him no, but I'm still going to tell him no because that's my job and my letter from the Chief Engineer or Combat Systems Officer gives me the authority to do that. If I'm standing CSOOW or CDCWO and an unqualified Officer tries to direct my actions in a manner that is inconsistent with standing orders, instructions, or my good judgement as the qualified watch officer, I'm going to do the same thing. I have done that on a few occasions -- sometime's it's required.

Now, tone. One should always be appropriate in tone, as far as the situation allows. Just because an officer is wrong isn't cause for disrespect -- although there may be times where forceful action or words are required to keep people from getting killed -- the flight deck is one of those places where someone doing something contrary to instructions is simply going to be met with the attitude the PO2 shows above, but it's being done to keep him from getting himself or others killed. There are young officers who sometimes believe they know more than they actually do, and on occasion they do dangerous things.

So he reached around you with both arms like you were cute girl he wanted to close with? That's funny but what is funnier is telling you wrote the book!

That is a good story Chief

After a career in uniform, I took a job with the Armor School as a GS-11 Training Specialist where I wrote the training programs used to teach both enlisted and officers. While I (usually) wasn't actually writing the manuals, I was deeply involved in reviewing many of them and I can honestly say that some of my exact verbiage appeared in print. On more that one occasion I had very much the same conversation with bright young lieutenants, as did many of the civilian instructors all of whom quite literally had "more time in the chow line" than any of the lieutenants had in the Army.

to each their own. both sides have their own prestigious moments!

I agree Top. I always said it was Army business which consisted of Soldier training and well-being that tied into the bigger mission we were part of. It is a difficult job that is too much for one person to handle so they gave the responsibility to a command team. You have to divide and conquer to cover down on all of it. Divide up the responsibilities, but if the NCO is ever blind to what the officer is doing or vice versa then we aren't working in support of each other we are failing our Soldiers and the Army.

Sir, what many commander forget is very level of command has an NCO to support the commander. There is a reason for that.

Yes, everyone has a part in making it happen -- but HOW each person contributes to making it happen really is different.

SPC (Join to see) I am pretty sure that the officers have experienced as much frustration as the enlisted from the higher up. However, do they (both commissioned and enlisted) take it as a lesson and become a better higher up in the future? That's a whole different story.

Moreover, there are officers who were enlisted previously.

Ha good one...

Too many people taking SPC Mullins response to the original post too seriously, some seem offended, and off target. Take it for what it is, a little tension breaker to a good discussion.
Keep the corrections, opinions etc to the original topic please.
Thanks

I think that's pretty darn funny.