Posted on Mar 13, 2015
SSG(P) Cpn Section Sergeant
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You can be as specific as you want with details about your worst experience with your unit.
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CSM Brigade Operations (S3) Sergeant Major
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Like the old saying goes, the best unit is the one you are going to and the one you just left.
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SSG(P) Cpn Section Sergeant
SSG(P) (Join to see)
9 y
CSM Oldsen, that's a new one for me. I've never heard that one. I've always heard, "The unit is what you make of it."
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CSM Brigade Operations (S3) Sergeant Major
CSM (Join to see)
9 y
SSG(P) (Join to see)
Sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Even if you think the unit you are currently serving in is jacked up, when you PCS to another unit you will have moments when you say "we didn't do that stupid shit in my last unit" or words to that effect lol.
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SSG(P) Cpn Section Sergeant
SSG(P) (Join to see)
9 y
CSM (Join to see)
Very true. I was ready to leave my last unit (Considering I was there for 3 years). But, once I arrived at my current unit, I quickly realized the grass wasnt greener, it was dead over here.
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SSG Kenneth Lanning
SSG Kenneth Lanning
9 y
Any situation can be good or bad depending on the people you're with and how you approach it...shrug off the BS, embrace the good stuff, and prepare for another good story to tell over a pint when you get out :)
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LTC Student
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"There are no bad units, only bad leaders," said most of my mentors. After 24 years, this has generally held true in my experiences.
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SSG(P) Cpn Section Sergeant
SSG(P) (Join to see)
9 y
I can definitely agree with that LTC (Join to see). In my previous unit I noticed how things got a whole lot better when the command changed over. Morale was up and soldiers were more active in the unit than ever before.
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1LT William Clardy
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Honestly, I don't think I've ever had a bad unit.

When I was on active duty, I was fortunate enough that all my assignments put me in units with enough of a real-world mission to give us that essential clarity of purpose which drives morale and performance. In addition, I also lucked out in having enough good leaders around that the poor and mediocre leaders were mooted.
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SSG(P) Cpn Section Sergeant
SSG(P) (Join to see)
9 y
That's very fortunate sir. This is my third active duty unit, and by far the worst. Lots wrong with it, but yet again I am in Korea.
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1LT William Clardy
1LT William Clardy
9 y
SSG(P) (Join to see), don't think that I didn't have some seriously unmotivational experiences -- Camp Hovey was my first permanent duty station and I left there swearing I would never, ever reenlist. A little over a year later, with corporal stripes on my sleeves, I reenlisted as I graduated from BNCOC (as the honor grad for the 11C section).

There were lots of other ups and downs, even chevrons coming off and going back on, but I've also seen genuinely bad units and other units which were suffering primarily from low morale because they had nothing to do (think of an ammo supply unit in peacetime, with forklift operators spending their days counting expended brass casings from the firing ranges). So, looking back, I can see that even the craziness had meaning, and I feel I'm a better man for having lived it all.

With any luck, you'll enjoy a similar view when you look back with a few years' perspective.
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SSG(P) Cpn Section Sergeant
SSG(P) (Join to see)
9 y
1LT William Clardy, I can see your point. One of my first great leader always told me, "you can learn from any leader. Good ones, bad ones, and the ones that dont know the difference between up and down. Learn from the good ones on how to be like them or better. Learn from the bad ones so you dont make their mistakes, and learn from the worst ones so you dont ever become them."

With this in mind I can see how this tour can make me a better NCO and a better leader.
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