Posted on Aug 25, 2016
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*This Q&A is monitored by RP Staff*
Born in London, England, "Pi" came to the United States in 2003 and shortly after, in 2007, enlisted in the U.S Army. "Pi" served in the U.S. Army for 8 years before being medically retired. During which time he had deployed to Iraq(1) and Afghanistan(2), he also deployed to Haiti during the 2010 earthquake humanitarian efforts.
In 2012 Pi joined the US Army WTF Moments admin team, where he helped to publish "WTF" pictures and commetary on the USAWTFM facebook page.
Being stationed at Fort Bragg also afforded him the opportunity to take part in the more serious side of USAWTFM, where he helped to organise and hand out gatorades to the participants of the 82nd Airborne Division Review as well as the 82nd Airborne combative tournament.
To date, Pi has helped in a number of ways to not only help the organization but to also help the community.
Born in London, England, "Pi" came to the United States in 2003 and shortly after, in 2007, enlisted in the U.S Army. "Pi" served in the U.S. Army for 8 years before being medically retired. During which time he had deployed to Iraq(1) and Afghanistan(2), he also deployed to Haiti during the 2010 earthquake humanitarian efforts.
In 2012 Pi joined the US Army WTF Moments admin team, where he helped to publish "WTF" pictures and commetary on the USAWTFM facebook page.
Being stationed at Fort Bragg also afforded him the opportunity to take part in the more serious side of USAWTFM, where he helped to organise and hand out gatorades to the participants of the 82nd Airborne Division Review as well as the 82nd Airborne combative tournament.
To date, Pi has helped in a number of ways to not only help the organization but to also help the community.
Humor
Q&A
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 13
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I am curious about how your admin team feel about some of the things that are posted on your facebook page. For example, someone in a unit loses a sensitive item. The next thing that happens is a play by play of unit lock down procedures and how incompetent the leadership is. Don't get me wrong I think your page is great and it makes me laugh on a regular. I just feel that some of the things that are posted make the Army as a whole look completely idiotic to the world. I mean Army folks laugh it up because we know that every unit has problems but once it gets out viral to the world it kind of makes us look bad.
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CPL(P) (Join to see)
I wouldn't say the page is that embarrassing. In fact, I've seen a lot of stupid soldiers get torn up because they did something stupid and I bet they won't do it again. Take a certain CSM from Hawaii was so out of regulation that the anonymity of soldiers without fear of reprisal got corrected.
Of course, there is always "Carl" there is not line score to keep him from being him.
Of course, there is always "Carl" there is not line score to keep him from being him.
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CSM (Join to see)
CPL(P) (Join to see) - I am not knocking the website. They do good things, although I think that CSM thing should have/ could have been handled by peers but I guess nobody had the balls to tell the CSM how jacked up she was or, she just didn't give a shit...probably the latter. If I was in that unit or same installation and I made a correction and it was ignored, a simple call to the DCSM would have probably fixed it.
Like I said the site does great things. Their active shooter warnings and other good information is outstanding. I am just not a big fan of the play by play of things like the lost sensitive item, following barracks brawls and some of the other things that they post.
Like I said the site does great things. Their active shooter warnings and other good information is outstanding. I am just not a big fan of the play by play of things like the lost sensitive item, following barracks brawls and some of the other things that they post.
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SGT (Join to see)
CSM (Join to see), in regards to your original post I think putting bad leadership on blast is crucial to fixing said bad leadership. Yes, to an outsider it may look especially bad, but U.S. Army WTF Moments is providing the Army something it's not used to having, and that's oversight and public shaming. Things get fixed a lot faster when there's pressure to do so, and little provides more pressure to senior leadership than public humiliation.
There's not many people that can make a Battalion Commander change course on a bad decision, but U.S. Army WTF Moments is such a thing that can do it by bringing problems to public light. The solution is not to hide problems by getting rid of those types of posts on facebook, but to create an environment that discourages such problems from emerging in the first place. This facebook page is a step towards creating such an environment.
There's not many people that can make a Battalion Commander change course on a bad decision, but U.S. Army WTF Moments is such a thing that can do it by bringing problems to public light. The solution is not to hide problems by getting rid of those types of posts on facebook, but to create an environment that discourages such problems from emerging in the first place. This facebook page is a step towards creating such an environment.
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SSG Lee Young
Thank you for your question CSM (Join to see) . We are always trying to post things that are relevant and real "WTFs" and to do so we rely on our admin team's extensive experience. We cover a very wide-field of MOS, and TIS, so we manage for the most part to stay away from stories with a narrative like "My 1SG is the worst we had to stay 2 hours more every day for a week."
But there are cases that leadership is incompetent and/or idiotic, and there are cases that leadership is stellar. And we make every effort in highlighting both. Personally I think that highlighting good examples of leadership is often more appeasing our audience rather than a WTF story.
That being said, our audience the one we are catering to at least is the military community, so most of them read the stories and have "memory recall" in a way.
Some stories, for eg the 173rd heavy drop fiasco, are newsworthy to everyone, regardless of background.
But there are cases that leadership is incompetent and/or idiotic, and there are cases that leadership is stellar. And we make every effort in highlighting both. Personally I think that highlighting good examples of leadership is often more appeasing our audience rather than a WTF story.
That being said, our audience the one we are catering to at least is the military community, so most of them read the stories and have "memory recall" in a way.
Some stories, for eg the 173rd heavy drop fiasco, are newsworthy to everyone, regardless of background.
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You caught lightning in a bottle. The Army has a wealth of humor--mostly inappropriate--that many have tried to capitalize on, but how did you manage to harness that to become so *popular?
*Popular with rank and file, I hear some commands are not too happy with US Army WTF Moments.
*Popular with rank and file, I hear some commands are not too happy with US Army WTF Moments.
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SSG Lee Young
SGT Dave Tracy I think it has a lot to do with being genuine. When you have the interest of the soldiers in mind and in heart, and you are consistent about it, when you don't cave into threats etc, you create a loyal audience.
Another aspect is that we never really monetized success, and on the rare occasions that we did (eg selling t shirts) the majority of all money gathered went right back to the community in the form of assistance or donations.
Another aspect is that we never really monetized success, and on the rare occasions that we did (eg selling t shirts) the majority of all money gathered went right back to the community in the form of assistance or donations.
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Have you every had a post or story get "out of control"? What happened and how did you handle it?
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SSG Lee Young
SSG Carlos Madden I don't think that there was a story that really got out of control, but there were stories that generated a lot of negative responses towards the individual they were about.
For example the case of CSM Flournoy's hair style. This event drew a lot of negative responses mostly rightfully so due to the fact that a senior leader refused to comply and uphold the standards she was entrusted with enforcing.
The end result was people being angry and calling out for blood, some comments were racist or threatening, and we policed every single one of them aggressively.
By doing so we allowed the momentum of social media exposure to push for correction, and to an extent we were successful.
For example the case of CSM Flournoy's hair style. This event drew a lot of negative responses mostly rightfully so due to the fact that a senior leader refused to comply and uphold the standards she was entrusted with enforcing.
The end result was people being angry and calling out for blood, some comments were racist or threatening, and we policed every single one of them aggressively.
By doing so we allowed the momentum of social media exposure to push for correction, and to an extent we were successful.
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