2nd Lieutenant lectures Sgt. Maj. on leadership

Any time there was a new Butter Bar worth a damn, they sent them to second platoon. We made sure to break them in right. They either became company commanders or got the hell out of dodge. One even became the Battalion Commander. To his credit, he was a staff sergeant at our unit and then went to OCS. Back then we were Charlie Company (Charging Charlie) 891st Combat Engineers Kansas Nation Guard Chanute, Kansas.

As most know, many 2LT's start out like dumb privates, but I have to say, every 2LT in my last unit (437th MP Co, 519th MP Bn) progressed exceptionally well. Two married each other and she retired as a Full Bird and was offered a Star. She turned it down to, as she said, spend more time with her young teenaged daughters. He too retired ... I think as a LTC.
We has another female 2LT who was as effective as she was gorgeous. She left the Army and had a high level spot in DHS during its early days in D.C.

SSG Bill McCoy - The best one's, in my opinion, start out with an open mind and listen to their NCO's or were enlisted before becoming officers.

SGT Brad Baier - Agreed. It's not always 2LT's who misstep. As D/Sgt one weekend, we had a person in our Blotter from Pittsbugh, PA. The weekend MP Duty Officer was a stellar Captain in all respects, but on Saturday's day shift blotter, he insisted that "Pittsburgh," was spelled wrong because in his mind, it doesn't have the letter, "h." I knew he was from Texas so I explained that, Pittsburg, TX indeed has no "h," that that Pittsburgh, PA does. Nevertheless, he refused to recognize that my being from Allegheny County where Pittsburgh, PA is could be correct, and ORDERED me to change the Blotter. We had a PM who was a total stickler for the Blotter being FLAWLESS, both in terms of grammar and spelling.
I went back to his office and tried to convince him that I was correct, almost begging him to let the spelling as I had it. Nope! Come Monday morning, he got chastised at the Blotter Meeting for allowing a misspelling of "Pittsburgh." Afterwards, he came up to me and asked me to re-do the original page so that when the CG got it, the spelling would be correct.
Originally, the spelling had an "h," but at some point, they dropped the "h" for some time; but becasue of German roots, it was put back. My guess is when the Captain was in school, "Pittsburg, PA" was without the "h," and he was unaware that it was put back. I told him that and he just smiled as I handed him the original version of that blotter's page, guessing that the PM would catch it.
As I said, he was an excellent Captain ... a Mustang in fact and one of our Law Enforcement BN's best officers.

One unit I was in ALL of our Officers were prior enlisted and ALL were former NCOs. In that group one new 2nd Lt was a MSgt and had to get an age waiver to be commissioned. He was listened to. The Commander, a Captain was a former SSgt, another 2Lt a former TSgt. We didn't have any problems with them anyway nor was anyone going to pull the wool over their eyes. Needless to say all the Officers were very experienced. The Commander and the older 2Lt. both retired as Full Colonels. The other 2Lt I knew advanced to Captain but I lost track of Him.

Perhaps Ensigns aren't the same as Army butterbars! LOL I know when I was a Navy Corpsman, the Ensign nurses were just absolutely wonderful and nice. I've often wondered though, WHAT WERE THEY TOLD when they got their LT(jg) bars because, it seemed as if they were indoctrinated into tyranny, OVERNIGHT! LOL