Army OKs Push-Ups, PT as Punishment for Minor Infractions

SSG Nathan Stryker our unit wasn't too big on it. Only saw it once. Counselings were what our chain thought was professional. It was quite a shock for me having come from Active Duty Infantry.

SSG Nathan Stryker - In fact, there was one time, when one of my soldiers had messed up something; it wasn't terrible and he wasn't a S-Bag generally speaking. So I was talking over the situation with my Squad Leader (an old, reformed Marine BTW) and I told him I was going to take this troop out behind a couple of trucks in the motor pool and smoke him for a while. The SL was cool with the corrective training program I was planning; unfortunately, our Platoon Sergent overheard us outside his door and put a halt to that, and told me to write a counseling instead. I did as was told, and went to my soldier and told him he was going to be counseled, and not smoked. Maybe because he was a former AD combat arms guy himself once upon a time, but he too would have preferred the smoke session!

SSG Nathan Stryker - Agreed. Probably from my AD experience I adopted the mentality that negative counselings are for laying the groundwork for separation. Maybe that's not the right way to think of them, but that has been my view, and I'd argue it's not without merit. In the situation I mentioned, as I said, the guy was generally a good soldier with a lot of valuable experience. The way I saw it, there was no reason to lay a paper trail when corrective training would have addressed the issue satisfactorily.