Is the NCO Corp broken?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 13:59:42 -0500

What is going on in the Army with the NCO corps. All you see on facebook are silly junior enlisted posting even more silly things. You see standards slipping all over. Where is our leadership? Are we afraid to enforce standards, and if so, why?
 And another thing about this social media crisis of late. All the posts are being attacked, in many cases I agree, by NCO's, but YELLING on facebook isn't getting the job done folks. 
 What are we doing wrong, why are we doing it, and what needs to be done to fix this?

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Mar 3 at 2014 2:03 PM

SGT Ben Keen — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 14:03:03 -0500

This isn't a new problem. Soldiers have been Soldiers since the start of time. I wouldn't say the NCO Corp is broken but I would agree that there have been more examples of service members messing up in public rather than spotlights on all the good stuff service members are doing.

Response by Maj Chris Nelson made Mar 3 at 2014 2:22 PM

Maj Chris Nelson — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 14:22:34 -0500

I think that there are a few layers/issues that create the beast you are talking about....
1. Many NCO's are now moved up much faster and have less experience to work with in guiding/leading troops.  Part of this is that they don't realize that they need to spend some time getting to KNOW their troops so they can help mold some of their decissions during off duty time also.
2. Today, there is much more technology which will allow people to get themselves into a jam MUCH faster then the old day.... think of it like this: TODAY: go to a party, get some alcohol, do something stupid (you fill in the blank), it is captured on a camera phone and within an hour it is making rounds on Facebook or other.  YESTERYEAR: go to party, get some alcohol, do something stupid (you fill in the blank), captured on someone's 126mm instamatic  camera, 3 days later it is brought to the store to be developed, a week later you have the pictures, they get passed around in the shop and you are riddiculed for stupidity..... Whole world does NOT know you were stupid!

Response by WO1 Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 3 at 2014 2:54 PM

WO1 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 14:54:44 -0500

MAJ Nelson pointed out the problems.  We are going from a Wartime Military to a Garrison Military, we have many Service Members who have gotten promotions during Wartime and have yet to learn to be Garrison Leaders.  We live in the age of the Internet, we have less Privacy than ever before, one post on the Internet can lead to getting your 15 minutes of Fame or Infamy.  Young Service Members don't realize the damage that they can do on the Internet. We need to watch what our Juniors, Peers, Superiors, and Unit Pages put on the Net.

Response by CMC Robert Young made Mar 3 at 2014 4:39 PM

CMC Robert Young — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 16:39:15 -0500

SGT, it's not just the Army. I have seen similar failures in the Coast Guard and have friends in all other services who report the same types of things.

This lack of strong core values, empathy, and personal communications skills coupled with the inability to interact face to face while at the same time hiding behind social media plague recent generations. They've been told they're special (everybody gets a trophy) and the incredible amount of time they have spent on the computer instead of interacting personally with their peers has left them unprepared to function as responsible mature adults. Pair this with the accelerated promotions rates inflicted on us by a decade of war in two different countries, and it's not hard to realize why we are where we are.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 3 at 2014 8:06 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 20:06:58 -0500

The expansion of social media is the problem. American soldiers have been doing stupid things since 1776 that will never change. The only change is how easily accessible it is now.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Mar 4 at 2014 6:03 PM

SFC Michael Hasbun — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:03:48 -0500

I wouldn't say "broken".. More like "not performing at optimal efficiency".

Response by SFC Joe Ping made Mar 4 at 2014 6:06 PM

SFC Joe Ping — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:06:35 -0500

I thnk the problem is NCOs are afraid of being labled non PC and there are to many younger enlsited eager to challenge that fact. Also the COC does not let the NCO do his job and refuses to back him up out of the same fear..

Response by 1SG David Hoogendorn made May 28 at 2014 10:26 PM

1SG David Hoogendorn — Wed, 28 May 2014 22:26:43 -0400

Of course not. The only people I hear this from are all retired. They think that because things aren't the way they were during their time that it is all screwed up. I say their wrong! Just because systems, processes, and TTP's evolve or change doesn't mean our NCO CORPS is broken. We have the most agile and effective NCO CORPS in the world. Last I heard we haven't lost any battles.