[NousDefionsDoc]

A former NCO's view on officers:

Officers don't hate you and they do serve a purpose.

Think about it from their point of view for a minute. There is one of them for eleven of you on a Team. (WOs are former enlisted). Eleven experts in their fields, eleven chances to be out run, out PTd, out shot, etc. The Team may have been together for a couple of years and he's the FNG. Everybody's watching him. Can you see how it can be a little overwhelming? Who can he have as his friends until he earns his Team's trust? He'll rarely see the other TLs. The Old Man won't make friends with a cherry Captain. SGM or CSM? Hahaha.

The CO has 6 teams plus the B Team. Figure a full Company with 66 enlisted and WOs on the Teams, plus the Company SGM and NBC dude (?). So 68. And there are a total of 7 officers.

5% rule is always in effect, so 3 or 4 are going to be screwups. They'll take up 90% of the time.

Plus he has to deal with new Team Leaders coming in, the BC, etc.

For every 10 minutes you stand at attention in front of the CO's desk because you screwed up, he probably spent 20 in front of the BC's desk.

The way I see it, the officer's function in SF is to ensure that what the Team is doing fits in with what the Company is doing and right on up the line. Do you, as an 18 NCO, want to go sit in the battle briefings and bring back the poop? He is the strategist. His other job is to take the heat from on high when it comes through that side of the line. Do you want his job?

It takes time to train a Team Leader, both for the Team and the CO. Don't say "He doesn't know anything." He knows what he was taught, just like you. He knows his job, which isn't the same job you have.

I was very fortunate. In my time, I served with the finest officers the Army ever produced. There were a couple that weren't so hot along the way. But guess what, they still beat out an awful lot of their peers just to get to the Team. And the other officers took care of them and sent them on their way. Many of my old Team Leaders are LTCs and above now. The man I admired as a Captain (P) next door is a General.

I recently had a conversation with a young Recon Marine NCO. He was assigned to Embassy duty in a benign country and was unhappy about it. Now, I had heard about this NCO before I met him. The story was that he imbibed and thought it would be funny to call out the Embassy React as a joke. So they all came out armed to the teeth, etc. All the enlisted thought it was funny, as did he after he got his ass chewed and got over it. His LT took the heat for him.

The night in question, we were sitting at a nice bar and he was wearing one of those T-Shirts. He was hitting on the waitresses and talking rather loudly about how he was a Marine and should be in the war. Then he started complaining about his LT. Know nothing, wet behind the ears, officers aren't needed etc.

So I took the opportunity. I said "Look at yourself."

"Huh?"

"Look at you, the Corps gave you a job to do. You've been here two years, you haven't made the slightest effort to learn anything about the language or the culture, you dress like you're in the barracks in one of the better places in town, you're loud and obnoxious and your claim to fame is an alcohol-related incident."

"Yeah, well..."

"As long as the NCO corps continues to act like privates, we will always need officers to take the heat and keep us from doing even more stupid things. Now, can you imagine that new LT of yours getting drunk and calling out the React? Even green and young as he is?"

"No."

"And THAT'S why the military needs officers, among other reasons."

That Marine NCO, thanked me. A couple of months later he was in Iraq as a Platoon Sergeant and sent me an email. He had a green LT over there, but he treated him with respect and they all came home alive. And he and the LT are friends.

An SF Officer is a warrior. He is a professional. That "college boy" with the railroad tracks on his flash could probably stomp a mudhole in your ass if he wasn't duty bound by the code not to do so - some of the really good ones will anyway.

Next time you have not the obligation, but the opportunity to salute one of them, think about that and do it with pride and the respect he deserves.



Or I'll kick your ass.