Introductions I I- Your first post on this board goes here. (CLOSED)

[NBC-Guy]

Originally Posted by Jack Moroney

You have pointed out one of the significant differences between SF and the conventional army. Where the conventional army is all about making corn flakes where one platoon ldr/troop looks and acts like another, SF is more about making trail mix where each handful is unique and portions can be modified to fit the situation. While a conventional officer who is new has the time and often the need to be more of a passive observer you are going to have to hit the ground running. We used to have an officer on the A-Team that could sit there and take it all in, they were LTs and were the team XO and bascially were an extra mule to carry commo gear and extra ammo. The basic philosophy was that we understood that we really needed to grow our own team leaders because,in most cases, it took a long time to produce a good one that actually complimented the effort. That is still a problem and the Q has gone to great lengths to rectify it. Part of the problem that remains is that officers coming into SF bring with them all the baggage (good and bad) they picked up along the way. You see, you, as a CPT, will actually be expected to perform more as a BN cdr when it comes to UW/FID and in some cases coalition/combined operations. That role is yours and yours alone. You are kind of like those teflon backed sponges where you are absorbing stuff with one side and abraided stuff with the other always doing what is necessary to enable your team to succeed. That might in fact be "filtering crap that comes from higher" but more often-when you are working for host nationals/attached or OPCON to conventional folks or in some other capacity where you are working away from the "flagpole" with mission type orders and no supervision- you will be managing "higher" from the bottom to shape the battlespace/operational area to bring things into alignment necessary for your team to accomplish its mission. You see you just don't "think outside the box" but you build the box into which you want to place those whose comfort zone works well only within the box that you are going to build and then you squeeze or expand the box as necessary. So while your philosophy of leadership and being a soldier first is a step in the right direction, the day you walk into that team you also have a very active role to play as the commander right from the start and not necessarily at the echelon of an 03, but more of that as an 05. Now if I may use your example of why you have two ears and one mouth, I am not at all stating that your philosopy of observing/learning/and contributing is off base but I am saying that you are going to be wearing a head set with each side working off distinct nets. One will be the net from your team from which you will listen/learn/absorb and contribute and the other will be from all the other demands that will require immediate action with your Team Sergeant performing the role of the NCS.

all i can say is wow.. that is great incite. thanks for breaking it down sir