Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
Taking command is a big deal. For most officers, we spend all our lieutenant time with that as the goal. But taking command as a National Guard officer versus Active duty is a pretty different beast. Look, we all want to pretend it's one team, one fight, right? And - once the bullets start singing …
Continue reading "5 Time-Saving Tips for National Guard Company Commanders"
"It's a system that's designed for the Active Component, so we just have to work around that."Raise your hand if you're a Reserve Component (Army National Guard or Army Reserve) soldier who's heard that over the course of your career. Whether it's an online portal for accessing records or the way that we dispatch vehicles …
Continue reading "Are Active Duty Army Systems and Procedures Harming Reserve Component Readiness?"
By Sergeant M Once you graduate from your initial technical school training, you take a final look out the rearview mirror and confidently state “I’m never coming back here again.” Until you come back seven years later for a course taken en route as a requirement for your next assignment……and you find yourself right back …
Continue reading "What Going Back to Tech School Taught Me About Being an NCO"
By Sergeant Swivel Responsibilities of Leadership In many organizations, one of the primary duties of leaders is to develop their subordinates. Air Force Handbook 36-2618, “The Enlisted Force Structure,” or, as it’s known among Airmen, “The Little Brown Book,” lays out responsibilities associated with each tier of the enlisted forces, making sure to note that …
Continue reading "Learning from Bad Examples: When Poor Leadership Can Be Valuable"
December 24, 1863 Somewhere south of the North Pole My Dearest Hannah, This latest march has been our longest yet. We left northern Virginia in September, marches of 20 or 30 miles, worse than Gettysburg. I'm sure you have heard that we have been betrayed by the Northern Spheres - how our brave Lincoln calmly …
Continue reading "A Letter Home from the Civil War on Christmas"
So. I've been thinking about how there seems to be problems within the general officer/flag officer ranks when it comes to ethics - as in, the violations of ethics, specifically. And for a long time I've wondered how that happens. Then I took command. Let's talk for a sec about this. So I'm currently just …
Continue reading "Ethics: the Leader’s Struggle"
From the NCO Club: Christmas can be a tough time of year for many. SSG Jay Rogers asks that you look out for each other.
The Siege of Louisbourg by Domenick d’Andrea and Rick Reeves (National Guard Heritage Series) There's this thing in the Army where the Active Component is always looking down its nose at the Reserve Component, specifically the National Guard. Why? Because the National Guard is part-time, of course, "weekend warriors" and all that. But also because …
Continue reading "Eight Times the National Guard Saved the Day"
By Sergeant Rick Our Active Component brethren take having access to a Department of Defense (DOD) computer for granted. Other than being on leave, active troops frequently have access to DOD systems in the field! As such, it only comes naturally for Pentagon J6 or DISA officials to haphazardly hand down systems access policies with …
Continue reading "Are Systems Access Restrictions Marginalizing Reservists and Guardsmen?"
Scene: Squad bay, Rebel Alliance, Hoth. The First Sergeant stands up: “Okay, listen up, quiet down. I said quiet down, you lot! Louder than a Bantha breeding barn in here. Just because we’re Rebels doesn’t mean we can’t have discipline. Now, because of recent...incidents around Echo Base, we’ve been directed to give a good safety …
Continue reading "Rebel Safety Brief on Hoth"
