Bahhhhgh!

[pecunium]

The Army is doing it again. For a time, a couple of years back, while I was at Ft. Lewis, the Army Knowledge Online splash page was propagandizing soldiers.

I say this becaus unless one is "Active Army, Army Reserve, National Guard, DA Civilian, Retired Army, and Army Guests" one is never going to get past that page, and so isn't likely to be calling it up very often.

Which is why cutlines like this one annoy me.

Army engineers from Alaska-based Company C, 864th Engineer Combat Battalion, level a portion of the nearly completed 117-kilometer TK Road, stretching from Kandahar to Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. The road will link vast, difficult-to-access portions of the country, fostering commerce and facilitating travel to election polling sites next month.

I like the pictures on that page. They show me some of what is going on in the army (I confess, the birthday wishes posted a few days ago bothered me, I can't say why, but they did. What happens if that poor guy doesn't get home? His wife saying every day is one day closer to them being together is going to be awfully painful, but I digress). But no one needs to pitch the doings of the Army to me in such a way as to convince me the policies which put us where we are are good, or important.

I don't, at a gut level, at the level on which I predicate my service (day to day, not year to year) give a damn about the policies. You don't need to sell me on them (unless you are asking me to give a thumbs up, or down, on one).

This one isn't the most blatant of it. I happen to think better roads are probably in the best interests of the Afghanis, but fostering commerce, facilitating elections? So what. They need roads, we build roads.

This is as bad as hearing about schools in Iraq.

Comments

[ckd]

They even named the road after you.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen that aspect of it.

I wonder if I can charge a toll.

TK

[moropus.livejournal.com]

I know just what you mean. After I busted my shoulder, I had to get out of aircraft maintenance and I got PA. I hate writing propaganda. I much prefered writing about the actual road, ie, the cement, gravel, whatever and the people who built it. Even the people who use the road. (I use this road every morning to go to work and it's great not to have to ride my donkey to market over the busted up landscape anymore, etc.) The hell of it is that I was actually pretty good at writing it, so I got stuck with it lots. Pitching propaganda at the troops supposedly raises moral and promotes re-enlistments and fun things like that. I suspect most of the troops feel like you do.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

But no one needs to pitch the doings of the Army to me in such a way as to convince me the policies which put us where we are are good, or important.

But there are people who _need_ the validation that what they are doing is worthwhile, not pointless; are good, not futile. They need that external validation as they haven't made the decision to commit to doing their service no matter what the policies are, as you sapiently remark, on a day to day basis. Their decisiveness needs to be shored up occasionally.

And, I'm not blaming them. Although I'm quite self-impelled and self-directed, I need some validation at times that what I'm doing is worthwhile and is valued. And, I'm in the civilian sector where such validation is (theoretically) more readily available; i.e. reviews, performance awards. etc.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

We get reviews, performance awards, various bits of praise.

We get promotions (the first one is automatice, the next is, usually pro-forma, the third takes a bit of achievement and the step to NCO ought to be harder make than it is.

So the first enlistment has some built in rewards, and praises.

After that one ought to be able to take the job for what it is. The reviews (annual, with quarterly assessements, and counselling) are performance based, and independent of the unit's performance, they reflect how the NCO has performed in the tasks and expectations which have been brought up by the rater and senior rater.

Telling me what swell things the Combat Engineers from Alaska are doing is fine. Telling me what a wonderful thing it is that they've done it; and loading it with political claptrap, that chaps my hide.

TK

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

"We get promotions (the first one is automatice, the next is, usually pro-forma, the third takes a bit of achievement"


The only thing you have to achieve to make Specialist is "not getting caught", though that is a valuable skill... ;-)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Mostly, though that isn't how the regulations read. Your commander still has to say, "I reccomened this person for promotion," and sign the form, and that starts at PFC

PV1 to PV2 is an advancement.

TK

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Provided the Commander hasn't actually _caught_ the soldier sleeping with his daughter, it's almost automatic. Even then, there's some wiggle room. Or, um, so I've heard...