Addition by subtraction

My sister asked me this question : "What do you crave?", and (aside from the usual sophomoric guy answers) I have this to say: "Great Subordinates." Now, it has been said that "There are no bad units, only bad officers" and I agree with that - to a certain extent. However, if you have really crappy subordinates, then no matter how good you are, your unit will still suck as you will have to constantly be going over the same material, or putting out fires that the subordinate lit, or doing the subordinates job for them, etc etc etc. Since I've gotten here I have had no end of trouble.

I'm the team lead of a Civil Affairs "CAT-A" team, which consists of four individuals, usually a CPT (moi), a SFC, and a couple of SGT's or SPC's. I had two SPC's, one of which had a couple of problems. In general, his professionalism and attitude were so poor as to dangerous. What I mean is this: usually the biggest killers over here are laziness and complacency. This usually sets in about 10 months in to the tour here. The Soldiers might start to take shortcuts, or stop doing the basics that have kept them alive. This guy was lazy, careless, and apathetic from the get-go. Even worse, he had this attitude that "I've been here so I know what I'm doing" which basically meant that he could not be taught. At any rate not 10 days in to our tour here, he gets banned from the maintenance bay and so irritates an NCO that the NCO wanted to press charges. So "addition by subtraction" #1: we sent him off to our headquarters' headquarters, where I hear he has continued his pathetic ways.

My second addition by subtraction actually concerns my team chief, who is supposed to be my right hand man. Before I say anything else, let me say this: This SFC is a decent, honorable man whom I would be happy to call a friend. Having said that, I basically carried this guy through the brief time that he was here. Allow me to elaborate: One of the areas Civil Affairs is involved with is overseeing contracts for local projects, such as the repair of schools, health clinics, roads, etc, anything the local commander deems necessary to improve the local economy and /or living conditions. This requires the CA guys to be somewhat computer literate. We have to do assessments, write contracts, SOW's, etc. Scan the copies, send them to higher, etc. This guy could barely scan- and when he did, he picked a formate that was unreadable and unusable. In addition, my former SFC had incredibly poor judgment and timing. One time he almost went for his knife when we got swarmed by kids! Another time he leaves the CMOC to go do sandbags (in the hottest part of the day) then "rests his back" in his bed. In the meantime, the battalion leadership is trying to find him as was needed for a task- which he knew about. The worst part of all this: he gets sent home early because he didn't sign his voluntary extension papers...and wonders why he didn't get awarded a Bronze Star! I suppose you just can't fix stupid. I wonder if this is endemic to all cross-leveled units...

Fortunately, I have got a terrific new SFC and he has done more in the past week than my prior SFC did during his time here. And I am not kidding. The details surrounding his trip here are pretty amusing and, oddly enough, revolve around yet another incompetent. Well, their loss is my gain.

The saga continues...