Baby Bird: Let Me Take You Under My Wing

“Listen sarnt, I’m lookin at the report brief. You checked the box in every category. You’re squared away. No doubt.”

“Then I suppose I am confused why I am not getting Armory. It feels like I’m getting shafted and I don’t know why. I do whatever I’m told. My guys are squared away… frs sarnt”

“You check every box, but I donno what it is. Youre – youre not a soldier, man. I got guys that are going to do this for another 15 years. Are you that committed sarnt? Are you putting the Army first?”

“Firs’ Sar’nt, my family comes first. My kids…”

“Exactly.” His cellphone vibrates on the table. He answers it. Punctuation.

I turn and leave. My boot crossed the threshold and he called me back. “You’re not a soldier. Not deep down. And when you figure out what that is down there, give me a call. I’d love to know.”

“Roger, Firs’ Sar’nt.” Fuck you, first sergeant.

---------------------

“It’s funny, kid.

"I never saw war when I was in. It was all strategy and remote comms missions. I didn’t ride in the back of Humvees an get shot at by vagrants in the desert. I mean, there was shit like that going on, but that’s like 10% of what the Army does.

"A lot of it is normal infrastructure stuff like you got on the outside. Some times the government pays contractors or civilian employees to do the work, but if that’s not viable or if the money aint there, you best believe the green suiters are getting it done.

"When it comes to the troops, it’s a hivemind thing. If you’re lucky, you got commissioned leadership – captains and colonels and shit who got grasp of executive function. If you’re spot on, you might even have an NCO or two who can muster the effort to lead. You got that, and it don’t take many dedicated soldiers to get any job done. But again, we only work hivemind.

"If leadership aint strong enough to manage the troops, you just get soup sandwich fucking chaos.

"Joes are good shit, but you gotta treat em all like dogs. No, I’m fucking serious. You got to treat em like dogs. You train em. Reward them when they do good. Link positive performance with feeling good. Link inferior performance with a deterrent – NCOs used to smoke joes to tie the infraction to the physical pain of muscle failure. The practice had the added benefit of improving the soldier’s fitness. It was no mistake that the most deviant soldiers were often physically gifted. They either honed their conditioning or else they’re conditioned enough already that its hard to make them hurt. And if you do those crazy sons of bitches would like it anyway. So they can get away with not being squared away.

"Plus, secretly, most of us NCOs like a good ball buster in our ranks. It’s not ideal to be too close to the ideal. You lose perspective."