It is hard to work for someone that you do not respect. We will call this person MSG X. I know that I am a soldier, but how the fuck is MSG X going to tell me what to expect in Afghanistan, when he hasn’t been there in over 5 years. And how is MSG X going to tell me how to do my job when he sure the fuck hasn’t been in combat since the war started? He can’t, but he thinks he knows what to do. This upcoming deployment is going to be my 4th trip to Afghanistan. I understand that Afghanistan is constantly changing and I am by no means an expert, but somebody that has relevant up to date information should be the person to give me advice.
Today we did our annual certifications to say that we are qualified to deploy. Much like anything in the army, it is a paper drill. Sure, we went out and did the “tests”, but nobody fails because there are very few of my job and they need all of us to go overseas. Basically, this week is just another week of training for us, but we train on all the required tasks to “check the box.”
I do not mind training, when it is good training. The best stories in the army are either downrange on missions, or back in the states training. And it helps to bring the team closer. But what we are doing this week is bullshit. Let’s call certifications what they really are, the officers and senior NCO’s covering their ass in case something happens to us downrange. We did nothing special today that we haven’t done any other day, except put unnecessary stress on ourselves. And the person that sets up the “real world” scenarios (MSG X) hasn’t even deployed in the capacity and done the work that I do. Matter of fact, I think MSG X is afraid to deploy so he hides out in administrative jobs to make sure he doesn’t deploy and do “dangerous” work, i.e. get shot at.
Because of this reason, I am in in constant conflict with my boss. He should stay in the office and take care of all the admin bullshit so that we don’t have to deal with it after training and he needs to leave the training to the trainers. But he would rather come out and get his dick beaters into our business to make sure things are run his way. He is the worst boss I have ever had. For example, we are less than a month out from deployment and those of us that are actually deploying to fight, still do not have pistols. But that isn’t important to our boss because he isn’t the one going to war.
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