Saturday, April 24, 2004
For the Greater Good
There are two things Soldiers in my platoon do that really bother me, but are good for morale. One thing is people doing impressions of Gilbert Grape’s brother or retarded people - everyone seems to get a kick out of it. But this is just a more crass version of people talking about riding the short bus to school. I hope that no one in the platoon has a special needs child. I once wondered aloud if anyone did, and the response was that they all are special needs kids.
The other thing is the guys lamenting that a non deployed Soldier, Mike, was here; “I wish Mike were here.” “If Mike were here…” What they don’t know and I won’t tell them is that Mike didn’t want to deploy with us and he got out of it by revealing an ailment he’s had since he was a kid. He quietly told me, “I joined the Guard to run around on tanks, not to go to Iraq.” The Soldiers even have a little representation of him they carry around. Sometimes, it’s really hard to listen to him being glorified.
My LT Made the NY Times
I’m the gunner for 1LT Cotterino, who is quoted in the article. He’s a good Soldier and we get a long well. His driver is a scrappy guy who gives the LT a hard time, which he really seems to enjoy. Whenever he gets into a friendly dispute with someone, he’d say, “There are going to be three hits: me hitting you, you hitting the ground, and the ambulance hitting 80 on the way to the hospital.” I laugh everytime I hear that. This is a great respite from my squad leader of record. The guys got together and eight of the nine members of the squad signed a letter of complaint against him. Even guys from another platoon have complained about him. Hopefully, things will change, but I’m concerned that after we go back to Baghdad, I’ll go back to his squad. I’d rather stay here for the rest of my deployment and kick in every door in Falluja, than do that.
Wrangler 6, Platoon Leader
Wrangler 7, Platoon Sergeant
We, Soldiers of [x] Squad, [y] Platoon, request that SSG Wolf be replaced with a new squad leader.
SSG Wolf is a liability to the squad in two ways: he makes the Soldiers miserable and he is an ineffective leader. The two are intertwined as they stem from the same core personality defect.
SSG Wolf is a self proclaimed people hater. His focus is on personal achievement and how the performance of the squad makes him look. To him, other people are irritants in his life and he has no sincere care for us. Because of this, people that are under his control are often verbally and emotionally abused.
SSG Wolf made a half ass apology at Ft. Dix when he said that he needed to treat us better. But he was quick to add that we needed to grow thicker skins, even though we don’t experience this problem with anyone else in the company. But nothing has changed and he continues to make us feel bad about ourselves. And after being counseled several times, SSG Wolf still doesn’t get that his Soldiers hate him or at least loathe his leadership over them.
At the same time SSG Wolf also gave a bullshit excuse on why he micromanaged us at Ft. Dix, and said things would change. Things did not change after we left Dix. That’s because no one can perform to his standards.
Being with SSG Wolf is an emotional roller coaster. He is very friendly and engaging in one minute, and very ugly the next. It’s like a bad relationship in which the man alternately sweet talks and beats the woman and she can’t or won’t get out of the relationship. It may be the case that at the time this letter of petition is delivered, the relationship is at a high, but we all know, it won’t be long before it hits another low.
SSG Wolf is a very selfish, “me” oriented individual who believes he is always right. He seems to easily excuse his own mistakes while he seems waiting to pounce on us when we make them. In fact, instead of expecting positive results, SSG Wolf often assumes the Soldier has done wrong before knowing the facts. Many times SSG Wolf will simply yell at Soldiers just because he is irritated.
But, one of the biggest problems we have is following his orders to his standards. If we follow his orders to the letter, he will yell at us for not following through with what he calls “the implied task”. The term “implied task” is a way for him to blame us for his not giving complete instructions. Conversely, if we show initiative, we will be blamed for not following orders. We are not talking about goofing off or disobedience, we are talking about a sincere effort to understand and execute his orders. The result is that we are less effective as we tend to overanalyze situations and try to figure out which action will result in not getting yelled at. Don’t Soldiers getting shot at and mortared have enough to think about?
We’ve heard that SSG Wolf attitude when he is counseled on this problem is “fuck it then – I don’t care anymore”. This is the exact opposite attitude of the Soldiers in his squad. We want to do better – we want to improve ourselves and the squad, but SSG Wolf is holding us back.
We decide to write this letter after SSG Wolf had one of his many tantrums and threw a handset which bounced off the radio and hit one of his Soldiers in the face. Some of us have come very close to striking SSG Wolf, not because we don’t respect the rank but because like a dog and his master, if the dog is beaten enough, he will bite back. Please don’t let it get to the point that one of us has to go to jail for this problem to be rectified.
Near the end of our time at Fort Dix, SSG Wolf told us that he asked to be relieved. If this is true, we believe that some of the blame for our low morale (misery) and ineffectiveness begins to fall on those in higher leadership positions. For if he has told his chain of command that he can’t do the job, the chain of command should act on it.
We are concerned that SSG Wolf will choke at a crucial time. This is because he is so wound up in doing things right, he fails to act appropriately, or at all. This was demonstrated by training scenarios at Ft. Dix when everyone else acted and by a real world suspected IED incident.
To his credit SSG Wolf excels at planning and analysis. Perhaps he would be an asset in the TOC.
There are some replacements available here in the company – for example SGT Bob. And the fact that SGT Bob is an E5 should not matter because we already have E4s running teams. This is because the most qualified Soldier, not necessarily the highest ranking Soldier should get the slot.
We hear the mantra “if I don’t know about it, I can’t do anything to fix it”. We are letting you all know about it. Please help us by fixing it.
All who sign below believe that eight of the nine Soldiers in SSG Wolf’s squad will agree to all, or nearly all, of the above if they are questioned about it in a group setting, regardless of whether they sign below, and are willing to testify, under oath, to the facts outlined, above. Some Soldiers, for various reasons, may feel they cannot sign even though they agree with this letter.
Soldiers of [x] Squad, [y] Platoon in alphabetical order:
Signed, SPC Carl
Signed with exceptions, CPL Killer
Signed, SGT Jeff
Signed, SGT Roger
Signed, SPC Judge
Signed with exceptions, SPC Harold
Signed, CPL Marty
Signed, SGT Jorican
Not Signed, SGT Dufus
The phrasing of the last paragraph is rather tangled, but it was important for it to be in there: I complained about him to my platoon sergeant back at Fort Dix, and when he called the other Soldiers out of the room one by one to see if they had any problems with the Wolf, many came back shrugging their shoulders: “Would could I say, he’s the squad leader.” Some added that they would not have is back when we got into a serious situation, but that was just hyperbole: none of us wanted the guy dead, we just didn’t want to him as our squad leader.
So, the wording basically says that even if they don’t sign it or if they do deny it in public or private, we know for a fact that they feel the same way as we do.
They one guy who did not sign, Dufus, was responsible for about 30% of the wrath the Wolf brought down on us. The Wolf doesn’t like answering questions and HATES answering questions after he gives a briefing and ends it with, “I’ve told you all I know.” For some reason, Dufus would always have questions, often starting with “I’m just curious…” This put the Wolf in a bad mood and that affected all of us. Some of us thought Dufus was witless, others thought he was shrewd. From the pseudonym I assigned him, you can guess what I thought.
When the LT approached him with the letter, the first thing the Wolf said was that he was never counseled in writing about the issue. The Wolf articulately dug himself part way out of the hole he was in and even got the day off to recompose himself.
The LT told me he talked to the Wolf and said, “I want you to give him a chance.”
Colin: “Sir, we’ve given him enough of those.”
LT: “Judge, just don’t hold this over his head.”
Colin: “Sir, I always show him military courtesy.”
LT: “I just don’t want you to isolate him.”
Never mind that back at Dix, the Wolf used to put up a blanket to isolate himself from the rest of us, but the LT was doing his job.
A little while later, we went off on our rounds to visit the parts of the checkpoint. When we pulled up to my old squad, the guys saw me and became animated: “Judge, we’re Wolf free today! Hooooowl!” They wouldn’t stop, so I started giving them the “cut-it” sign, so LT wouldn’t get flustered. But, there was no stopping them – it was their day.
The LT made some other changes in the squad, assigning those less unhappy to the Wolf’s truck. When the LT told Harold, who signed with exceptions, that he would be the Wolf’s gunner, I yelled, viscerally, without thinking, “You’re getting what you deserve!” I then caught myself, “Hey, we can still be roommates when we get back to [FOB Rubber Chicken], right?”
“Sure, Judge.”
Mission
Most of our focus in the last week has been control of who goes in and out of Falluja. One day, people were not cooperating and they were finally told that the checkpoint was closed and they needed to leave and come back tomorrow. The compliant ones left and others stayed, waiting. An hour later the checkpoint was open and I got really mad. I must have left an impression on some of the guys because a Soldier reminded me later of my atypical behavior. “Well this is ****ed up! The people who listened have left and the people who didn’t are getting in. Typical ****ing Army! You do what you are told and you get ****ed! You don’t and you get ahead!” Everyone has a story to get through the checkpoint. The best was someone reporting up, “Yeah, we got a guy here with an ID that says he’s a translator. Only problem is he doesn’t speak a word of English.”
Soundtracks to War
Our psyops guys play Guns N Roses and AC/DC and the Iraqis (insurgents) play their catchy tunes, all while the fighting is going on. You gotta wonder how good that music is for kids if we are using it against the enemy. The Iraqi’s have much better sound since their music comes from the mosques which are designed to broadcast prayers through out the city. One time the psyops guys were broadcasting messages telling the insurgents to give up. Then there was a lot of gunfire, and then I didn’t hear any thing else. The guys were OK, though; they just figured it would be a good idea to stop broadcasting…
The Convoy Makes it Through
We hear on the radio that a convoy is en route to our FOB and the next day, PX is stocked with goodies. A twelve pack of Coke is $.75. I wonder how the Soldiers in the convoy feel; risking their lives to get the Coke through and then it gets sold for a lousy $.75.
Incoming!
With mortars, you don’t know they are coming your way until they are almost there. They don’t whistle, like artillery shells, it’s almost like the faint sound of a jet flying over, except these are closer. As one came in, I yelled “Incoming” just like in the movies. As the turret gunner, I was well protected, but everyone who was dismounted dove onto the ground. Mortar rounds have to be really close in order to hurt you. These were about 30 meters away. Ten meters is trouble. The guys being blown away with the 30mm cannon in the video I posted awhile back were an enemy mortar team. After this experience, I still wouldn’t want that helpless guy to be blown to pieces, but who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind if one of us gets blown in half by one.
Romeo & Golf
Romeo is the US Military annunciation for the letter, “R” while Golf is used for “G”. Being the LT’s gunner, my call sign is 6G. Some guys suggested that it be changes to 6R, not for radio, but for receptionist. This is because of an answer I oncw gave when someone called on the radio. “Uh yes, well, we are receiving fire right now, could I have 6 actual get back to you in a few minutes?”
This was our only firefight, thus far. Usually, it’s mortar rounds coming in a few times a night, but that has subsided. We try to get a fix on him, and then either calling it in for a counter strike or tear after him like in “Rat Patrol”. Firefights don’t last very long. Our firepower is overwhelming, so when someone starts shooting, we put a stop to it real quick.
There are two things Soldiers in my platoon do that really bother me, but are good for morale. One thing is people doing impressions of Gilbert Grape’s brother or retarded people - everyone seems to get a kick out of it. But this is just a more crass version of people talking about riding the short bus to school. I hope that no one in the platoon has a special needs child. I once wondered aloud if anyone did, and the response was that they all are special needs kids.
The other thing is the guys lamenting that a non deployed Soldier, Mike, was here; “I wish Mike were here.” “If Mike were here…” What they don’t know and I won’t tell them is that Mike didn’t want to deploy with us and he got out of it by revealing an ailment he’s had since he was a kid. He quietly told me, “I joined the Guard to run around on tanks, not to go to Iraq.” The Soldiers even have a little representation of him they carry around. Sometimes, it’s really hard to listen to him being glorified.
My LT Made the NY Times
I’m the gunner for 1LT Cotterino, who is quoted in the article. He’s a good Soldier and we get a long well. His driver is a scrappy guy who gives the LT a hard time, which he really seems to enjoy. Whenever he gets into a friendly dispute with someone, he’d say, “There are going to be three hits: me hitting you, you hitting the ground, and the ambulance hitting 80 on the way to the hospital.” I laugh everytime I hear that. This is a great respite from my squad leader of record. The guys got together and eight of the nine members of the squad signed a letter of complaint against him. Even guys from another platoon have complained about him. Hopefully, things will change, but I’m concerned that after we go back to Baghdad, I’ll go back to his squad. I’d rather stay here for the rest of my deployment and kick in every door in Falluja, than do that.
Wrangler 6, Platoon Leader
Wrangler 7, Platoon Sergeant
We, Soldiers of [x] Squad, [y] Platoon, request that SSG Wolf be replaced with a new squad leader.
SSG Wolf is a liability to the squad in two ways: he makes the Soldiers miserable and he is an ineffective leader. The two are intertwined as they stem from the same core personality defect.
SSG Wolf is a self proclaimed people hater. His focus is on personal achievement and how the performance of the squad makes him look. To him, other people are irritants in his life and he has no sincere care for us. Because of this, people that are under his control are often verbally and emotionally abused.
SSG Wolf made a half ass apology at Ft. Dix when he said that he needed to treat us better. But he was quick to add that we needed to grow thicker skins, even though we don’t experience this problem with anyone else in the company. But nothing has changed and he continues to make us feel bad about ourselves. And after being counseled several times, SSG Wolf still doesn’t get that his Soldiers hate him or at least loathe his leadership over them.
At the same time SSG Wolf also gave a bullshit excuse on why he micromanaged us at Ft. Dix, and said things would change. Things did not change after we left Dix. That’s because no one can perform to his standards.
Being with SSG Wolf is an emotional roller coaster. He is very friendly and engaging in one minute, and very ugly the next. It’s like a bad relationship in which the man alternately sweet talks and beats the woman and she can’t or won’t get out of the relationship. It may be the case that at the time this letter of petition is delivered, the relationship is at a high, but we all know, it won’t be long before it hits another low.
SSG Wolf is a very selfish, “me” oriented individual who believes he is always right. He seems to easily excuse his own mistakes while he seems waiting to pounce on us when we make them. In fact, instead of expecting positive results, SSG Wolf often assumes the Soldier has done wrong before knowing the facts. Many times SSG Wolf will simply yell at Soldiers just because he is irritated.
But, one of the biggest problems we have is following his orders to his standards. If we follow his orders to the letter, he will yell at us for not following through with what he calls “the implied task”. The term “implied task” is a way for him to blame us for his not giving complete instructions. Conversely, if we show initiative, we will be blamed for not following orders. We are not talking about goofing off or disobedience, we are talking about a sincere effort to understand and execute his orders. The result is that we are less effective as we tend to overanalyze situations and try to figure out which action will result in not getting yelled at. Don’t Soldiers getting shot at and mortared have enough to think about?
We’ve heard that SSG Wolf attitude when he is counseled on this problem is “fuck it then – I don’t care anymore”. This is the exact opposite attitude of the Soldiers in his squad. We want to do better – we want to improve ourselves and the squad, but SSG Wolf is holding us back.
We decide to write this letter after SSG Wolf had one of his many tantrums and threw a handset which bounced off the radio and hit one of his Soldiers in the face. Some of us have come very close to striking SSG Wolf, not because we don’t respect the rank but because like a dog and his master, if the dog is beaten enough, he will bite back. Please don’t let it get to the point that one of us has to go to jail for this problem to be rectified.
Near the end of our time at Fort Dix, SSG Wolf told us that he asked to be relieved. If this is true, we believe that some of the blame for our low morale (misery) and ineffectiveness begins to fall on those in higher leadership positions. For if he has told his chain of command that he can’t do the job, the chain of command should act on it.
We are concerned that SSG Wolf will choke at a crucial time. This is because he is so wound up in doing things right, he fails to act appropriately, or at all. This was demonstrated by training scenarios at Ft. Dix when everyone else acted and by a real world suspected IED incident.
To his credit SSG Wolf excels at planning and analysis. Perhaps he would be an asset in the TOC.
There are some replacements available here in the company – for example SGT Bob. And the fact that SGT Bob is an E5 should not matter because we already have E4s running teams. This is because the most qualified Soldier, not necessarily the highest ranking Soldier should get the slot.
We hear the mantra “if I don’t know about it, I can’t do anything to fix it”. We are letting you all know about it. Please help us by fixing it.
All who sign below believe that eight of the nine Soldiers in SSG Wolf’s squad will agree to all, or nearly all, of the above if they are questioned about it in a group setting, regardless of whether they sign below, and are willing to testify, under oath, to the facts outlined, above. Some Soldiers, for various reasons, may feel they cannot sign even though they agree with this letter.
Soldiers of [x] Squad, [y] Platoon in alphabetical order:
Signed, SPC Carl
Signed with exceptions, CPL Killer
Signed, SGT Jeff
Signed, SGT Roger
Signed, SPC Judge
Signed with exceptions, SPC Harold
Signed, CPL Marty
Signed, SGT Jorican
Not Signed, SGT Dufus
The phrasing of the last paragraph is rather tangled, but it was important for it to be in there: I complained about him to my platoon sergeant back at Fort Dix, and when he called the other Soldiers out of the room one by one to see if they had any problems with the Wolf, many came back shrugging their shoulders: “Would could I say, he’s the squad leader.” Some added that they would not have is back when we got into a serious situation, but that was just hyperbole: none of us wanted the guy dead, we just didn’t want to him as our squad leader.
So, the wording basically says that even if they don’t sign it or if they do deny it in public or private, we know for a fact that they feel the same way as we do.
They one guy who did not sign, Dufus, was responsible for about 30% of the wrath the Wolf brought down on us. The Wolf doesn’t like answering questions and HATES answering questions after he gives a briefing and ends it with, “I’ve told you all I know.” For some reason, Dufus would always have questions, often starting with “I’m just curious…” This put the Wolf in a bad mood and that affected all of us. Some of us thought Dufus was witless, others thought he was shrewd. From the pseudonym I assigned him, you can guess what I thought.
When the LT approached him with the letter, the first thing the Wolf said was that he was never counseled in writing about the issue. The Wolf articulately dug himself part way out of the hole he was in and even got the day off to recompose himself.
The LT told me he talked to the Wolf and said, “I want you to give him a chance.”
Colin: “Sir, we’ve given him enough of those.”
LT: “Judge, just don’t hold this over his head.”
Colin: “Sir, I always show him military courtesy.”
LT: “I just don’t want you to isolate him.”
Never mind that back at Dix, the Wolf used to put up a blanket to isolate himself from the rest of us, but the LT was doing his job.
A little while later, we went off on our rounds to visit the parts of the checkpoint. When we pulled up to my old squad, the guys saw me and became animated: “Judge, we’re Wolf free today! Hooooowl!” They wouldn’t stop, so I started giving them the “cut-it” sign, so LT wouldn’t get flustered. But, there was no stopping them – it was their day.
The LT made some other changes in the squad, assigning those less unhappy to the Wolf’s truck. When the LT told Harold, who signed with exceptions, that he would be the Wolf’s gunner, I yelled, viscerally, without thinking, “You’re getting what you deserve!” I then caught myself, “Hey, we can still be roommates when we get back to [FOB Rubber Chicken], right?”
“Sure, Judge.”
Mission
Most of our focus in the last week has been control of who goes in and out of Falluja. One day, people were not cooperating and they were finally told that the checkpoint was closed and they needed to leave and come back tomorrow. The compliant ones left and others stayed, waiting. An hour later the checkpoint was open and I got really mad. I must have left an impression on some of the guys because a Soldier reminded me later of my atypical behavior. “Well this is ****ed up! The people who listened have left and the people who didn’t are getting in. Typical ****ing Army! You do what you are told and you get ****ed! You don’t and you get ahead!” Everyone has a story to get through the checkpoint. The best was someone reporting up, “Yeah, we got a guy here with an ID that says he’s a translator. Only problem is he doesn’t speak a word of English.”
Soundtracks to War
Our psyops guys play Guns N Roses and AC/DC and the Iraqis (insurgents) play their catchy tunes, all while the fighting is going on. You gotta wonder how good that music is for kids if we are using it against the enemy. The Iraqi’s have much better sound since their music comes from the mosques which are designed to broadcast prayers through out the city. One time the psyops guys were broadcasting messages telling the insurgents to give up. Then there was a lot of gunfire, and then I didn’t hear any thing else. The guys were OK, though; they just figured it would be a good idea to stop broadcasting…
The Convoy Makes it Through
We hear on the radio that a convoy is en route to our FOB and the next day, PX is stocked with goodies. A twelve pack of Coke is $.75. I wonder how the Soldiers in the convoy feel; risking their lives to get the Coke through and then it gets sold for a lousy $.75.
Incoming!
With mortars, you don’t know they are coming your way until they are almost there. They don’t whistle, like artillery shells, it’s almost like the faint sound of a jet flying over, except these are closer. As one came in, I yelled “Incoming” just like in the movies. As the turret gunner, I was well protected, but everyone who was dismounted dove onto the ground. Mortar rounds have to be really close in order to hurt you. These were about 30 meters away. Ten meters is trouble. The guys being blown away with the 30mm cannon in the video I posted awhile back were an enemy mortar team. After this experience, I still wouldn’t want that helpless guy to be blown to pieces, but who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind if one of us gets blown in half by one.
Romeo & Golf
Romeo is the US Military annunciation for the letter, “R” while Golf is used for “G”. Being the LT’s gunner, my call sign is 6G. Some guys suggested that it be changes to 6R, not for radio, but for receptionist. This is because of an answer I oncw gave when someone called on the radio. “Uh yes, well, we are receiving fire right now, could I have 6 actual get back to you in a few minutes?”
This was our only firefight, thus far. Usually, it’s mortar rounds coming in a few times a night, but that has subsided. We try to get a fix on him, and then either calling it in for a counter strike or tear after him like in “Rat Patrol”. Firefights don’t last very long. Our firepower is overwhelming, so when someone starts shooting, we put a stop to it real quick.
