Yesterday, the battalion decided to go out in the woods, and teach the junior MSIIIs different skill sets and accomplish certain goals. Leadership, rapid decision making, team building, were skills that we as seniors and cadre were testing through tactical decisions, ability to find cover and concealment for themselves, ability to destroy the enemy. My job was simple, take a buddy, hide behind a tree, wait for them to get in range to shoot paintballs at them. When they flanked me and shot back, we were to roll over and be POWs. After lighting up my third squad of juniors and sophomores covering them in paintball fire, I realized their inability to do simple tasks amazing. They could not make correct decisions to flank the enemy, and therefore, would be covered with paint by the time I finished ambushing them. After the forth time of destroying them, I decided to ask why they were having trouble, if they did not understand what was going on. The problem was simple: they were told to flank a certain way. However, their was a steep hill downward in that direction, and they did not want to upset the person that gave the order. So their leader told them to carefully go down and around to flank. The squad leader did not think to flank from the other side, which was clear. The squad leader did not understand the difference between what the commander said, and what the commander wanted. He said to flank a certain way, he really wanted the squad leader to kill the enemy. The squad leader was so focused on the small gateway, that they forgot about the goal. It is hard for young adults to figure this out, and my generation gets caught up on the gateway, instead of the goal. As future leaders we need to figure out the difference between this. I feel like this is forgotten by me daily. Sometimes I’m short sighted that I forget about the long run, which is to commission and lead a platoon into combat. For example, I worried last year for days what my final grades were, especially in tax, because I wanted it to be good. I worried so much, I stopped running, working out, and I definitely forgot some basic tactical knowledge that I will need in the next five years as a Field Artillery officer. No offense to tax, but I will not use my knowledge of the tax code in the next five year. Currently, my gateway is passing classes, to be able to graduate, to be able to commission, to get to the goal of leading a platoon into combat. I thought the goal was to do well in classes, when the goal should be to learn as much about Fire Support in Unified Land Operations as possible. So that I can reach the next goal, and the next goal. And one day the goal will be to relearn the tax code and every other piece of accounting knowledge to be able to become a CPA. Hopefully the tax code will be simplified in five years.
“401(K)” in the Military
Diving right in, the Pentagon has come out with a new plan to help soldiers in the military with retirement. This new plan is to blend the idea of a defined benefit and defined contribution. There is a lot of confusion and worry about this topic, because no one likes their pay being messed with. Personally I feel like this is going to be big, and will help the more than 80% of the military that does not make it to the twenty year threshold. It recognizes the service of everyone, instead of those who reach twenty years of active duty. The concerns that this is a privatization of retirement plans are overblown. It does contain some risk that a recession could wipe away the retirements, but this is countered that currently most veterans have no retirement funds from the US government. It also does not take away that veterans with twenty years of service will still get a percentage of their highest salary, but does reduce it. It also will save taxpayers money in the long run, with some estimating 12 billion in the next 25 years. It costs less, and helps more veterans. Love it all the way
Striking out
Obviously, if you read all the posts and got here, you have hit the beginning. And like all beginnings this is hard to find a starting point, with so many subjects to talk about, what do I wittle it down to. With so many blogs out there, how does a single blog stand out? I thought about it, and I’m not 100% sure about any subject. Military, financial, political, foreign affairs are subjects I’m comfortable with. But I’m probably going to talk about everything. So enjoy anything I put up.
Interests 