{"id":3531,"date":"2013-07-21T23:36:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/?page_id=3531"},"modified":"2016-12-11T20:45:27","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T12:45:27","slug":"service-uniform-few-good-men","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/articles\/service-uniform-few-good-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Service In Uniform – Why Are There Only A Few Good Men?"},"content":{"rendered":"

News of misconduct or incompetence involving people in uniform always sadden me. It doesn\u2019t matter if they happen to be of people in the Armed Forces, Home Team, Civil Defence of other uniformed organization, they are still about people in uniform. During the month of July 2013, news concerning prison inmate deaths, assaults on Prison Officers by inmates, murders committed by a Singapore Police Officer and some others were found in the news. No one looks forward to seeing news of this sort, but they do happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Handcuffed\"<\/a>The bandwagon, knee-jerk reaction is usually cries for overhaul, more leniency towards criminals and greater recognition of their \u201crights\u201d, stricter and more restrictive rules for the people in uniform, higher government spending and so forth.<\/span><\/p>\n

I offer a slightly different view. My mind went back to this passage in the science fiction work by Robert A Heinlein, \u201cStarship Troopers\u201d. It is taken from Chapter Six and describes what happens after a recruit in the Federation was given ten lashes and a bad conduct discharge for striking his instructor during a field exercise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zim said stiffly, \u201cCaptain, that boy doesn\u2019t rate ten lashes.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Frankel answered, \u201cOf course he doesn\u2019t. You know who goofed \u2013 and so do I.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Sir, I know.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWell? You know even better than I do that these kids are wild animals at this stage. You know when it\u2019s safe to turn your back on them and when it isn\u2019t. You know the doctrine and the standing orders about article nine-oh-eight-oh \u2013 you must never give them a chance to violate it. Of course some of them are going to try it \u2013 if they weren\u2019t aggressive they wouldn\u2019t be material for the M.I. They\u2019re docile in ranks; it\u2019s safe enough to turn your back when they\u2019re eating, or sleeping, or sitting on their tails and being lectured. But get them out in the field in a combat exercise, or anything that gets them keyed up and full of adrenalin, and they\u2019re as explosive as a hatful of mercury fulminate. You know that, all you instructors know that; you\u2019re trained \u2013 trained to watch for it, trained to snuff it out before it happens. Explain to me how it was possible for an untrained recruit to hang a mouse on your eye? He should never have laid a hand on you; you should have knocked him cold when you saw what he was up to. So why weren\u2019t you on the bounce? Are you slowing down?\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Zim answered slowly. \u201cI guess I must be.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHmmm! If true, a combat team is the last place for you. But it\u2019s not true. Or wasn\u2019t true the last time you and I worked out together, three days ago. So what slipped?\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Zim was slow in answering. \u201cI think I had him tagged in my mind as one of the safe ones.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no such.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir. But he was so earnest, so doggedly determined to sweat it out \u2013 he didn\u2019t have any aptitude but he kept on trying \u2013 that I must have done that, subconsciously.\u201d Zim was silent, then added, \u201cI guess it was because I liked him.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Frankel snorted, \u201cAn instructor can\u2019t afford to like a man.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know it, sir. But I do. They\u2019re a nice bunch of kids. We\u2019ve dumped all the real twerps by now \u2013 Hendrick\u2019s only shortcoming, aside from being clumsy, was that he thought he knew all the answers. I didn\u2019t mind that; I knew it all at that age myself. The twerps have gone home and those that are left are eager, anxious to please, and on the bounce \u2013 as cute as a litter of collie pups. A lot of them will make soldiers.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo that was the soft spot. You liked him\u2026so you failed to clip him in time. So he winds up with a court and a whip and a B.C.D. Sweet.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Zim said earnestly, \u201cI wish to heaven there were some way for me to take that flogging myself, sir.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d have to take your turn, I outrank you. What do you think I\u2019ve been wishing the past hour? What do you think I was afraid of the moment I saw you come in here sporting a shiner? I did my best to brush it off with administrative punishment and the young fool wouldn\u2019t let well enough alone. But I never thought he would be crazy enough to blurt it out that he\u2019d hung one on you \u2013 he\u2019s stupid; you should have eased him out of the outfit weeks ago\u2026instead of nursing him along until he got into trouble. But blurt it out he did, to me, in front of witnesses, forcing me to take official notice of it \u2013 and that licked us. No way to get it off the record, no way to avoid a court\u2026just go through the whole dreary mess and take our medicine, and wind up with one more civilian who\u2019ll be against us the rest of his days. Because he has to be flogged; neither you nor I can take it for him, even though the fault was ours. Because the regiment has to see what happens when nine-oh-eight-oh is violated. Our fault\u2026 but his lumps.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSee that you do. Because when the next kid starts swinging, it\u2019s got to be stop-punched \u2013 not muffed, like today. The boy has got to be knocked cold and the instructor must do so without ever being touched himself \u2013 or I\u2019ll damn well break him for incompetence. Let them know that. They\u2019ve got to teach those kids that it\u2019s not merely expensive but impossible to violate nine-oh-eight-oh\u2026that even trying it wins a short nap, a bucket of water in the face, and a very sore jaw \u2013 and nothing else.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir. It\u2019ll be done.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt had better be done. I will not only break the instructor who slips, I will personally take him \u2018way out on the prairie and give him lumps\u2026because I will not have another one of my boys strung up to that whipping post through sloppiness on the part of his teachers. Dismissed.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

You get the drift?<\/span><\/p>\n

First \u2013 any misconduct or incompetence on the part of a person in uniform can never be tolerated. That implies that they must be extremely well trained, and that competency levels are maintained at an extremely high level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second \u2013 instructors, prison wardens, police officers, soldiers, etc, cannot afford to fraternize with the people they are serving, whether those people be trainees, prisoners or simply members of the public. People in uniform have a job to do and they are expected to do so professionally. Like bouncers in an establishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now do you understand why there are so few really great people in uniform?<\/span><\/p>\n

The same principles that govern how uniformed personnel are supposed to discharge their duties is applicable to leadership in any enterprise. Make sure you acquire and retain a high degree of competence, and make sure you discharge your duties responsibly without fear or favour.<\/span><\/p>\n

When that is established, expect great things to happen!<\/span><\/p>\n

Download the pdf here<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News of misconduct or incompetence involving people in uniform always sadden me. It doesn\u2019t matter if they happen to be of people in the Armed Forces, Home Team, Civil Defence of other uniformed organization, they are still about people in uniform. During the month of July 2013, news concerning prison inmate deaths, assaults on Prison […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3537,"parent":1649,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2EiEv-UX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3531"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8724,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3531\/revisions\/8724"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elijahconsulting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}