The Change Up

 I came to Afghanistan as a Maintenance Platoon Leader in a Forward Support Company in an Engineer Battalion. I started with 45 Soldiers in my platoon, by the time we made it to theater I had 40 for various individual reason. Unfortunately, I found myself in an interesting predicament. I came straight from Quartermaster Basic Officer Leader Course (BOLC). For those of you that don't know, Quartermaster branch is logistics and supply. That has very precious little to do with the Maintenance which falls under the Ordnance branch. Let's be honest, I know NOTHING about maintenance. I had to ask my Soldiers to teach me which tools were which, which vehicles were which, and basically what the hell they do all day and what I need to do to make sure they can do their job. Before I left for BOLC I spent time in the motor pool with them doing just that but it wasn't nearly enough. That would all be fine except for the fact that my Platoon Sergeant wanted nothing to do with me. He was a crusty old 52 year-old Haitian man who had not had an involved Platoon Leader for years. He pretty much operated the reserve center motor pool without direction or supervision, which worked fine in a garrison environment. He is known for his ferocious temper and generally uncooperative demeanor (I'm not being biased in this case, he actually is). My first day I introduced myself and said that I didn't know anything about maintenance I wasn't there to get in the way and I know I just need to learn as much as I can and I hear you have a lot of experience so feel free to just point me in the direction of what I need to learn first and I will get to work. Without making eye-contact he shrugged and said, "we haven't had a Platoon Leader in a long time, we've got this Ma'am, you can just sit down somewhere and relax." I knew then that I was in for a challenge but I am neither faint of heart nor lacking persistence so I decided I would just have to focus on earning his respect in other ways so that maybe he would WANT to work with me. I went to the motor pool, put on a pair of gloves and asked the first Specialist I saw to show me how to do what they were doing. The Soldiers were receptive to this and proclaimed they didn't think they had ever seen an officer in the motor pool getting all greasy before. 

A few weeks later I left for BOLC and studied up on maintenance as much as I could while still keeping up with my course work. I returned to my unit and was assigned officially as Maintenance Platoon Leader and started to play catch up for deployment. I studied the names on the roster, asked the Soldiers lots of questions about their civilian jobs, goals, family etc. and took notes in my book after they walked away so I could cement the information in my memory. I got involved helping with the equipment loading plan and starting passing the information I was getting to my Platoon Sergeant. I scheduled three different appointments with my Platoon Sergeant so I could do his initial counseling, all of which he missed for one reason or another. I asked my Company Commander about what he thought about the initial counseling and he said he thought it made sense to wait until we had been in theater a little while so it would focus on the job we would be doing there. I submitted to his advice and waited. Later, I concluded that was a mistake I would never make again (waiting on the counseling that is). 

When we got to pre-mobilization training at Ft. Bliss, things between my Platoon Sergeant and I began to take a turn for the worse. Despite my efforts to show him I was not trying to step on his toes and come across as humble and eager to listen and learn, he continued to not only not communicate with me or train me, but seemingly actively avoid me. I asked him to come in my office and close the door one day and confronted him about my concern. He was tense and defensive, I spoke firmly but passively stating that I wanted us to work as a team and be a unified front and explaining that at a minimum I need him to communicate with me about what is going on with the platoon. I explained that I understood he was used to doing things on his own but that I cannot be in a combat zone and not know what is going on with my platoon but I would stay out of his way for the most part if he would agree to regularly update me about what was going on. He agreed he would try harder to keep me informed and I had hope I could still get through to him and build a good working relationship. For those of you who don't know, a new Lieutenant is almost like a private often times. They are an officer and in charge of troops but they know very little about their job and generally are inexperienced. Therefore, the Army couples them with a Platoon Sergeant who has already worked their way a ways up the enlisted chain of command and has a great deal of experience . Ultimately, the Platoon Leader is in charge but it is that Platoon Sergeant's job to train and mold that LT into a good officer.  The Platoon Leader is supposed to plan and lead by example and the Platoon Sergeant is responsible for executing and maintaining the standards of discipline for the platoon. This relationship is crucial and when it is broken there are all kinds of problems. When we got to theater things kept getting worse. During the week we had to learn from the outgoing unit, he didn't speak with the outgoing platoon sergeant or come into our office once. When I mentioned we needed to set up an NCO evaluations tracker, he said everyone could remember when their own evaluations were due. I would speak with him in a normal tone and he would start yelling at me with troops around. Through all of this I was consulting with my first sergeant (basically a the company level version of a platoon sergeant who is teamed with the company commander) and asked for advice about how to handle the situation. For a lot of it I tried to reason with him and be patient. Eventually I started getting more firm and one day when I told him I needed something and he started complaining that I was annoying I snapped back at him, "I don't give a f*** if you think I'm annoying I am still the Godd****** platoon leader and when I ask for something you will do it." He looked startled but I stormed away before he could say anything and first sergeant later told me that my Platoon Sergeant had told him he was surprised I cussed at him and respected me more for it. At this point I had written a "developmental counseling" (army lingo for a negative write-up that goes in someone's temporary file unless they accumulate a few of them) on the incident. When the First Sergeant told me what he did I again had hope I could reach my Platoon Sergeant and build a relationship. I still counseled him and showed him the statement I wrote up but I explained I wouldn't make him sign it in this case because I still believed we could work as a team if he would just communicate with me and show me some respect in front of the troops. He agreed. 

A few days later things got bad. I did a walk through of the motor pool they had supposedly spent the last week cleaning and there was trash everywhere. I calmly mentioned that we needed to make sure the Soldiers were picking up after themselves when he got back for lunch and he was yelling again. I told him to stop yelling and talk to me and we then proceeded to argue for a good 10 minutes about nothing productive. I finally felt myself getting heated and walked away. As I was walking away I saw more wrappers laying in the gravel that my Platoon Sergeant had just been denying existed. I picked a few up intending to throw them away myself but it occurred to me that this was part of the problem and I turned around and told my Platoon Sergeant, look! This is what I'm talking about. Get these picked up! And I dropped them in place and stormed away. I closed the door in my office and closed my eyes, tired of everything simple thing being a fight and attempting to calm down. My Platoon Sergeant came storming in after me yelling and making threats about what he would do to me if I ever disrespected him again. I remained seated at my desk, calmly listening for more information to determine what specifically he was referring to. I let him say over and over he didn't care about rank and make threats for a while before I firmly said stop and said that my intention was not to embarrass him but simply establish that I was not crazy for thinking the motor pool had trash everywhere by offering an example. He continued shouting about how he was a 52 year old man who didn't have to listen to me and making threats until i stood up at my desk and shouted "That's right, I'm 23 years old but I am a commissioned officer and I have done nothing but try to work with you and you have refused so at this point I don't give a damn what you are upset about and you need to care about rank or I will make sure you are removed from being the Platoon Sergeant." He gestured whatever and said I couldn't do anything to him and I said well go ahead and test that theory. He raised his voice more and I walked past him to open the door and tell him to get out of my office. At this point he continued making threats about what he would do if I "ever did that again" and I finally said "I am the Platoon Leader and I will do what I want." With that he lunged toward me reaching over me to slam the door closed and cocking his other hand back as if he was going to punch me, saying "oh really!? You will do what ever you want?" Admittedly I was caught off guard when the attempt at vocal intimidation turned to an attempt at physical intimidation and I reflexively leaned back and raised my arms in front of my face defensively. A beat later I ducked under his raised arm and picked up the phone to call for help since he was hold the door close. I dialed the last number I had called which was the Company Command Post and our operations NCO answered the phone but then I didn't know what to say so I hung up. My Platoon Sergeant kept yelling and moved toward me again so I picked the phone back up and dialed again but didn't say anything...I just stood there unsure of what to say again. Help, my platoon sergeant has me trapped in my office and my might hit me just didn't seem like the line I was looking for. On a side note, I did have my knife on me if it came down to it but I'm glad I hadn't thought to pull it yet because if I had I probably would have stabbed him and that REALLY would have been a mess. Anyway, I was screaming at my Platoon Sergeant to get the f*** out of my office over and over when another NCO heard the yelling and opened the door and convinced my Platoon Sergeant to leave. When they left I was shaking from adrenaline. After about 30 seconds, I grabbed my rifle and my cap and headed straight for my Company Commander's office. He wasn't there. I told my company commander what had happened maybe 30 minutes later and he was very upset about the situation and said he would take care of everything and he had my back. I wrote a sworn statement, so did my Platoon Sergeant. Next thing I know, my Commander has me in his office explaining the most fair thing to do is move both of us. They sent my Platoon Sergeant to turn wrenches at a construction site and I became the new StratCom (strategic communications) officer. I was furious. I had always felt that my Company Commander was a weak leader at best and did not stand up for his subordinate leaders, or company for that matter, and I lost almost all respect for him as a person over "the hair incident" (again, I'll explain that later) but I couldn't believe he was basically firing me as Platoon Leader because I came to him with a problem that I had worked for months with the help of First Sergeant to handle on my own. Nevertheless, I love the StratCom position and it turned out to be a better opportunity for me that was better suited for my skill set. I work directly for the Task Force executive officer and commander who are both strong leaders that I can learn a great from. I do not, however, give my former company commander ANY credit for that outcome whatsoever.

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I found myself in a brand new position on three weeks after arriving in Afghanistan but it holds true that everything works together for the good and no weapon formed against me shall prosper.