Quote:
Originally Posted by abc_123
Funny HQ commandant story from back in 1st CAV...
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That is a great story and does it bring back a memory or two. I had just taken over a B-Team in the 10th in 1969 when I received a similar cryptic note telling me that the post Cdr wanted to see me. Back then the post cdr was a BG. Seems as the BG was on his way to MG and was looking for an aide which, for those who know me, was not something on my METL. The interview did not last long because when he asked me what I thought about becoming his aide I replied, "I did not come into the army to carry around a pillow for someone to sit on or be someone's boot black." Inteview terminated
In 1972 I reported into the 101st hoping for an airborne infantry company and as luck would have it there were slots available. However the CG was the same MG for whom I objectively discussed my career options as his aide and for some reason ,of all the young CPTs ,I was singled out by his AG for a special assignment in straigthing out the worst company sized unit on post, the 545th Personnel Service Company. I was not a happy camper and was sure that the MG was behind this. So I did the personnel management thing with the AG telling him that I was an Infantry Officer, that this was a mal-assignment, that I was told by DA that I was going to go to the Division and I would not be jerked around by some leg LTC. The last part did not go over well but he made me a promise, or a threat, depending on how you look at it. He said that he was really looking for a SF officer who could deal with the unusual and that if I straightened out the company he promised to send me to the Division. The proof of the effort would be the upcoming IG inspection in January (this was June). At the same time the MG had some quirk about pitting company commanders against one another and had come up with a stupid little penant that he would award annually called the 101 effectiveness award. He was a management freak and would use the daily stats, produced by the machine branch which belonged to the 545th Personnel Service Company, to directly by pass the chain of command and call company commanders directly about whatever cropped up on the stats that he monitored. The machine branch, as I saw it, became the center of gravity for figuring out the MG's convoluted approach to leadership and I used it to my advantage. His little award was going to be based on computer punch cards and my strategy was to make sure chads fell or hung in line for the 545th. The goal for my release from bondage was to enable the company to take that damn penant. Well to make a long story short not only did we take his dumbass penant, we maxed the IG, the messhall (we did not have dinning facilities back then) won best small mess in the Army in Conus, and our reenlistment rates broke the book. The MG never really figured out how we did it and I wasn't about to tell him but the best part was this MG, when he figured out I was the same ungrateful CPT that had turned down his selection for aide and had handily blew away all those stats he had set as measurment tools ahead of "the real units", refused to award the penant to the unit in person and had his chief of staff do it for him.
Little did I know that this was only going to be the first of many irritating issues dealing with those "leaders" whose approach to command was management by machine.
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