Troops beat your charge? Well, you have one person to blame for that one. If you had done your job properly, he would have been convicted, but you did'nt, and he walked. I think this is the downside of an army of "thinking" soldiers - sometimes they will out think their leadership!
I'm guessing that you are a Cpl, without a PLQ. Why??? Because you seem to think it is easy to the job "properly". Ever issue a caution to someone??? If so, did the guy/girl get off on a technicality??? How about have someone be insubordinate to you, and you had the presence of mind to pull out your caution card immediately (or quote it, word for word) before you said anything???? How about having to go to a soldier's house, because he didn't show up for work, get a social worker to come along, have a MCpl there as a witness, (thereby having 3 witnesses, one a civvy), and then because you were concerned for his mental well being, let the social worker do the talking, and then because you ask a few basic questions, to cover the basics, not have an AWOA charge not go through because you had the nerve!!! the nerve!!!! to ask these questions before the caution was read?????? Welcome to my world..... I gotta wait til you're my superior, and I'll push all the buttons I need to get you to not do your job properly, because, Hey!!! I'm a thinking soldier,too, you know... and then I'll laugh my hole off when I walk out of the Base Commander's office... Remember, it's always easy to look up the totem pole and say all you see are assholes, cause when you look down the totem pole, all you see are pricks.
I admit that I "shit the bed" on 2 of these occasions, but my leadership trg was done in an era ('92) where it was look up the info in the good old QR&O's (in a book.... using an index..... no Ctrl F..... IMAGINE!!!!!!), figure out what/where/how it applied, and that was that. No questions asked. Now, if you even breath hard while issuing the caution, which BTW, I just learned of within the last 2 years, the soldier can get off because you didn't do your "job properly".
We do sensitivity trg, diversity trg, harassment trg 2 or 3 times a year, but it seems that the type of PD (professional development) that should be done, isn't.
BTW, I have never been charged, though I should have been, more than a few times. I was going to FORCE my WO and Tp Ldr to charge me for dereliction of duty, just to make sure that a Tpr would also be charged (they didn't want to charge the guy, because it would make our troop look bad.... hmmmm, that's good logic). In fact, the reason that more people aren't charged, is because, well, golly, it is too much work to do it, and all the hoops that one has to jump through to make a charge stick. And then even when all the T's are crossed and the i's are dotted, an OC or CO gives a teeny, tiny slap on the wrist. Is it any coincidence that discipline is in the crapper???? Soldier's could pretty much get away with murder, because they know that little or nothing will be done about it. The only thing stopping me from going "postal" some days is a sense of discipline, pride and professionalism..... I could claim PTSD, stress, boils on my ass, whatever, and I would probably skate.....
Anyway, I'm sure we can all go 'round and 'round on who's right and who's wrong.
Al
