Case Study: Karma

“Ah! CPT Faith,” calls The Dud from across the room. “I was just giving the troops here the good news about change to the MTOE and introducing them to their new commander.” Clearly, he is relishing the fact that you will no longer be the Group MID commander, and that you will soon be under his control. His presence here is to rub it in your face and to elicit an over-reaction from you. Normally, you would be more than happy to oblige, but this time you’re not falling for the bait.

“Roger sir, it was very nice of you to bring LT Delano over. I’m sure the troops were very glad to make her acquaintance. I’ll be glad to take it from here, sir, the lieutenant and I can handle things commander-to-future commander. We’ll handle things here and give LT Delano a ride back over when we’re done here. We’ll let you know if you we need anything.” The Dud doesn’t look pleased, but there’s nothing he can really say either. He wraps up what he was doing and starts to leave the office area. You grab your hat to walk him down to the office, more to make sure he actually leaves then our of courtesy. On the way to his car, you two have a conversation which on the surface seems pleasant, but is full of hidden meaning.

“So, you’re going to be my new AS2,” the Dud says idly, meaning I am SO going to get you back for all those times you made me look bad.

“Looks that way, sir. I’m very much looking forward to the challenge.” I’m not scared of you, you reply.

“That’s great. I’m expecting you to start immediately. I’ve got a whole list of important things that need to get done before the big inspection.” There’s a whole lot of things I don’t feel like doing, which I’m going to dump onto you, because I can.

“Roger sir, I’ll report the moment I’m released from the GSC and assigned to HHC.” Which I will make sure is after that inspection, good luck with that.

“OK then, it sounds like we understand each other. I think we’ll get along just fine.” This is going to be a train wreck.“

I couldn’t agree more.” Yep.

“Have a nice day.” Fuck you.

“You too, sir.” Fuck you, too.
 
tigerstr said:
X2 Mara wants us to beg for an update ;)
Click to expand...

He's still in denial that there are no NCOs to finish this story that was started back when he actually had NCOs to write stores for him... he's stalling until he can talk one of his fellow students into finishing ... and proof reading...

Begging would just feed his ego about taking credit for somebodyelse's stellar work...

:ROFLMAO::hmm:
 
After that pleasant exchange with your future/not really boss, you again tromp up the steel staircase into your company office. You intend to have a nice long talk with LT Delano, but she is nowhere to be found.

“Where’s the lieutenant?” you ask SPD DeSilva, who happens to have orderly room duty for the day.

“She’s in there sir,” he replies, gesturing towards a closed office door, “with Chief Rollins,” he adds ominously. Just about the time you begin to wonder if you’re going to have to rescue LT Delano, the door opens and both she and Chief Rollins step out. You have no idea what was discussed in the short period you were gone, but you notice that the lieutenant’s uniform top is back on, and so is Chief Rollins’. Both women have a neutral expression, and it’s impossible to tell what was discussed while the door was closed.

“LT Delano, if you want we can go back to my office and you and MSG Reynolds and I can chat about working out a schedule for the change of command inventories and schedule a date for me to hand over the guidon,” you say.

“Hey sir,” interjects Chief Rollins, “LT Delano has something she needs to take care of back at the Group headquarters. I’m going to take her over and then I’ll be back and we can chat.”

That’s kind of strange, but whatever… “OK Chief, come see me when you get back. You’re going to be the POC on our end for the change of command.”

Chief Rollins gives a thumbs up to acknowledge what you said, but after she and LT Delano turned around and began to walk out, you see Chief Rollins’ hand turn into an emphatic thumbs down. You can’t help but laugh.

“Things are going to be pretty interesting around here after you leave,” says SPC DeSilva. You think he’s kidding, but when you see his face, you can tell he didn’t mean it as a joke.
“Yeah, you may be right,” is all you can think of as a reply.
 
LT Delano is going to bail.... Dud did something, or she's smart enough to know (or was clued in to reality by Chief) that she doesn't have the strength of of the Chief in dealing with the Team guys and their personalities....

Closed door meeetings are bad, secret thumbs downs are worse...

(cue suspenseful music here)
 
“Well, this is a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” muttered Faith, settling into his chair behind his desk.

“What’s this ‘we,’ white man?” Reynolds responded, grinning. “I told you a long time ago that if you would listen to me more, we’d both be better off.”

“Yeah, right,” Faith responded, “If I listened to you, we’d both be in jail for kicking Jody Schum’s ass in that parking lot.”

“But you DID kick his ass,” Reynolds reminded Faith. “And look, we’re both still here,” he added, winking.

SPC Desilva suddenly appeared in the door. “Sir, you have a visitor, 1LT Castelli would like to speak with you.”

“Just what we need around here,” groused Reynolds, “another lieutenant.”

“No First Sergeant, this one is different. You’re going to like Charles Castelli,” and with that, Faith asked DeSilva to show Castelli in.

1LT Charles Castelli was tall, well-built, and showing early signs of baldness. He had an affable personality, and it wasn’t long before he had Reynolds laughing out loud with tales of the adventures that Castelli and Faith had together in Korea, where Castelli served as Faith’s company executive officer.

“So, your boy there, Lieutenant Castelli…” Reynolds began after Castelli had departed.

“Yes?” Faith inquired.

“…what are they going to have him doing?” Reynolds finished.

“Well, the plan I worked out with MAJ Ridley was for Castelli to come to the MID, kind of like a consolation prize for not getting any of the other new LTs,” Faith responded.

“From what I’ve seen of them so far, I’m pretty glad they’re not coming here,” stated Reynolds. “But you’re right, your boy Castelli is different. And I’m not sure that the MID is the right place for him.”

“Why is that?” asked Faith, surprised.

“Well, for one thing, the MID is about to drop down to what, 12-20 guys? How many warrants and RLOs do you need to run something that size? And besides, are you really going to have one lieutenant working for another? You know that’s not going to work out.”

“So what are you suggesting? I should take him with me to the Group S2 shop? I could use a good officer there to back me up.” Faith mused.

“Sir, now you’re just being selfish,” Reynolds chided, grinning.

“What, then?

“Doesn’t the HQD still need a commander?”

“Yeah, sure does.”

“Do you think your boy Castelli can handle it?”

“Sure.”

“Would you rather have him or some no-talent assclown SF guy in that gig?”

“OK, I’m convinced,” said Faith with mock exasperation. Let me make a couple of calls. It was not a hard sell to win over MAJ Ridley, who was quite happy to finally have a name to put against that position, nor to the DCO, who was glad to have one less thing to worry about in the GSC. The last call Faith made was to Castelli himself.

“So, Charles,” Faith began, “How long have you wanted to have a command of your own?”

The whole process, from Reynolds’ recommendation to Castelli’s acceptance of the offer of command, took less than 30 minutes, but it was now about 5:30 PM.

“If only the rest of the issues we’re having could be sorted this quickly,” Faith mused.

“Tell me about it,” answered Reynolds. Glancing at his watch, he said, “Well, it looks like it’s about ‘FTS O’Clock,’ and I don’t think Chief Rollins is coming back. Want to go get a beer?”

“Sure,” replied Faith, grabbing his beret off the desk and heading for the door.fts o\'clock.jpg
 
0699 said:
Holy fuck. I'd written this off as the story that would never be told...
Click to expand...

lol

Yeah, this was a classic case of "the perfect being the enemy of the sufficient." I had a lot of conflicting storylines I wanted to work in, and I couldn't get it all to come out right. So nothing got done at all. I literally re-wrote the whole thing like four times, still not happy with it. But then I thought that the best one of these that we did, "The Loyal Wife," was done without a whole lot of forethought, just a couple of lines of typing and some good input from the site. So that's what I'm going to do from now on, not overthink it, just do it.
 
By the way, sorry for switching from present tense to past tense, etc., I think the story flows better by being the past tense.

Chief Rollins is waiting outside your office the next morning when you show up for PT. She apologized for not coming back last night, but explained that she and LT Delano actually ended up hitting it off quite well. “I think she’s going to be OK, sir,” she added enthusiastically.

The offices of the MID are in the old post stockade, with the MID occupying the upstairs, and a “special” ODA and the sniper locker in the lower level where the cells are. There is limited phone access, and no Internet into the building. The only good thing about this arrangement is that there are very few uninvited guests to the area, since it’s a bit of a drive away from the main Group compound. And it has a very, very nice shower.

Being almost 6’6”, most showerheads get CPT Faith at chest level, right about where the name tags on his uniform would be. But with the showerheads in the MID offices being in the ceiling, and having near-scalding water and tremendous water pressure, it’s actually quite pleasant to shower there after a nice, long run.

Faith heard the phone in his office ringing as he shuffled back in flipflops, towel still draped around his waist. The answering machine kicked in, and he heard MAJ Ripley’s voice asking for Faith to come by the GSC headquarters building first chance he got. Faith closed the door to his office, got dressed, and called Ripley to let him know he was on the way. Because of the road closures for PT hours, and the large formations of running troops he had to dodge, it tool Faith a little longer than usual to get back over to Ripley’s office. When he arrived, Faith saw that his boss had a worried look on his face.

“Look, I hate to drop this on you, but I’m leaving for Iraq in a couple of days and I have something that can’t wait until I get back to get sorted out,” he began.

“OK sir,” Faith responded, cautiously. Ripley seemed unusually concerned.

“Here’s the deal. One of the riggers came to see me yesterday. He says his wife was fooling around with him while he was deployed.”

“OK…” Faith prompted, unsure what this had to do with him.

“He says it’s a guy in the unit,” Ripley said.

“Ah,” said Faith, still not sure why this would be such a concern to Ripley; this isn’t the first time that this kind of thing had happened in the GSC. Now that he thought about it, this wasn’t the first time that it happened amongst the rigger s in the GSC. This is a pretty standard thing that any officer could handle. It would be a great learning experience for a young officer… and now the Group has plenty of those wandering around. Maybe Ripley just wanted Faith’s help in determine which new “O” would have to pull the duty. LT Castelli might be a good one for that.

“He says it was an officer.”

“Oh, I see now.” Well, that kind of changes things.

“Look, Scott,” said Ripley, imploringly. “I need to you do the investigation on this.”

An adultery investigation? Now? With everything else going on? “Sir, I’ve got three changes of command I’m working on, the GSD, mine in the MID, and yours here with the GSC. On top of that, I’m supposed to be transitioning with The Dud, and we’ve got that big annual inspection coming up. Maybe we ought to give this to someone else.”

“I thought about that,” said Ripley, leaning back in his chair. “But let’s run through the list of available officers. First of all, it’s going to have to be a captain or above. I’m heading to Iraq for the PDSS,” this was news to Faith, he didn’t realize that Ripley was heading out to do a pre-deployment site survey, “Tamara Beverly is away on leave. Simon Criss is heading over to 2/16th,” he added, ticking off fingers. “That leaves you.”
“What about Al James?” Faith spouted, frustrated. “He doesn’t do shit around here right now anyway.”
Ripley paused and leaned back in his chair. “I think it might be him,” he said slowly.

“Wait, what?” Faith exclaimed, shocked.

“Look, Scott, I need this done, I need it done now, and I need it done right. If there is an officer sleeping with the wife of one of my Soldiers, I need to know that. Right now you’re the only one I have who can do it, and even if everyone else were available, I’d still want you on it, because I know it would be done right. Now are you going to do this for me or not?”

“Yes sir,” Faith said, a little more sullenly than he intended. One of the things that Faith liked about Ripley was the way he tended to lead by consent, rather than by dictate. It would have been a lot easier, and less time consuming, for Ripley to simply say, “STFU and do this investigation.” But taking the time to explain his reasoning, and to get Faith on board, provided a valuable learning experience for Faith, and helped ensure that Faith would be more motivated to do a good job on the investigation.

“Look sir, you know I’ll do anything that needs to be done for the Group,” Faith started, tentatively. “But are you sure about this? I mean, I don’t particularly like Al James, and he has been acting a little weird lately, but I have never heard about him being involved with anyone other than his wife. Al James is kind of the DCO’s boy, and I know from personal experience from company command in Korea, that in situations like this, unless you have a confession from BOTH parties, and/or pictures of them in the act, it’s very, very hard to get someone to prosecute an adultery case.”

Without speaking, Ripley opened a desk drawer, pulled out a thin manila envelope, and dropped it with a “smack!” on the top of his desk. Faith could see the edges of several photographs peeking out from the borders of the folder.

Faith looked at the close folder, and then up Ripley. “Sir, I’ll get started on this right away."
 
Marauder06 said:
“Well, this is a fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” muttered Faith, settling into his chair behind his desk.

“What’s this ‘we,’ white man?” Reynolds responded, grinning.
Click to expand...

After that, here's my mental sketch of Faith and Reynolds:

The-Lone-Ranger-and-Tonto-007.jpg
 
So now CPT Faith has this adultery investigation dumped on him. He is also responsible for his own change of command, overseeing the GSC change of command, and he wants to make sure that LT Castelli's assumption of command of the HQD goes smoothly. Additionally, he is supposed to be easing into the position of Group S2, which he knows is in shambles, and there is a big annual inspection coming up. Further complicating the situation, Faith's boss, MAJ Ripley, is now heading off to Iraq for God-knows-how-long, and the guy who is supposed to be taking over from him, CPT Al James, is not only a weirdo, but now might also be implicated in the adultery scandal.

What should CPT Faith do? How should he prioritize, and what should he do about the investigation he has been given?
 
Wow..... CPT Faith is definitely in the middle of a massive shitstorm. I think he needs to focus on the investigation right now. The changes of command could be handled with a more hands-off approach where he only steps in if something goes awry. A less than stellar CoC would be far less damaging to the unit in the long run than a sloppy or incomplete investigation into an officer sleeping with an enlisted guy's wife. That ticking time bomb has the potential to go very, very badly. If the enlisted cats feel that the investigation was poorly done, it looks like an "O" trying to cover up for another "O", and even with CPT Faith leaving, could have serious ramifications as far as trust in the command structure goes. Not too mention that if the enlisted guys decide the command isn't doing enough and they decide to take matters into their own hands, you could potentially end up with assault, or even murder, charges. The command would be left in shambles with something like that going on.
 
Back in his office a short time later, Faith reviewed the contents of the envelope that MAJ Ripley had passed him. Inside it were a handful of photos and a sworn statement, signed by a Sergeant Smalls in the HSD. Faith didn’t recognize the name. Nor did he immediately recognize anyone in the photos, which was a bit of a relief. Reading through the statement, Faith saw that SGT Smalls, upon returning from a recent deployment from Iraq, found a handful of digital pictures on his home computer that included shots of his wife in… compromising situations with other men. SGT Smalls identified two of the men by name, and said that they were other members of the riggers’ section. SGT Smalls also said that when he confronted his wife, she first denied being unfaithful, but when pressed, defiantly admitted the affair(s) . She also hinted that there was an officer involved, but she refused to name him and Smalls did not provide any additional information.

SGT Smalls’ wife was what Faith’s best friend, an Army nurse, would call a BMW- “Big Military Wife.” Even if “the camera adds ten pounds,” the woman in the picture must be pushing close to 200 pounds. Even more disgusting than Mrs. Small’s appearance was the various acts in which she was engaged. In the photos were two young men and Mrs. Smalls. Taking a closer look, Faith thought he vaguely recognized one of the men. He was relieved to see that neither of the men even slightly resembled Al James.

About this time, First Sergeant Reynolds entered the office. “Mornin’ sir,” he said, tossing his beret on the text and taking off his uniform blouse. “It’s going to be another hot one.” Seeing the papers and photos spread across Faith’s desk, he asked, “What’s this, then?”

“SGT Small’s wife has been fooling around on him, and MAJ Ripley wants me to investigate it,” Faith sighed, exasperated.

“Why is having you do this? We have a shitload of new LTs who can handle something like this,” he responded.

“That’s what I said too!” Faith exclaimed, “Except MAJ Ripley thinks there may be an officer involved.”

“Ah, well that changes things, let’s see what you’ve got,” said Reynolds, spreading out the photos and papers for a better look.

“Wow, not exactly a prom queen, was she?” Reynolds said, more a statement of fact than a question. “OK, this guy right here, this is SPC Jones from the riggers’ shed. And this guy is…” he pondered for a second or two, “… this is SPC… no, PFC Neidermeyer. Also from the rigger shed.

“Great, thanks,” said Faith, writing down the two names. “I’m just glad that Al James wasn’t in those photos.”
“Why would you think that?” inquired Reynolds, perplexed.

“Ah, it’s just something that MAJ Ripley mentioned, it’s not important. It’s clear he’s not in any of these pictures,” replied Faith, waving his hand dismissively over the photos.

“Well sir,” said Reynolds, “Look at these photos, the angles and stuff. Someone had to be there, taking the pictures…”

“Yeah,” said Faith deflatedly, after a second or two. “You’re right about that.”

“This is bullshit,” Faith exclaimed, disappointed that he couldn’t immediately rule James out in this investigation. “I don’t have time to do this stupid-ass investigation right now. I’ve got three changes of command going on, Ripley’s leaving on a PDSS to Iraq for God-knows-how-long, and to top it off, the guy who is supposed to be taking over for him, Al James, is not only bat-shit crazy, but he’s possibly banging the fat-ass, heavy-drop wife of one of his own troops. And I get left to sort out the details. Plus, I’m supposed to be taking over for The Dud, and there’s that annual inspection coming up, that I KNOW is going to be all f’d up. Bullshit,” Faith said with finality, tossing his pencil onto the desk and leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head. “Plus it’s always so f-ing HOT in here.”

Reynolds laughed. “Look sir, it’s not that bad.” Responding to a quizzical look from Faith, Reynolds continues, “You’ve been in what, 10 years and you still haven’t figured out how to delegate? What’s the most important thing on your plate?”

“Well, according to Ridley, it’s this investigation,” Faith answered.

“OK, then you concentrate on that. You’ve got a whole admin and logistics section on the GSC. They are good troops, and they can get the details of the GSC change of command worked out. As far as the MID change of command, I’m fairly certain that between Chief Reynolds and LT Delano, that’s all going to come out just fime. And as far as the HQD change of command, tell me why you’re involved in that at all?

“Well, it’s Castelli’s first command, and I want to make sure it all goes smoothly for him.”

“Didn’t you say that Castelli is a good O?”

“Yes,” Faith responded.

“And do you think you’re going to have to hold his hand all through his command?”

“No, of course not, or I wouldn’t have recommended him for the job in the first place.”

“Then let him do his thing, sir, he’ll be fine. So that’s off your plate. That leaves you with the adultery investigation, which with the photos and all ought to be pretty open and shut, and then the inspection. But you have to do that every year anyway, so it’s not like it’s going to be all that much work.”

“Yeah,” said Faith, feeling a bit less stressed, “But it’s still Africa hot in here,” he joked.

“Well, if you’d take off your uniform top every once in a while, maybe you’d be a little cooler,” offered Reynolds helpfully.

“I told you before, I think that’s unofficer-ly,” replied Faith.

At that moment, The Dud appeared at the door, with Chief Rollins and LT Delano in tow. Not waiting to knock or to announce himself, he walked on in to the office. “Keep your seats,” he announced to the room. The Dud, red-faced and puffing from the walk across the parking lot and the ascent up the steel stairs, had already stripped off his uniform top. Perspiration had begun to form under his armpits, and a “muffin top” blossomed unappealingly from where his belt met his t-shirt. In short, he looked like a bag of crap.

“Point taken,” said Reynolds out loud, referring to Faith’s earlier “unofficer-ly” comment.
 

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