This is the start of a new case study. For those of you unfamiliar with how this works, I start a story loosely based on personal experiences and develop it based on your responses. This is a complete work of fiction and unless specified otherwise, none of the units, situations, or people mentioned are real.
The purpose of these case studies is to provide an entertaining venue to discuss military leadership. You should feel free to chime in with your suggestions, comments, observations and questions; that’s what really makes these fun for everyone. At the end of the case study, I’ll wrap it all up and talk briefly about how the case study compared to what happened (or didn’t happen) in real life.
These cases take time (in some instances, “a lot” of time) so no promises on when it will get wrapped up. I’ll go ahead and just say that I’ll work on this as I get time, and it will be finished when it gets finished; no promises.
Everyone is encouraged to participate in this thread and to offer suggestions, observations, and comments either about specific leadership-related themes or the plot in general.
This story takes place immediately after the events related in “Sun Tzu"
case study: http://www.shadowspear.com/vb/threads/case-study-sun-tzu-iii-31.14918/
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If there was a more useless, demeaning, and utterly worthless job for a Military Intelligence captain in the entire Division, Captain Scott Faith, formerly of the 2nd Special Forces Group, knew that he would be there instead of here in the 116th Transportation Brigade. Outmaneuvered by Major Dudley, or “The Dud” as he was unaffectionately known in his and CPT Faith’s former unit, Faith found himself not only cast out of his job supporting Special Forces, but also in the unenviable position of working for a man he totally despised.
The Dud, with whom Faith had frequently clashed in his previous assignment, had become the assistant to the Division G2, the senior intelligence officer in the Division. Traditionally, the Assistant G2 was responsible for making the assignments for all of the company-grade (i.e. lieutenants and captains) in the Division. The Dud took great pleasure in choosing for Faith a job that was 1) on the most remote section of post; 2) in a unit that wasn’t on jump status; 3) was a combat service support job; and 4) was subordinate to someone else. So, after clearing 2nd Group, CPT Faith reported to the 116th Trans and his new boss, the Brigade Executive Officer, Major Everly. MAJ Everly, Faith found, was not a bad guy. But he was a TERRIBLE officer. Having been passed over three times for promotion to the next higher grade of lieutenant colonel, MAJ Everly was merely marking time until his mandatory separation from active duty. Fat and hopelessly out of shape, Everly showed up late for work, regularly missed scheduled meetings, and spent most of his time on Internet job-hunting sites. He also never failed to miss the “mandatory” morning PT sessions. But he was not malicious, and in his own way took care of CPT Faith and the others working in the brigade staff.
Faith didn’t mind that Everly was a total slacker. In fact, his hands-off approach to… everything… meant that Faith got to pretty much run the Brigade staff. Faith was, in fact, the senior officer in the staff after Everly. There was only one other captain on the staff, the Brigade S3, a position usually held by a senior major or even a lieutenant colonel. The rest of the brigade staff was filled out with lieutenants, or the officer positions were vacant. This was in part because the Brigade was non-deployable and had only “garrison” responsibilities. It was also because the Brigade was scheduled to be de-activated in six months, and most of the officers (well, the good ones at least) had been shipped off to other units. And, Faith had to admit, it was in part because no one gave a shit about the unit.
But Faith did give a shit. Although he had made the decision to submit his paperwork to resign his commission, he was still and officer and comported himself like a professional. He also expected everyone around him to act like a professional officer as well. So he organized five-day-a-week officer PT, which everyone including the brigade commander (but not MAJ Everly) scrupulously attended. Faith organized by-weekly Officer Professional Development courses, with the responsibility for these events rotating through the various staff sections in the Brigade. He ran ranges, led training exercises, and even planned the Brigade’s first ever dining-out. In short, he did everything he could to keep his mind off the fact that he gotten fired from the job that would likely have been the most important assignment of his career.
And oh yeah, that part about “working for a man he totally despised?” Well, while it was true that MAJ Everly was technically Faith’s direct supervisor, because he was a hopeless wreck of an officer and because he was a non-intel officer and because he was due to get separated at any time, the Division G2 thought it would be in Faith’s interests to have a different “rater” on his Officer Evaluation Report, and assigned his Division Assistant S2 to figure out who it should be. Major Dudley said he would take one for the team and assume the responsibility for being CPT Faith’s rater. So now was Faith not only in the worst job in Division, he had the worst rater in Division as well. Not that he really cared, since he was getting out soon anyway. But it was something that grated him. The Dud made Faith report monthly in order to receive “performance counseling,” which usually involved The Dud inventing a hopeless array of tasks that Faith was to perform over the next month, and a demand to know why the hopeless array of tasks from the previous month was not accomplished. The Dud hoped to provoke Faith into over-reacting or to at least get under his skin, but it didn’t happen. Faith was long past caring.
The purpose of these case studies is to provide an entertaining venue to discuss military leadership. You should feel free to chime in with your suggestions, comments, observations and questions; that’s what really makes these fun for everyone. At the end of the case study, I’ll wrap it all up and talk briefly about how the case study compared to what happened (or didn’t happen) in real life.
These cases take time (in some instances, “a lot” of time) so no promises on when it will get wrapped up. I’ll go ahead and just say that I’ll work on this as I get time, and it will be finished when it gets finished; no promises.
Everyone is encouraged to participate in this thread and to offer suggestions, observations, and comments either about specific leadership-related themes or the plot in general.
This story takes place immediately after the events related in “Sun Tzu"
case study: http://www.shadowspear.com/vb/threads/case-study-sun-tzu-iii-31.14918/
/////
If there was a more useless, demeaning, and utterly worthless job for a Military Intelligence captain in the entire Division, Captain Scott Faith, formerly of the 2nd Special Forces Group, knew that he would be there instead of here in the 116th Transportation Brigade. Outmaneuvered by Major Dudley, or “The Dud” as he was unaffectionately known in his and CPT Faith’s former unit, Faith found himself not only cast out of his job supporting Special Forces, but also in the unenviable position of working for a man he totally despised.
The Dud, with whom Faith had frequently clashed in his previous assignment, had become the assistant to the Division G2, the senior intelligence officer in the Division. Traditionally, the Assistant G2 was responsible for making the assignments for all of the company-grade (i.e. lieutenants and captains) in the Division. The Dud took great pleasure in choosing for Faith a job that was 1) on the most remote section of post; 2) in a unit that wasn’t on jump status; 3) was a combat service support job; and 4) was subordinate to someone else. So, after clearing 2nd Group, CPT Faith reported to the 116th Trans and his new boss, the Brigade Executive Officer, Major Everly. MAJ Everly, Faith found, was not a bad guy. But he was a TERRIBLE officer. Having been passed over three times for promotion to the next higher grade of lieutenant colonel, MAJ Everly was merely marking time until his mandatory separation from active duty. Fat and hopelessly out of shape, Everly showed up late for work, regularly missed scheduled meetings, and spent most of his time on Internet job-hunting sites. He also never failed to miss the “mandatory” morning PT sessions. But he was not malicious, and in his own way took care of CPT Faith and the others working in the brigade staff.
Faith didn’t mind that Everly was a total slacker. In fact, his hands-off approach to… everything… meant that Faith got to pretty much run the Brigade staff. Faith was, in fact, the senior officer in the staff after Everly. There was only one other captain on the staff, the Brigade S3, a position usually held by a senior major or even a lieutenant colonel. The rest of the brigade staff was filled out with lieutenants, or the officer positions were vacant. This was in part because the Brigade was non-deployable and had only “garrison” responsibilities. It was also because the Brigade was scheduled to be de-activated in six months, and most of the officers (well, the good ones at least) had been shipped off to other units. And, Faith had to admit, it was in part because no one gave a shit about the unit.
But Faith did give a shit. Although he had made the decision to submit his paperwork to resign his commission, he was still and officer and comported himself like a professional. He also expected everyone around him to act like a professional officer as well. So he organized five-day-a-week officer PT, which everyone including the brigade commander (but not MAJ Everly) scrupulously attended. Faith organized by-weekly Officer Professional Development courses, with the responsibility for these events rotating through the various staff sections in the Brigade. He ran ranges, led training exercises, and even planned the Brigade’s first ever dining-out. In short, he did everything he could to keep his mind off the fact that he gotten fired from the job that would likely have been the most important assignment of his career.
And oh yeah, that part about “working for a man he totally despised?” Well, while it was true that MAJ Everly was technically Faith’s direct supervisor, because he was a hopeless wreck of an officer and because he was a non-intel officer and because he was due to get separated at any time, the Division G2 thought it would be in Faith’s interests to have a different “rater” on his Officer Evaluation Report, and assigned his Division Assistant S2 to figure out who it should be. Major Dudley said he would take one for the team and assume the responsibility for being CPT Faith’s rater. So now was Faith not only in the worst job in Division, he had the worst rater in Division as well. Not that he really cared, since he was getting out soon anyway. But it was something that grated him. The Dud made Faith report monthly in order to receive “performance counseling,” which usually involved The Dud inventing a hopeless array of tasks that Faith was to perform over the next month, and a demand to know why the hopeless array of tasks from the previous month was not accomplished. The Dud hoped to provoke Faith into over-reacting or to at least get under his skin, but it didn’t happen. Faith was long past caring.
