First off I am not from Texas nor is my name Pete so I apologize if this is misleading or I am misrepresenting myself (Texas Pete was started in North Carolina by a guy named Sam so).
My name is Joe I am currently in the USMC as an intel guy, I have no combat deployments but I have spent over 18 months deployed supporting operations. I am coming up at a fork in the road in my life and was forum surfing and noticed the individuals on this site seem to give straight up opinion unaltered, which I can appreciate. I have by no means been a rock star or even been a "Good Marine" during my enlistment, but then again I only have worked for two people who I can honestly say I considered to be leaders. My view of leadership is generally regarded as wrong by my superiors and other Marines, generally speaking, and I have been told multiple times I am a piece of shit who doesn't deserve to wear the uniform. I never been charged under the UCMJ but I have company level discipline counseling on file (I still was awarded my good cookie at my 4 year mark), and most 1stSgt's and SNCO's would like to see me discharged for failure to adapt or insubordination. Those who have had to work around me on a peer level generally seem to like me, I stand up for them and use the experience I have to prevent them from being shit on which generally doesn't get me too many thumbs up from the leadership. I don't know what those who have worked under me think of me because I have never really asked, but I have never had anyone refer to me by my rank so I guess that means they don't respect me. Most regard me as a disrespectful little fuck, who has no respect for authority or honor for those who came before me, but for the time being at least, they acknowledge that I have my usefulness and extremely reliable to accomplish difficult tasks far above my paygrade with no supervision (That is from a verbal counseling I received upon promotion).
Now that I have told you what my those around me think of me I'll give you my perspective on myself. I have been through some rough times and made poor decisions that will probably come back to haunt me. I don't expect anyone to throw awards at me for doing my job nor do I ever seek praise. I do what I do because its who I want to be and I wish to be seen by my peers and superiors alike as reliable, hardworking person who can accomplish anything. I don't really care about cosmetic or aesthetics, which is probably why most see me as not respectful of our "heritage" but to the contrary I have the ultimate respect for the people who built the reputation so many of my peers ride on. I will admit for the initial part of my career (first 6 months or so) I did flaunt the whole "I'm a Marine" thing while home on leave but after a certain point I just lost the attachment to the title. I plan on using the experience and the fact that I did serve to get a job when I get out but I hopefully will never use it to gain credibility. (Basically I will use it as my credentials in a resume but I hope to avoid using it in argument or to justify why I'm right or why I'm better qualified). My view of the whole "Once a Marine Always a Marine" thing is that because my leadership doesn't think I deserve the title I won't attempt to claim it beyond the honorable discharge and 5 years of service. I do respect the uniform but I don't think its any where near as significant as it was before 2001, all the little status symbols and such really have no value to me, an NCO sword is cool and all, but it has practical use on our uniform, the blood stripe was a fashion statement when they adopted it and the Mexican War was a post-justification (hey that kinda sounds like a lot of the operations Commanders set up huh). I think the whole "service uniform Fridays thing" is plain stupid, I get it's a service uniform, its our "business suit" but if that's really the case we should wear it every day and I'll get a briefcase to keep all the shit I need to work with every day in since I can't keep them in my pockets. I don't get the concept of FROG gear only being used forward and not in the rear (why the hell don't we want to be Fire-Resistant ALL the time??). My personal opinion on leadership is that I should never be attempting to lead anyone below me or that I am responsible for, I should be leading myself and those above me, if the people below me like what they see in me, they will choose to follow. ("We are wolves not sheep" should mean more than just we need to be good at running). I don't see a point in having rank if the only thing you use it for is throwing your weight around on people junior to you, and if someone wants to use fear and force to lead they should get the fuck out of our Military Service and move to North Korea. Our society has become far to opinionated and creatively thought for it to be led by force and fear, leaders need to do things that make people want to follow them. I have never been in charge of "boots" or anyone in all actuality so I am probably wrong, but this is my mindset. I have never been in a combat situation but I have seen enough commanders twist and manipulate the information I provided them to justify their mission to know that a lot of commanders are more worried about getting awards and promoted than doing the right thing by their troops. Unfortunately the first thought that comes to mind when I disagree with a superior anymore is that their reasons are self serving which admittedly is a terrible bias and more often than not wrong. I have a lot to grow and learn still but I'd like to think I have a pretty decent foundation, I seek knowledge and self-improvement on a daily basis and always seek to improve the conditions for my peers which usually results in a uncomfortable situation for myself.
The reason I am subscribing to this forum is because I want to learn more about the SOF community and each groups differences. From the outside looking in, most SOF groups now adays are employed in a DA mission, and we have adapted conventional forces to do UW such as training foreign militarys and COIN, which seems ass backwards to me. I am currently working on improving my physical fitness to get selected for Army SF (Their mission seems like I would have the most to offer to, while I may not be a thoroughbred race horse, I believe my critical/creative thinking skills, problemsolving and general willingness to work make up for it). I personally see MARSOC (entity not the people in it) as a group with no purpose, I have only had limited contact with them but they seem to just a way for the Marine Corps to justify a larger budget and fill the "me too" complex it has, mainly because they only supplement the plethora of DA/door kickers that already exist throughout the military but then what do I know, I'm just a boot-POG.
My name is Joe I am currently in the USMC as an intel guy, I have no combat deployments but I have spent over 18 months deployed supporting operations. I am coming up at a fork in the road in my life and was forum surfing and noticed the individuals on this site seem to give straight up opinion unaltered, which I can appreciate. I have by no means been a rock star or even been a "Good Marine" during my enlistment, but then again I only have worked for two people who I can honestly say I considered to be leaders. My view of leadership is generally regarded as wrong by my superiors and other Marines, generally speaking, and I have been told multiple times I am a piece of shit who doesn't deserve to wear the uniform. I never been charged under the UCMJ but I have company level discipline counseling on file (I still was awarded my good cookie at my 4 year mark), and most 1stSgt's and SNCO's would like to see me discharged for failure to adapt or insubordination. Those who have had to work around me on a peer level generally seem to like me, I stand up for them and use the experience I have to prevent them from being shit on which generally doesn't get me too many thumbs up from the leadership. I don't know what those who have worked under me think of me because I have never really asked, but I have never had anyone refer to me by my rank so I guess that means they don't respect me. Most regard me as a disrespectful little fuck, who has no respect for authority or honor for those who came before me, but for the time being at least, they acknowledge that I have my usefulness and extremely reliable to accomplish difficult tasks far above my paygrade with no supervision (That is from a verbal counseling I received upon promotion).
Now that I have told you what my those around me think of me I'll give you my perspective on myself. I have been through some rough times and made poor decisions that will probably come back to haunt me. I don't expect anyone to throw awards at me for doing my job nor do I ever seek praise. I do what I do because its who I want to be and I wish to be seen by my peers and superiors alike as reliable, hardworking person who can accomplish anything. I don't really care about cosmetic or aesthetics, which is probably why most see me as not respectful of our "heritage" but to the contrary I have the ultimate respect for the people who built the reputation so many of my peers ride on. I will admit for the initial part of my career (first 6 months or so) I did flaunt the whole "I'm a Marine" thing while home on leave but after a certain point I just lost the attachment to the title. I plan on using the experience and the fact that I did serve to get a job when I get out but I hopefully will never use it to gain credibility. (Basically I will use it as my credentials in a resume but I hope to avoid using it in argument or to justify why I'm right or why I'm better qualified). My view of the whole "Once a Marine Always a Marine" thing is that because my leadership doesn't think I deserve the title I won't attempt to claim it beyond the honorable discharge and 5 years of service. I do respect the uniform but I don't think its any where near as significant as it was before 2001, all the little status symbols and such really have no value to me, an NCO sword is cool and all, but it has practical use on our uniform, the blood stripe was a fashion statement when they adopted it and the Mexican War was a post-justification (hey that kinda sounds like a lot of the operations Commanders set up huh). I think the whole "service uniform Fridays thing" is plain stupid, I get it's a service uniform, its our "business suit" but if that's really the case we should wear it every day and I'll get a briefcase to keep all the shit I need to work with every day in since I can't keep them in my pockets. I don't get the concept of FROG gear only being used forward and not in the rear (why the hell don't we want to be Fire-Resistant ALL the time??). My personal opinion on leadership is that I should never be attempting to lead anyone below me or that I am responsible for, I should be leading myself and those above me, if the people below me like what they see in me, they will choose to follow. ("We are wolves not sheep" should mean more than just we need to be good at running). I don't see a point in having rank if the only thing you use it for is throwing your weight around on people junior to you, and if someone wants to use fear and force to lead they should get the fuck out of our Military Service and move to North Korea. Our society has become far to opinionated and creatively thought for it to be led by force and fear, leaders need to do things that make people want to follow them. I have never been in charge of "boots" or anyone in all actuality so I am probably wrong, but this is my mindset. I have never been in a combat situation but I have seen enough commanders twist and manipulate the information I provided them to justify their mission to know that a lot of commanders are more worried about getting awards and promoted than doing the right thing by their troops. Unfortunately the first thought that comes to mind when I disagree with a superior anymore is that their reasons are self serving which admittedly is a terrible bias and more often than not wrong. I have a lot to grow and learn still but I'd like to think I have a pretty decent foundation, I seek knowledge and self-improvement on a daily basis and always seek to improve the conditions for my peers which usually results in a uncomfortable situation for myself.
The reason I am subscribing to this forum is because I want to learn more about the SOF community and each groups differences. From the outside looking in, most SOF groups now adays are employed in a DA mission, and we have adapted conventional forces to do UW such as training foreign militarys and COIN, which seems ass backwards to me. I am currently working on improving my physical fitness to get selected for Army SF (Their mission seems like I would have the most to offer to, while I may not be a thoroughbred race horse, I believe my critical/creative thinking skills, problemsolving and general willingness to work make up for it). I personally see MARSOC (entity not the people in it) as a group with no purpose, I have only had limited contact with them but they seem to just a way for the Marine Corps to justify a larger budget and fill the "me too" complex it has, mainly because they only supplement the plethora of DA/door kickers that already exist throughout the military but then what do I know, I'm just a boot-POG.
My eyes glazed over and I gave up.
