Beware of Smiling Sergeants

As a cadet through various training schools and my own ROTC program, I learned that NCOs never smile unless they're up to something. I hope you all get what I mean after these brief anecdotes.

• At LTC: During morning formation during the recovery phase of LTC, one of our Drill Sergeants came to our platoon smiling and asked who wanted to eat breakfast first. Those poor ten people who agreed did get to eat early...but only because they had to clean the entire company's rifles all day.
• At Air Assault: On the morning of our 12 mile ruck march, the Air Assaults Sergeants told us we were getting a "super breakfast" if we completed the school. So after our equipment check, we pick up our gear and head to the DFAC (Dining Facility) where a bunch of smiling sergeants were handing out MREs. The super part? We got juice.
• At ROTC: During an FTX in which we were informed (as MSIIIs) that we would not be sleeping in doors at all the entire weekend, our Master Sergeant came up to us smiling and asked if we wanted to sleep inside that evening. By this time, I knew better, and I quickly told everyone to say no. He later told us had I not saved everyone's ass, he was going to let us bed down for the night, turn off all the lights, wait 15 minutes until we were all asleep, then he was going to turn on all the lights, kick us out of our sacks and have us go outside.

So yes, beware of smiling sergeants.

More Tips for LDAC

I'm going to share some valuable advice I got from my SMI (Senior Military Instructor) before I left for LDAC last summer.

He told me not to go into LDAC expecting an E. Go in their expecting an S. You don't get an E for doing your job, you get an S for doing your job. If you show up to your job on time everyday, do you expect your boss to give you a pat on the back? No, because you're SUPPOSED to show up on time everyday. So if you run a flawless STX lane with no mistakes, then congratualtions, you're satisfactory.

That's the attitude I had going into LDAC, and I walked out of LDAC with two S's, and the rest of them all E's. As stated in an earlier post, I was a Distinguished Military Graduate as a result.

I'm not bragging, I'm just saying this advice helped me cope with LDAC. It took an enormous amount of pressure off me. Instead of worrying about performing, I just did what I had to do and did it well, and apparently, I got an E for it. That's all. I thought all the work I did was S work, but my cadre at LDAC kept giving me Es. I didn't expect it, nor did I strive for it. I just concentrated, focused on my goal and did what I had to do.

Put it this way: would you throw a Hail Mary for the first play of the Superbowl? Hell no. You'd stick to the tried and true methods that got you to the Superbowl in the first place. Don't change it up when you get there trying to show off. Just do what you've always done on STX lanes and you'll walk away fine.

Also, getting an E in garrision is extremely difficult, especially if you're SL and there's not much to do. LDAC has changed since my time there, as in, you'll be spending a lot less time in garrison and more time in the FOB, so my example may not work, but if there's some in garrison time, you'll understand my analogy.

Just being a good SL will only get you an S. Doing all you're supposed to do will get you an S. Keeping accountability and all that good stuff will get you an S. What I did when I was SL once in garrison was I made my squad practice DNC (Drill and Ceremony) in the company area when we had an hour of downtime. We were bad at DNC and needed the practice, and I was on the Color Guard team so I was pretty good at it. So for an hour we marched around the company area and I had each one of my squad come out after five minutes and do the same commands we all had just done. My evaluator who had seen me do this said that is what put me in the E category for that eval because it wasn't in the basic job of SL, I went above and beyond the duties of my position. I didn't have to improve our DNC, but I saw it as a weakness and used my position to better it.

So, getting an E at LDAC at least in my experience is going above the duties described by your position.

Hope this helps.