Soldier flagrantly avoids flag salute, sets off online outrage.
I have a different take on this, coming as I do from an era where Retreat literally caused an installation to pause and face the flag - to the point of people pulling over and getting out of their cars, and end of day formations being scheduled to facilitate unit participation in the tradition.
This is *not* that Army. I say that without rancor. It just isn't.
And it isn't because *the leaders* have made it so.
Anybody who wants to hammer this soldier for this action *better not* have been the Lieutenant Colonels and Majors I routinely see at Fort Leavenworth rushing to get under cover to avoid having to render honors.
Anybody who wants to hammer this soldier for this action *better not* be the Sergeants I saw ignoring the bugle on their way to their cars, who got in and drove away as the music was playing over in the Old DB complex.
And anybody who wants to hammer this soldier for this action *better not* be the Colonel who was with those Sergeants, doing what those Sergeants were doing.
I usually don't say a word to those people. As a fat old retiree I can't catch them as they run from their duty. I just stop, face the flag, assume parade rest and salute when the flag starts dropping from the truck. They might notice a little smidge of contempt when I catch their eye as they slink away.
But I have called them on it to their face at a later moment, if I know them. The excuses and other responses, some hostile, are instructive.
The answer is *not* to excoriate this troop. It is *not* to make it her terminal rank. It is *not* to suggest that this she should be a candidate for expulsion in the drawdown. It is not to throw yourself into a smug, self-righteous state of high dudgeon.
The answer, boys and girls, is simple.
The answer is for leaders to - dare I suggest it - *Lead.*
By example.
Read the complete post at http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2014/02/on_the_renderin.html
Posted
Feb 26 2014, 05:02 AM
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