Leadership, troop griping and a lost Marine Corps.

Marines bitch.


Soldiers bitch.


Sailors bitch.


Airmen bitch.

Its all part of serving in the military.  But this article from the USNI blog has been bugging me for weeks.  Read it here, but check out this tidbit....

“Hey Lance Corporal So-and-So, how’s your day?”  “Oh, sir, you know, I haven’t seen my friends or family in 200 days, my old man just lost his job, my boots melted to the asphalt yesterday and I’m about to go on a four hour patrol in 120 degree heat on the most heavily mined city in the world – and that’s just the way I like it!!”
“You don’t say! Well, have a good patrol.”
And then, not being able to do anything about the weather or his father’s job, my platoon sergeant and I could go and put in the paperwork for some new boots.
The Marines now had a vehicle that they could use to voice honest concerns, worries and complaints and get some of that darkness off of their chest, and I not only had the benefit of hearing those complaints as their platoon commander (and thus could be a better steward to them) but also had the advantage of not having to hear their complaints as complaints – they were now, somehow, an aggressively positive affirmation of what Marines believe anyway.  That IS just they way we like it.
And so, in a world full of feel-goody false wisdoms and soft band-aid approaches to real problems, I recommend the actual “that’s just the way I like it”-wisdom of two pretty fascinating adventurers.  It worked for us in combat.  And it works for me today.
And in this way the philosophy of the Marine Corps, the traveling adventurers and Nietzsche are uniquely analogous…they did not promise us a rose a garden.  We didn’t get one.  And that’s just the way we like it.

I called the author on it because it bugged me so badly.

Ya know...mission accomplishment first, troop welfare second...

The commenters slammed me back...and hard....but it still bugged me.  I know that simply getting my men to say "that's the way I like it" doesn't seem like leadership to me and then I hit upon this quote from General Powell...

 Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell

My big problem is this.

The blog isn't to blame.

But the readership is.  A leader can't solve every problem but he should put forth an effort.  Not gloss it over with a few words that cover up the issue.  If this is how the majority of leaders are responding to our Marines problems then no wonder my service seems lost now.

We are facing leadership failure from top to bottom.

God help my Marine Corps.