I am requesting that only people who have an established history in the Marine Corps reply so that I may get a knowledgeable answer.
Below is a situation that happened only about a week ago regarding my Sgt., SNCOIC (GySgt), and me, LCpl, in Iraq. I will also make this as unbiased as possible.
There were about 15 Marines standing in a smoke pit, and I had walked out there to talk with them before we went to some squadrons to look around. The smoke pit has a barrel in the center with smoke butts and trash in it, as well as various trash around it.
Everyone is just standing around joking, including me, my SNCOIC, and my Sgt. I take a piece of fruit rollup wrapper out of my pocket and place it into the trash barrel.
Jokingly, as confirmed, my Sgt says that piece of trash doesn't belong in there. We are both laughing at this, and I tell him I'll be right back I have to run to my tent to get a few things before we go to the squadrons.
I get about 20' away and my SNCOIC screams "Get your ass back over here, do what the Sgt says and grab the trash." This set me back, but I hurried over, said "Yes Gunny," dug in the butt can and grabbed my
fruit rollup wrapper.
Come to find out a few minutes later, he had a severe problem with this, even though my Sgt thoroughly explained he was only joking. The SNCOIC said he didn't care and told him he needed to do something about me. The Sgt knows his fitrep will be effected because the SNCOIC thinks that this incident makes him an ineffective leader, when in fact the Sgt made sure to stand up for me.
My punishment was small, and I didn't worry about it. It took me a few days to get over the incident, and I thought it was over.
Two days later, at a promotion formation we had, the SNCOIC brought up a comment regarding the incident, said it got under his skin, and that NCO's needed to act like NCO's or he would take it away from them. I felt horrible once again, big morale issue.
Two more days later, I find out I was suppose to go to a R & R retreat. My peers had selected me because of all that I help with out here, and they know I do not ask anything in return, part of being a Marine. I overhear one of our Master Sgt's and Warrant Officers defending my selection (even though I'm sure I wasn't supposed to hear this) because my SNCOIC had a severe problem with me going. They selected another Marine, who in some respect does deserve it, because he puts in a lot of time at our work. I won't argue regarding this point, no big deal, but the edge of the grudge from the SNCOIC is what hurts.
So now I'm faced with this dilemma. I am a very good Marine, always helping others, and constantly working to improve myself (I put this last so you could read the issue first). Other people recognize this, and I am grateful. This problem I have is that it is the SNCOIC, who will eventually make all the decisions regarding me, even with the two 1stLTs running the det. He and I never seemed to have an issue before.
Now I see that has greatly gotten way out hand even from a misconstrued point of view. My point is that, okay, I really thought we were all joking, simply because with only about 60 of us in our det, we are very close. This to me is on the scale of, jump off a bridge...don't do it, fine, get written up. I feel that now knowing he is planning this grudge on me, I will be affected in other ways as well (i.e., any special recognitions, pros/cons....personal?)
I am not sure what to do at this point. I have lost a lot of motivation to do anything out of my way to help this det with anything, complete lack of respect for my seniors, and basically in a state of dissolution, not one that I should be overseas, especially with what we do.
I have been thinking of requesting mast, simply because this is more a tip of the ice berg to other incidents that have happened, but I'm split whether to just try and request a group discussion with my seniors. Other then that, I know I am a junior Marine, and won't have much leeway, so I am asking others on here who have been in for a good while, maybe have had experience with this, and can offer some advice.
I thank anyone who provides any feedback as to this situation.
- Marine
Below is a situation that happened only about a week ago regarding my Sgt., SNCOIC (GySgt), and me, LCpl, in Iraq. I will also make this as unbiased as possible.
There were about 15 Marines standing in a smoke pit, and I had walked out there to talk with them before we went to some squadrons to look around. The smoke pit has a barrel in the center with smoke butts and trash in it, as well as various trash around it.
Everyone is just standing around joking, including me, my SNCOIC, and my Sgt. I take a piece of fruit rollup wrapper out of my pocket and place it into the trash barrel.
Jokingly, as confirmed, my Sgt says that piece of trash doesn't belong in there. We are both laughing at this, and I tell him I'll be right back I have to run to my tent to get a few things before we go to the squadrons.
I get about 20' away and my SNCOIC screams "Get your ass back over here, do what the Sgt says and grab the trash." This set me back, but I hurried over, said "Yes Gunny," dug in the butt can and grabbed my
fruit rollup wrapper.
Come to find out a few minutes later, he had a severe problem with this, even though my Sgt thoroughly explained he was only joking. The SNCOIC said he didn't care and told him he needed to do something about me. The Sgt knows his fitrep will be effected because the SNCOIC thinks that this incident makes him an ineffective leader, when in fact the Sgt made sure to stand up for me.
My punishment was small, and I didn't worry about it. It took me a few days to get over the incident, and I thought it was over.
Two days later, at a promotion formation we had, the SNCOIC brought up a comment regarding the incident, said it got under his skin, and that NCO's needed to act like NCO's or he would take it away from them. I felt horrible once again, big morale issue.
Two more days later, I find out I was suppose to go to a R & R retreat. My peers had selected me because of all that I help with out here, and they know I do not ask anything in return, part of being a Marine. I overhear one of our Master Sgt's and Warrant Officers defending my selection (even though I'm sure I wasn't supposed to hear this) because my SNCOIC had a severe problem with me going. They selected another Marine, who in some respect does deserve it, because he puts in a lot of time at our work. I won't argue regarding this point, no big deal, but the edge of the grudge from the SNCOIC is what hurts.
So now I'm faced with this dilemma. I am a very good Marine, always helping others, and constantly working to improve myself (I put this last so you could read the issue first). Other people recognize this, and I am grateful. This problem I have is that it is the SNCOIC, who will eventually make all the decisions regarding me, even with the two 1stLTs running the det. He and I never seemed to have an issue before.
Now I see that has greatly gotten way out hand even from a misconstrued point of view. My point is that, okay, I really thought we were all joking, simply because with only about 60 of us in our det, we are very close. This to me is on the scale of, jump off a bridge...don't do it, fine, get written up. I feel that now knowing he is planning this grudge on me, I will be affected in other ways as well (i.e., any special recognitions, pros/cons....personal?)
I am not sure what to do at this point. I have lost a lot of motivation to do anything out of my way to help this det with anything, complete lack of respect for my seniors, and basically in a state of dissolution, not one that I should be overseas, especially with what we do.
I have been thinking of requesting mast, simply because this is more a tip of the ice berg to other incidents that have happened, but I'm split whether to just try and request a group discussion with my seniors. Other then that, I know I am a junior Marine, and won't have much leeway, so I am asking others on here who have been in for a good while, maybe have had experience with this, and can offer some advice.
I thank anyone who provides any feedback as to this situation.
- Marine
