Berserk!

By now I am fully alert and aware of what is going on. My feet were firmly planted on the ground and I was sitting up soldier-straight! I thought that would be the end of it but SGM was not done showing off and I guess I did not properly stroke his rank and ego so now I was going to pay the price.

Yelling as if I had just committed a 1st degree premeditated murder, SGM yells for me to get up. I am a little confused because I was thinking, “Get up for what?” More importantly than that, I knew if I made any quick moves I was going to be down for the count. I also realized that like it or not, I was going to have to play SGM’s game and so I tried to change my demeanor and attitude and I said, “Yes, Sergeant Major” and went to stand up but keep in mind, I was moving slow.

Instead of SGM being a good leader and caring more about the health and welfare of the troops than the weight on his collar, SGM kept yelling and screaming because I was not moving fast enough. And instead of asking me if I was okay, he just assumed this was blatant disregard for his rank and position. Then I just could not believe the next thing I heard –I mean, I was hearing a lot of things, mostly just screaming . . . and then I heard . . .

“SERGEANT! GET AT THE POSITION OF ATTENTION!”

He put me at attention!

Maybe you don’t understand the military much but there was just so many things wrong with this.

First of all, putting someone at the position of attention is like a last resort type action. Remember now, this all took place in a matter of seconds. It wasn’t like this had gone on and on and I was refusing to obey. SGM was way over reacting. This did not even fit the situation.

Secondly, SGM was dead wrong because as a leader it was his responsibility to get all the facts and not jump to conclusions. He had a sick soldier on his hands and did not know or care.

Thirdly, this was not an appropriate action to take in public and with civilians and lower enlisted around. A better way to explain this is when your child is misbehaving in the store and his behavior warrants a spanking or discipline, you usually take them to the bathroom, the car, etc. and handle it in private. I mean, even in our home we usually took our children into another room to administer discipline. In the same manner, the right thing for SGM to have done was to have taken me to a private office before putting me at attention.

And lastly, you just don’t treat NCO’s (Non-commissioned Officer, ranks E5-E9) like this especially in front of the lower enlisted, of which there were many around. I was a Sergeant (E5). Just as SGM felt like his rank warranted more respect well, so did mine regardless to the fact that he out ranked me. A better way to explain this is if you were at a party and your child did something wrong you could correct them on the spot –I don’t mean spank or discipline but I mean tell them not to do that. Because you are the person in authority, that is proper. On the other hand, if your spouse did something wrong you wouldn’t call them out on it right then, you’d probably wait until the car ride home or at a later more private and appropriate time.

I stood at attention and let me tell you, by far this was the most humiliating experience of my lifetime –even worse than the showers at PLDC. This was horrible. SGM was berating me. Everyone in the entire place was uncomfortable; you could just feel it. Even with SGM’s screams, the silence in the room was deafening.

SGM didn’t even work in this office. He was there to conduct some type of personal business when he walked in and saw me. So its not even like he was in charge of the place.

Finally and much to my relief, the NCOIC of the office came out. He heard all the screaming and commotion and came out to see what was going on. At first SGM just ignored him and yelled at him to stay out of it but then the NCOIC convinced the SGM we could continue this in his office. So the three of us set off to the NCOIC’s office and as I was walking through the waiting area, everyone was looking down and pretending they weren’t looking at me or listening. The whole while we were walking SGM was still yelling but I have no idea what he was saying. He had long ago lost my listening ears –I just heard noise.

I was finally able to speak for myself. Up until this point, I was never asked what was wrong or asked to speak and after being put at attention, I was not allowed to speak. Oh, at this point they called this black female sergeant in because they wanted another female in the room since both the NCOIC and SGM were males. The female soldier said to me, “Sergeant, what’s going on?” And while I was trying to speak, SGM was yelling, “WHAT’S GOING ON IS THIS SOLDIER DOESN’T KNOW. . . blah blah blah….” The Sergeant looked at SGM then looked at me and repeated the question. I simply said, “I’m sick.” Just when I thought SGM couldn’t not have gotten any angrier, my response just made him go berserk.