The Infuriated SGM

I heard Sergeant Major (SGM) much sooner than I actually saw him but I was not paying much attention –it was just noise in the background to me. I was mostly concentrating on keeping very quiet and still so I would not pass out. Before I knew it SGM was standing right in front of me yelling, “Sergeant!” Though I was not asleep, it did take me a few seconds to clear my mind and focus on what was happening. At first I was not even certain he was talking to me until he was standing directly in front of me –yelling, screaming, spitting . . .

“IS THIS ANY WAY FOR AN NCO TO BEHAVE? SERGEANT! GET YOUR FEET OFF MY FURNITURE NOW!”

You notice he said, “my” furniture? That very much goes along with my description of his type –egotistical, self-centered, domineering . . .

He was upset I was slouched down on the couch and he was upset I had the nerve to sit with my boots on the furniture. By this time, he had caught the attention of every single person in this very large facility. Work stopped. Talking stopped. Typewriters stopped (yeah, we still had those). Even crying babies stopped crying. All you could hear was the TV, which was permanently tuned into CNN news, and SGM’s snorting, huffing and puffing. I was in no mood to play these Army games. I was in no mood to stroke SGM’s rank and puff up his ego even more. I was tired. I was sick and I felt he was making much too big a deal out of such a small thing –and there’s a way to approach people and talk to them –but SGM was more interested in impressing people with his rank and power than he was getting my boots off of THE couch. And maybe if you wanted to s-t-r-e-t-c-h it out just to give SGM the benefit of the doubt, maaaaybe, just maybe this would have been appropriate to a lower-enlisted but you certainly wouldn’t treat an NCO like this in public. Even if I had committed some grave Army offense, the proper protocol would have been to privately pull me aside and even then if he wanted to rip me up one side and down another, in a private office would have been appropriate –but that certainly is stretching the situation a bit too far because there was no real offense committed and SGM could have just walked by and said, “SGT you need to sit up and not put your boots on the furniture.” Better than that, he could have approached me and asked if I was okay.

But see, that’s not how it went down.

I look up at SGM and I give him a “you gotta be kidding me” type look and I remember thinking to myself, “He must have just gotten back from his promotion ceremony.” I mean, he certainly was creating a scene that was all about him, nothing about furniture and I was just an unfortunate victim. I did not immediately snap up in fact, I slowly slid my leg down and yes, taking my time with it certainly was intentional. I did not feel well and I did not like this type of leader –they do the Army more harm than good.

That did not get pass SGM and in fact, it infuriated him.