Hey there - happy Thursday! You guys know why I like Thursday right? Cuz it means tomorrow is Friday! I did work on the Green Art Journal background and I believe it is finished. Now all that is left is the words and decorative touches! So, sadly I have no photos for you today. I do however have a story to tell you. This is a story that contains lots of Army acronyms so I will try to make it as easy to understand as possible.
First, you need to know that the lowest level unit is a Battery or BTRY. Above them is a Battalion or BN. Next is a Brigade or BDE - I work at the BDE. I am (and have been for 5 years now) what is known as a Master Driver. Master Drivers know about all of the regulations that pertain to driving military vehicles. We know how to train people on: driving different trucks, operating non-vehicle equipment such as pumps and generators, inspecting equipment for maintenance issues, off-road driving, driving in bad weather, accident avoidance, driving in other counties, etc, etc. We also know the proper procedures to ensure that the personnel in our unit are correctly licensed - that they have had the right training and that it is documented correctly.
Now that you know that you need to know that my entire purpose at the BDE is to be the Master Driver. We have 2 different BNs and I am supposed to go inspect them and report back on how they are doing with their Driver's Training Programs. I have been doing this once a quarter since arriving here. I offer them a pre-visit to let them know where they are, and then we do the actual inspection, and finally I tell them if they fix anything they can call me and I will come back and see the improvements they made and re-rate them. I have about 10 Master Drivers in each BN - some are in the same BTRY. Some of the Master Drivers care more than others and have taken advantage of the help and have worked on their program to make it better. Some have not. Last thing you need to know is that while I tend to do inspections on the Drivers Training Program ever quarter the rest of the unit's operations only get inspected when directed from higher. Right now we are doing a directed inspection.
I want to tell you what one of those guys who did not take advantage of the help did. Two weeks ago was the pre-inspection which he did not take advantage of. Monday was the actual inspection and he failed. He failed because he did not do anything to his paperwork since (at least) November; he failed because he did not have proper documentation that his training was conducted the way it was supposed to. So, he failed. I told him that and gave him a copy of the inspection sheet Monday at 1000 hrs when I was finished inspecting him. Monday night he called and asked me "what was our rating." I told him "red" (that is the worst one), and he said "why?" so I told him "A lot of your inspectable items were red, so overall you are red." To me it is common sense, if 80% of something is red, then overall isn't it red?
Anyways, tonight I talked to one of my many bosses (there are about 10 of them) and he told me that the unit is claiming that they have been calling me all week trying to schedule another inspection. I have not heard from them since Monday - and since the Master Driver called me I know he has my phone number! Anyways - they claim both the Master Driver, who is the same rank as me, and the First Sergeant, who is several ranks above us, both have called me numerous times and I am ignoring them.
Thankfully my boss believed me. Not-thankfully, because of how the Army works, I have to go back to that unit tomorrow and do another inspection to see if they have made any improvements. If they did do anything to improve it is minimum or else they faked their way through the paperwork and well I wouldn't want to give them a good rating for that. I am REALLY not looking forward to going back down there. I have absolutely nothing against this guy, but he tried to blame his failure on me! That makes me not like him very much.
Anyways, I apologize for the long, unnecessary story but it was bothering me and since I live alone you guys are my therapy. Just kidding, well sort of. I made mom listen to that story but I think 90% of it she did not understand. I think its kinda easier on paper - but well that is just my opinion. If nothing else you now know what 3 different levels of unit's in the Army are, and you also know what a Master Driver is and what I do!
Hope I did not bore you too much. More art tomorrow, I hope!! Have a great night.
No comments:
Post a Comment