On Graduation Ceremony Practice

So I would've blogged yesterday May 19, 2011, but I was out with my parents all day and couldn't find the time to do so-- I'll blog now, but expect another blog later tonight too.

Yesterday we had our Graduation Ceremony Practice, which, surprisingly everyone was willing to undergo. I think my classmates and I are all getting really antsy and just want to graduate already. We practiced queuing up, taking our seats, and some people even got to practice getting their diplomas/commissioning certificate (not everyone go to do it because after the first few, you sort of got the gist of it). The most surreal part was when the Class President said "Graduating Class, DISMISSED!" and we all pretended to have thrown our hats in the air as is customary-- at that point, I realized "Oh wow, this is it!"

To close the practice, we heard General Martin Dempsey, Chief of Staff of the Army, give us a few words of encouragement about us entering into the officer corps. He showed us this cheesy video about us joining this "indestructible army," which is pretty standard Army promo material. What really got to me though was his talk on his three key tasks while serving as Chief of Staff of the Army: discipline, fitness, and trust. The first two are pretty self explanatory, but the last one got to me. He said something about how as an officer, or as a soldier in general, you have to have a lot of trust in a lot of people, whether it be your buddy next to you in a firefight, the medical folks who treat you when you're wounded, or even the support groups available in the unfortunate event something terrible happens. I really never thought about it that way, and I hope I can earn people's trust. It was kind of cool that he said he trusts us, and I hope I can live to that.

The commandant also spoke to us about how there are three types of people with jobs out there: the guys who have to do something (i.e. "I have to work a McDonald's"), the guys who are something (i.e. "I am an officer in the Army") and the guys who have the privilege of doing something (i.e. "I'm privileged to help these folks out") The comm said he fell into the middle ground as a new lieutenant, but hoped that in the future, we would all fall into the latter category, because it's not about us but about the folks we serve. I'll keep that in mind as I continue my career.

After the Graduation Ceremony Practice, I ran some errands and now I'm back. I can't believe I graduate tomorrow (tomorrow being May 21, 2011). So surreal...

On Leadership

So I'm pretty upset right now. I don't normally like to complain about West Point. For the most part, I can say confidently that I've enjoyed my time here. Even through all the tough times here, I can say I've made the best of it all.

Well, fast forward to second semester of firstie year, a time when one would think would be the best time for a cadet. To be fair, firstie year has been a blast-- I've gotten to go out a whole lot more, got to truly meet people, and learned a whole lot. I'd like to take this time now to blog about leadership.

I'm no army officer or anything and I'm just a cadet (for now), but I was always under the impression that officers had to take care of their subordinates. Well, recently it seems as if I've been marked as a bad cadet all because of MX. Don't get me wrong: I really wanted to like MX after reading up on it in the Redbook (see previous post). I'm a little anxious about taking command of a platoon, so I was really looking forward to all the officer development stuff that MX was supposed to teach.

Anyway, good news is that I passed MX with a C. Not exactly where I wanted to be, but passing nonetheless. That should have removed me from Academic Flag status, as MX was the only reason I was on Flag status to begin with. Knowing that, I put in for pass for this weekend and was initially approved with the caveat that I still had to submit an Exception to Policy Memo, which is just like it sounds: a request to bend the rules for a specific reason. I didn't think I had to submit one because I felt I wasn't flagged anymore. Here's what the officer in charge of me replied back with:

"CitizenJEZ,

Commanders flag and lift flags as per USCC Card 501 para 1 and USCC 351-2 para 104, sub-para K, 6, f and g.

LTC X, or myself or SFC Y as her agents can lift your flag.  Our stated requirement for lifting the flag was to be passing at 15 wk grades; since it isn't 15 wk grades, I'm not inclined to lift your flag yet.  I'm not about to waste my time placing and lifting flags on cadets based on their whims about whether or not to submit their MX400 assignments or perform their other duties.  See below for my original e-mail traffic on this topic.  Please do not inform me as to your current status; I decide it, therefore, I am well aware:  See you file in TIS (HTML); you are indeed flagged.  Guess I'll have to deny that pass.

-Officer That Approves CitizenJEZ's Passes"

I suppose he got the wrong impression of me telling him that I didn't think I had to submit an Exception to Policy Memo. Nonetheless, my pass has been denied. The worst part of it all? 15 week grades are due sometime next week I believe, so he totally denied my pass out of spite. Where is the whole "quick to praise, but slow to reprimand" aspect I hear so often preached? When I sought this officer's advice on how to go about dealing with my MX issues, he flat out ignored my request. However, when I try to stand up for what I believed was correct, the officer plays the rank game with me and I inevitably lose.

Where's the leadership in all of this? I'm trying to keep an open mind about this all and see his point of view, but I'm just not seeing it right now. Hopefully ten years from now I'll be able to think back to this point and be like "Wow, he was right the entire time!" but for now, I just don't see it.

Oh well-- I'm helping out with the Special Olympics tomorrow anyway, so I wouldn't have the time to go on pass. Also, my thesis is almost done, so even though I got punked by an officer, I still think overall I'm doing well. I'm for sure going to graduate, and at this point, May 21, 2011 couldn't get here any sooner.

Cadets Always Win.

PS
Ok, seriously this time-- I will try my best to blog every day. I've just been busy over the past few weeks.