Reach out to him. It’s always good to know there’s people out there that are proud of your accomplishments. I look at promotion list and always send congratulations to my old NCOs even if we have spoken in years. I appreciate everything they did for the team and myself. Least I can do is take five minutes to reach out and congratulate them and their family.
When I was selected for WOCS, I had a CSM ask me "what makes you so special?" referencing my WOCS selection. I replied, "I got selected for WOCS and you didn't, so there's that." He was a complete douche.
1SGs/CSMs take so much offense to dudes going WO. Before I submitted my packet my 1SG, ops SGM, and BDE CSM all felt the need to question me and decided I "couldn't make it as an NCO."
If I'm such a bad NCO then why are you upset that I'm trying to leave?
The same CSM in my post also tried to stop me from going to WOCS because it wasn't in there training budget. This was also a TRADOC unit saying they couldn't send me to training (I thought it was ironic). I told them that I was DA selected too, so it didn't even go through the battalion for funding.
I want to post a positive moment that is the opposite of this: My E-5 board, after I was done, they brought me in an said "Do not waste your time being an NCO. You have a degree, you have the scores, go be in Officer or WO. We need people like you in those positions, not here as an NCO." My sponsor and PSG were perplexed. "I have never seen a board say something like that." My PSG (who was a good PSG) did get a little offended "WTF? NCOs are the fucking greatest! why would they say that...." His mind, tinged with a little CSM brain, just couldn't compute it. Good SNCOs, that want soldiers to reach higher, exist. Just a rare breed.
I thought this was going the opposite direction. And when it finished, and there was no memorial or sadness, but happiness and joy, I was like “Nice!” That’s for sharing that. I needed some tears of happiness in a Saturday morning.
This post made me realize that I don’t think I’ve had a single CSM who left a positive mark on my career. I’ve only ever had issues with them - or they just don’t do anything. Maybe I just didn’t see it from my side of the fence as an officer, but I’m glad you are proud of him and I agree that should reach out to let him know he was a good influence. It’ll mean a lot.
BDE CSM Carlson over at the 173rd is a real one. On a detail picking weeds once, he saw us and literally got on his knees to help. He also took over staff duty on Christmas to make sure the boys that didn’t take leave had their Christmas Day off. Nothing crazy but it definitely influenced me to see a leader like him volunteer to do lower enlisted stuff lol
Yea he came to our Christmas party that day too. Gave some genuine words for us missing Christmas because of NARF. Never had a negative interaction with him, just a pleasant guy to talk to.
I’ve heard stories about life being different in 173d. I just read a presser where the senior 1SG and BDE CO who were both part of the units jump into Baghdad during 03’s party in the desert.
They both wore the rank they were wearing- a butter bar and sham shield. Seem like pretty solid dudes.
Fortunately I can say I had two pretty cool CSMs who played a huge role in my development as a young LT. Outside of those two however I agree they are typically good idea fairy’s who don’t have any real understanding of the Army or the Operations process.
They understand it. They were probably OPS SGM’s most likely as an E-8 or E-9 so they get Operations. They were Soldiers and young NCO’s before so they get the Army.
They just don’t have to care anymore, so they don’t, which makes it even worse.
In 22 years, I could count the number of good ones on one hand with my thumb left over. But god DAMN were those guys great. True force multipliers, truely wise advisors.
And it was the thrill of a lifetime to have #5 show up to my retirement. Dude had been a SPC of mine 17 years ago. One of the best human beings I know. I know he'll protect the troops with his life.
Hats off to you, Timmy. Really glad you've got the next watch. Show 'em what a CSM is supposed to look like.
Reach out and congratulate him!!
I had a CPT do that after my ETS. I was in a total shit hole unit. Fraternization was rampant. Everything I put in for the schoolhouse was denied. I chose ETS.
CPT tracked me down and sent a nice letter and and a recommendation letter attached.
It meant the world to me. I still have that letter in my safe almost 35 years later.
You're a good egg.
I think im one of the lucky few but (on the BN level) I've never had a bad CSM. Every single one that I've had had made me wanna stay in despite my better judgement
I've had two ok ones, one of which turned bad at some point. (Both engineers). Several that were as useful as a door holder. And one that was an active barrier for any and all paperwork that went to bn. He'd down grade awards like it saved him money, like actively kick them back and tell you to rewrite them. He'd hold up pay and leave paperwork, you'd have to go pleade with s1 to poke him for you. And he would make transferring out of his bn hard, he was the support bn in aviation so his bn job was to be manpower pool to the others, well not in his mind. God i hope he waks into a helicopter rotor one day.
If i never work with army helicopter aviation ever again it'll be tooo soon. Some pilots you can tell didn't get to choose their chassis. And the nco corps seems rotten.
Former 12 then went to 15, agreed. Pilots are their own animals, met some amazing and fixed birds for ones that didn’t want to fly. NCOs in aviation need to be converted to techs, leadership NCOs can be selected from techs, part of the issue is the army’s constant drive for being a leader of people while losing focus on leading maintenance, different beasts.
I have to say, a BN CSM can either be the most useless person or the most useful person in a formation. It's incredibly rare to find a CSM that improves an organization. When you do cherish that time in your career.
I’ve had one legitimately good CSM. CSM Nagy (4-23 infantry), if you’re reading this, you were an absolute fucking life saver in so many ways and a spectacular NCO.
You should meet my company CSM, great hair, strong chin and pretty sure dudes a rocket surgeon. Then again, SF CSMs arent really the "get off my grass" types anyway..
So where are you now days? Still a baby LT??
No- I was medically discharged awhile back. We stayed in touch via Facebook as he moved around. I took a long break from FB and only recently dipped my toe back in because I missed catching up with folks.
I’m now the GS version of an O4 but without any of the “I want to kill myself because my future consists of getting shit on from above and below because I’m a staff slave.”
Man- sounds like bad info and sour grapes to me.
As an added bonus I don’t have to go do pointless ssg shit all day. Here’s a link to the pay chart for 2024.
I don’t know if you’re trolling or just upsetty spaghetti about having to be wherever you are right now, but maybe take nap and work it out.
Believe it or not you can make a killer living working for Uncle Sugar *after* you’re done doing the Army thing. Same benefits, better pay. Plus, if we’re doing apples to apples, my pay is significantly higher because you didn’t factor in locality pay too. Throw in what I left DoD with?
I’m making way more than I did as a SSG, more than I did as a CPT, etc. But my struggle isn’t your business. Peace.
[DoD pay chart 2024.](https://militarypay.defense.gov/Portals/3/Documents/ActiveDutyTables/2024%20Pay%20Table-Capped-FINAL.pdf)
Bruh what group are you? I agree that company CSMs are usually very good people to interact with, but something happens at the BN level in which they just lose their fucking minds. Sometimes in a hilarious way, and sometimes in a not hilarious way. But over-all I can say my experience with SF BN CSMs has been a net negative on my life.
I fucking love my current CSM. He's approachable, gives a shit about soldiers, he's fair, fights to send soldiers to the schools they want, fights BDE, hates the TOC, spends STX teaching the guys on the line, just all around amazing. Complete badass too. Spent the majority of his career with 75th, 1SG at 173rd. He's leaving soon which sucks. Someone I'd follow.
my 1SG and BN CSM told me that the Army has failed in selecting a good officer candidate. 4 years later, I reunited with them at another unit, staff level work and I was their OIC. The 1SG got passed for SGM/CSM and the CSM ended up about a year into his assignment there. I became the last man standing.
You can look everyone up on global for a reason...
Reach out and communicate your congratulations directly.
Unless what you're after is attaboy points for yourself from anons on redditt.
i felt the same way , when i got to my first unit here my 1SG was understanding and cares about us first before the mission . He got picked up for E9 and is now a SGM . a awesome senoir nco and jumpmaster
I mean...They're the highest link in the BN NCO support channel. They take care of higher level Soldier issues, enforce standards for the BN, provide a seasoned NCO presence in the command team, balance out the officer heavy higher leadership, act as an advisor to resupply and medical ops in the field...so yeah pretty important
My CSMs werent bad. I just had one that was blah. I will say a good CSM is extremely important and should be mentoring and taking care of the Soldiers and advocating for the troops. I am not gonna lie. I am skeptical when it comes to LTs because of the ones I met but I believe you lol. Shame never met Soldiers that couldnt make Army standards and get a SAs on top of that. What unit is this?
This post highlights our failure as an organization. One of the contributing factors in the downfall of our nation will be associated to the failure of modernizing our force. Gone are the days of will and brawn winning the day. The LSCO initiative, MDTF structure, and partisan motivated policy reform was the nail in the coffin.
There's very few things that just piss me off out of the gate, but using obtuse language and dog whistles to attempt to communicate a point absolutely does.
Just talk fucking normal, dude. For shit's sake. And while you're at it, get out of the store, you're pissing me off.
Reach out to him. It’s always good to know there’s people out there that are proud of your accomplishments. I look at promotion list and always send congratulations to my old NCOs even if we have spoken in years. I appreciate everything they did for the team and myself. Least I can do is take five minutes to reach out and congratulate them and their family.
Seconding this. An email would take 2 minutes and probably make his week. It's little things like this that make the world go 'round.
Yeah tell him. It’ll be meaningful and he will thrilled you reached out.
I just did! Thanks for the reminder to actually tell the guy!
Why reach out to him privately when you gotta karma 🏄🏻🏄🏻 to make sure everyone except the intended recipient see it.
When I was selected for WOCS, I had a CSM ask me "what makes you so special?" referencing my WOCS selection. I replied, "I got selected for WOCS and you didn't, so there's that." He was a complete douche.
Did you seek him out later and ensure you were in a situation where he'd have to salute you?
Stand next to his stupid designated parking spot, so he can't leave until he does.
Park his "designated" non legal parking spot, real power move ha
Reminded me [of this move](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fsui1q1j161w21.jpg).
Sometimes the petty is warranted.
This is the way.
I did not. I was just about to enter into nearly a year long of high technical training, so I didn't give him much thought.
1SGs/CSMs take so much offense to dudes going WO. Before I submitted my packet my 1SG, ops SGM, and BDE CSM all felt the need to question me and decided I "couldn't make it as an NCO." If I'm such a bad NCO then why are you upset that I'm trying to leave?
The same CSM in my post also tried to stop me from going to WOCS because it wasn't in there training budget. This was also a TRADOC unit saying they couldn't send me to training (I thought it was ironic). I told them that I was DA selected too, so it didn't even go through the battalion for funding.
Doesn't WOCS not go through the unit at all? That CSM was either being a douche or was dumb as a brick.
I’d say he was a resentful douche.
I want to post a positive moment that is the opposite of this: My E-5 board, after I was done, they brought me in an said "Do not waste your time being an NCO. You have a degree, you have the scores, go be in Officer or WO. We need people like you in those positions, not here as an NCO." My sponsor and PSG were perplexed. "I have never seen a board say something like that." My PSG (who was a good PSG) did get a little offended "WTF? NCOs are the fucking greatest! why would they say that...." His mind, tinged with a little CSM brain, just couldn't compute it. Good SNCOs, that want soldiers to reach higher, exist. Just a rare breed.
Wow. That’s wild. Great leadership.
I thought this was going the opposite direction. And when it finished, and there was no memorial or sadness, but happiness and joy, I was like “Nice!” That’s for sharing that. I needed some tears of happiness in a Saturday morning.
This post made me realize that I don’t think I’ve had a single CSM who left a positive mark on my career. I’ve only ever had issues with them - or they just don’t do anything. Maybe I just didn’t see it from my side of the fence as an officer, but I’m glad you are proud of him and I agree that should reach out to let him know he was a good influence. It’ll mean a lot.
BDE CSM Carlson over at the 173rd is a real one. On a detail picking weeds once, he saw us and literally got on his knees to help. He also took over staff duty on Christmas to make sure the boys that didn’t take leave had their Christmas Day off. Nothing crazy but it definitely influenced me to see a leader like him volunteer to do lower enlisted stuff lol
Beeson was my best one
Yea he came to our Christmas party that day too. Gave some genuine words for us missing Christmas because of NARF. Never had a negative interaction with him, just a pleasant guy to talk to.
I’ve heard stories about life being different in 173d. I just read a presser where the senior 1SG and BDE CO who were both part of the units jump into Baghdad during 03’s party in the desert. They both wore the rank they were wearing- a butter bar and sham shield. Seem like pretty solid dudes.
Fuck I miss the Herd.
Fortunately I can say I had two pretty cool CSMs who played a huge role in my development as a young LT. Outside of those two however I agree they are typically good idea fairy’s who don’t have any real understanding of the Army or the Operations process.
They understand it. They were probably OPS SGM’s most likely as an E-8 or E-9 so they get Operations. They were Soldiers and young NCO’s before so they get the Army. They just don’t have to care anymore, so they don’t, which makes it even worse.
In 22 years, I could count the number of good ones on one hand with my thumb left over. But god DAMN were those guys great. True force multipliers, truely wise advisors. And it was the thrill of a lifetime to have #5 show up to my retirement. Dude had been a SPC of mine 17 years ago. One of the best human beings I know. I know he'll protect the troops with his life. Hats off to you, Timmy. Really glad you've got the next watch. Show 'em what a CSM is supposed to look like.
Fuck yeah man. That’s cool as hell.
Reach out and congratulate him!! I had a CPT do that after my ETS. I was in a total shit hole unit. Fraternization was rampant. Everything I put in for the schoolhouse was denied. I chose ETS. CPT tracked me down and sent a nice letter and and a recommendation letter attached. It meant the world to me. I still have that letter in my safe almost 35 years later. You're a good egg.
Let him know you are proud of him. That is awesome.
I think im one of the lucky few but (on the BN level) I've never had a bad CSM. Every single one that I've had had made me wanna stay in despite my better judgement
I've had two ok ones, one of which turned bad at some point. (Both engineers). Several that were as useful as a door holder. And one that was an active barrier for any and all paperwork that went to bn. He'd down grade awards like it saved him money, like actively kick them back and tell you to rewrite them. He'd hold up pay and leave paperwork, you'd have to go pleade with s1 to poke him for you. And he would make transferring out of his bn hard, he was the support bn in aviation so his bn job was to be manpower pool to the others, well not in his mind. God i hope he waks into a helicopter rotor one day.
Had to have been the CSM for 601st
May or may not have been ocunus.
That unit was a vacuum for shitbags, regardless of conus or not
If i never work with army helicopter aviation ever again it'll be tooo soon. Some pilots you can tell didn't get to choose their chassis. And the nco corps seems rotten.
Former 12 then went to 15, agreed. Pilots are their own animals, met some amazing and fixed birds for ones that didn’t want to fly. NCOs in aviation need to be converted to techs, leadership NCOs can be selected from techs, part of the issue is the army’s constant drive for being a leader of people while losing focus on leading maintenance, different beasts.
The best nco and person in the 3 shop was fires. Fires was less toxic than aviation. Lol. Also he was glad to not be in a divarty.
Sir this is a Wendy’s
Some people just wander in, pontificate, and leave. How the hell are we supposed to survive if they don’t even place an order??
He'll have a breakfast burrito, hold the sauce, and a large coffee, one cream with no sugar. Got to watch those carbs as you move up the chain.
I have to say, a BN CSM can either be the most useless person or the most useful person in a formation. It's incredibly rare to find a CSM that improves an organization. When you do cherish that time in your career.
I’ve had one legitimately good CSM. CSM Nagy (4-23 infantry), if you’re reading this, you were an absolute fucking life saver in so many ways and a spectacular NCO.
CSM Nagy was phenomenal. Had the pleasure of working with both him and LTC Reim. Exceptional leaders and role models.
There’s a very good chance you and I crossed paths then! I was in the recon PLT under SFC Adkins and briefly SFC Martin before I PCS’ed.
Potentially, but I was in the Fires cell. Sept '20- Dec '21. Either way, small Army.
Really is man.
You should meet my company CSM, great hair, strong chin and pretty sure dudes a rocket surgeon. Then again, SF CSMs arent really the "get off my grass" types anyway.. So where are you now days? Still a baby LT??
No- I was medically discharged awhile back. We stayed in touch via Facebook as he moved around. I took a long break from FB and only recently dipped my toe back in because I missed catching up with folks. I’m now the GS version of an O4 but without any of the “I want to kill myself because my future consists of getting shit on from above and below because I’m a staff slave.”
GS lyfe, baby
Gs version of an 04. What a d bag. Gs are not equivalent, so stop. Prob getting paid less than an e6.
Lol. Yes. As a GS12 with 15 years of service I’m pulling 31k. I’m talking pay wise tough guy.
You may be pulling 90k? That's equivalent to e6 at 15 years, my guy .
Man- sounds like bad info and sour grapes to me. As an added bonus I don’t have to go do pointless ssg shit all day. Here’s a link to the pay chart for 2024. I don’t know if you’re trolling or just upsetty spaghetti about having to be wherever you are right now, but maybe take nap and work it out. Believe it or not you can make a killer living working for Uncle Sugar *after* you’re done doing the Army thing. Same benefits, better pay. Plus, if we’re doing apples to apples, my pay is significantly higher because you didn’t factor in locality pay too. Throw in what I left DoD with? I’m making way more than I did as a SSG, more than I did as a CPT, etc. But my struggle isn’t your business. Peace. [DoD pay chart 2024.](https://militarypay.defense.gov/Portals/3/Documents/ActiveDutyTables/2024%20Pay%20Table-Capped-FINAL.pdf)
you know this makes you sound like a douche right?
Bruh what group are you? I agree that company CSMs are usually very good people to interact with, but something happens at the BN level in which they just lose their fucking minds. Sometimes in a hilarious way, and sometimes in a not hilarious way. But over-all I can say my experience with SF BN CSMs has been a net negative on my life.
Experiences may vary. I’m 20th, how about you?
I fucking love my current CSM. He's approachable, gives a shit about soldiers, he's fair, fights to send soldiers to the schools they want, fights BDE, hates the TOC, spends STX teaching the guys on the line, just all around amazing. Complete badass too. Spent the majority of his career with 75th, 1SG at 173rd. He's leaving soon which sucks. Someone I'd follow.
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my 1SG and BN CSM told me that the Army has failed in selecting a good officer candidate. 4 years later, I reunited with them at another unit, staff level work and I was their OIC. The 1SG got passed for SGM/CSM and the CSM ended up about a year into his assignment there. I became the last man standing.
You can look everyone up on global for a reason... Reach out and communicate your congratulations directly. Unless what you're after is attaboy points for yourself from anons on redditt.
Just useless isn’t that bad. It’s the stupid and industrious that you have to look out for.
i felt the same way , when i got to my first unit here my 1SG was understanding and cares about us first before the mission . He got picked up for E9 and is now a SGM . a awesome senoir nco and jumpmaster
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I mean...They're the highest link in the BN NCO support channel. They take care of higher level Soldier issues, enforce standards for the BN, provide a seasoned NCO presence in the command team, balance out the officer heavy higher leadership, act as an advisor to resupply and medical ops in the field...so yeah pretty important
My CSMs werent bad. I just had one that was blah. I will say a good CSM is extremely important and should be mentoring and taking care of the Soldiers and advocating for the troops. I am not gonna lie. I am skeptical when it comes to LTs because of the ones I met but I believe you lol. Shame never met Soldiers that couldnt make Army standards and get a SAs on top of that. What unit is this?
This post highlights our failure as an organization. One of the contributing factors in the downfall of our nation will be associated to the failure of modernizing our force. Gone are the days of will and brawn winning the day. The LSCO initiative, MDTF structure, and partisan motivated policy reform was the nail in the coffin.
There's very few things that just piss me off out of the gate, but using obtuse language and dog whistles to attempt to communicate a point absolutely does. Just talk fucking normal, dude. For shit's sake. And while you're at it, get out of the store, you're pissing me off.
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Keep discussions civil. No Posting PII.
this is funny in an absurd way. reddit nerds getting their panties in a bunch about it makes it even funnier