Originally posted by BillyBong:
I'm not sure how we should disassociate wartime and peacetime when
it comes to disciplinary action - are not both treated with equal
seriousness? It's difficult to say a punishment should be more
severe if shells are flying over your head, as opposed to normal
peace time conditions.
Certainly, it comes to a head when we discuss cases of AWOL -
imagine a platoon of men mobilized for war and only half report for
duty, the other half going AWOL. The implications can be enormous.
But the gist of the matter is going AWOL itself, regardless of the
situation.
Whether in times of Peace or War,
''Decisions'' on
disciplinary actions that are judged to be ''Good or Bad, Right or Wrong''
depends on the circumstances of the situation, and as I have
previously stated, it is the prerogative of the Commanding Officer
in his assessment of the circumstances to arrive at whatever
decision he deems fit.
Should one question the validity of the decision made given the
circumstances concluded by the Commanding Officer ?
In times of War, it becomes even more critical when shortage of
manpower is made worst by the removal of personnels due to
disciplinary actions, and this maybe an influencing factor for a
Senior Commander to be more lenient than usual.
AWOL is a symptom to a problem and if it cannot be identified and
resolved during Peace Time, it will spell big trouble during
crisis.
Will strict adherence to military discipline resolved such issues
?
Will we not end up losing any remaining value in the offender by
sending him to spend useless days in a ''super clean, cold and silent
environment'' of a DB Centre, with useless hours in foot
drills at odd hours of during hot days ?
Or should the circumstances of the AWOL offense be understood, and
''disciplinary corrective
actions'' be instituted with appropriate ''psychological motivational help'' to
recover the ''lost soul''
and bring him back to the cause of protecting the Little Red Dot
?
Note my qualified term - ''disciplinary corrective actions'' -
will include 'psychological
assistance' to help the offender to recover his
position.
AWOL is a term that can be twisted to suit any imaginery situation
as used by 2Lt Li.
However, in a combat situation when all officers are no longer
around, and the defense of a position is already useless
considering that the unit strength and capabilities are severely
depleted to the last few men and ammunition against superior foces,
should the remaining few ''withdraw without leave'' from their
assigned position, regroup with any main force, or to sacrifice
themselves uselessly to their end - and considered AWOL ?
In our present context, was LTA X on AWOL - a term that is
liberally applied by 2Lt Li, who had used the term merely for its
''severe alarming
impact'' and to serve his own ends ?
The circumstance surrounding the supposed AWOL by LTA X remains
unknown, and it may turnout to be anything else but AWOL, to which
the Senior Commander had felt more appropriate to have handled it
in some other way as had happened.
As for the case of poor decision-making (note: i was not refering
to a lack of good leadership), i can only stress that a trial and
error approach should not be the way to handle it. Your style of
absorbing the decision made: 'Right or
Wrong, Good or Bad' must be acted upon to the best of each of our
individual ability, with the information available...
is probably the best and only way to circumvent poor decisions - by
interpreting them correctly despite themselves.
Decision making is largely
dependent on maturity, experience, empathy and a presence of mind
of the decision maker to the status of the environment.
How can 'decision making skills' be imparted to any new kid wearing
the 'Leader's Boots' for the first time ?
Is there any computerise laboratory environment that provide real
life situations for a decision making skills to be honed, and with
the outcome gauged by the computer program - (much like scoring of
a karaoke sound machine to the ability of a karaoke singer) ?
However, the graduate from such a computerised environment will
still have to test out his skills in a Real World with many fluid
situations.
Life is a ''Trial and
Error'' laboratory itself.
If officers make consistently bad decisions, then it is for OCS to
decide whether they should be dropped from the course - why inflate
the number of officers simply to fill an SAF need? I came across
several officers during my tenure, who during field training
couldn't perform simple navigation, couldn't make decisive
decisions during field combat and was absolutely horrendous in
managing platoon discipline.
OCS can only do so much to filter
out those who are seriously and obviously unsuitable leadership
material, and those who are 'smart' to swim with the tide can slip
through the OCS net.
Is this not part of the Real World too ?
In times of war, will the men mutiny? Maybe...to escape being led
by an incompetent officer into battle.
During my NS, I have personally
encountered mutiny on at least two occassions - once as a recruit,
I noticed an operational company conducting a sit in at the Parade
Square - in protest to the repeated training exercises that was
insisted by the Company Commander, the Officers and the NCOs, with
the extra training exercises being a form of disciplinary action
that went on for about 36 hours.
The second mutiny was from a batch of fresh recruits - into their
third month - collectively refusing to respond to a young NCO
torment of ''change
parade'' over four hours - for the most minor of offense in
crap left unflushed in the toilet bowl.
Both incidences arose from poor communication and empathy by the
immediate leadership towards those they were assigned to
lead.
When more senior officers turned up at the scene, the matter was
cleared, discipline restored with the orders executed, and the
Junior Commanders - who were given private dressing down for the
abuses of their misguided enthusiasm that blinded them to the
condition of those whom they led.
This clearly showed that leadership require maturity and experience
to have the presence of mind to judge the intangible atmosphere and
the physical environment, PLUS the X-Factor Charisma in
Leadership.
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