This is the Army, Mrs. Delaney

I've mentioned before My Husband's squadron is down a few NCOs; people are moving up and moving on.

People are also doing stupid shit and having stupid shit done to them and it's starting to affect my life.

In the fall an NCO got shot in the leg by an elk hunter while his troop was doing a field exercise.  It shattered his femur and he's looking at at least a year of physical therapy.  Our Lieutenant Colonel and our Sergeant Major recently refused the squadron's request to have him relocated to a "desk job" since he can't do anything physical normally required of a guy in his position.  So he's staying but one of the other officers or NCOs has to pick up his slack.

And now we've lost another NCO.  This particular Sergeant First Class (SFC) got arrested for DUI over the weekend and before the leadership could decide what to do with him he resigned his position in My Husband's troop.  Besides that, his wife was the leader of our FRG (Family Readiness Group), so she resigned her position too.

So now My Husband's at work all day today, in the field all night and then at work again tomorrow because our dumbass former SFC had a few beers and felt it necessary to mouth off to a couple of local cops.  And I'm the new co-leader of our FRG.

Fantastic.

I've never seen morale this low.  They were happier in Iraq, for God's sake.  I can't comment on the enlisted men (since I barely interact with them) but the mid-level leadership is the gloomiest bunch of guys these days.  They're tired, they're spread way too thin and they're working more hours than is healthy.

And the apparent disconnect between the upper leadership and My Husband's level is incredibly frustrating.  You'd think this Lt. Colonel could take 15 minutes out of his day to walk through the troop offices and tell the guys they're each doing the work of three men and they're a fine example to the rest of the unit.  Maybe he could cut them some slack on their workload or give them more reasonable timeline to get it done.  Maybe he could send me a quick email and thank me for stepping up and volunteering to take control of an FRG steeped in disagreement and disarray. 

I'm not going to hold my breath.

So if your congressman is telling you the army cares about its soldiers and that family programs are at an all-time high or that we're the military's most important resource and they treat us as such, you call BULLSHIT.  It's been my experience that any officer above a Major cares more about themselves and their careers than any of their men.  And considering a huge chunk of these men (and women, of course) are between the ages of 17 and 23, away from home for the first time, have kids of their own, have marital issues and/or PTSD, they need to be taken care of. 

In our squadron and our troop, all of that care is falling to My Husband and his peers.  And all of My Husband's care has fallen to me.

Good thing I don't need anyone to take care of me.