I'm a Company Commander and my First Sergeant sucks, advice plz?

Question

I'm in JROTC and I'm a CO and my 1SG doesn't listen and he constantly goes over my head, and tells my company memebers he's gonna do this and that, where it's not his decison or choice, it's mine. I'm at my wits end with him. Any advice on what to do? (I don't have the authority to fire him)

Answer 1

Make a personal documentation of his insubordinations.

Research the code of conduct for your JROTC.

Then you take it to your superior.

If he / she were to do this in the actual military, his / her life would be made to seem like hell.

Answer 2

You're supposed to act as if you were the CO.
And your action is to ask on Yahoo Answers?

What's your plan when your unit is under fire?
Get out your laptop and see if someone on YA
knows what to do?

Since you're in JROTC I'm not saying you're
going to be a bad commander. But you're on
a good start towards that. Such decisions
are *your* decisions. And you can hardly ever
ask anyone else what to do.

So. If I were you I'd take him aside once. If he
doesn't listen and goes on with that crap I'd
give him a serious grounding.

Answer 3

He acts like you are not important and skips over you to show contempt for you. You need to put him in his place.

Next time you form up, you ask the person UNDER him to change places with him in the formation. You ask THAT person to act as First Sgt and groom them for the job. IF your current First Sgt. does nothing about it, problem solved. However if he complains, you tell him that if he is going to ACT like a private, you will treat him as one. You say to him in front of the squad, "You have MY PERMISSION go up the chain of command if you feel the need to whine."

Suddenly you will be showing him you are the CO and that he can be replaced. Also by you giving him permission to go up the chain, he will be following your orders if he does. And everyone will know you gave him permission to do it because he needs to whine. He will lose much face if he does it as it will appear he is crying to the teacher.

Once you have closed the door on him and his whining, you can then work on him to do his job or replace him.

Remember, part of being a CO is handling your own problems. You can not "fire" him but you can replace him and you can also embarrass him all to hell.

Answer 4

Welcome to the military life. In reality a decent 1st Sgt would never pull off any kind of stunt like the one you are stuck with. With JROTC its difficult to address this issue since you aren't techincally a CO, the instructors merely want people to get a taste of the command structure. I would suggest a three-fold approach to this.
1) Take it up with the Instructors. Let them know you are all-to-aware that there is nothing you can technically do and therefore you want them to intervene. Advise them that under the circumstances, the UCMJ does not apply as neither of you are under its jurisdication; HOWEVER, since this is a mock military structure, you want them to intervene and play the part of the UCMJ... abstract, I know, but they should pick it up pretty quick.
2) Be on him like white on rice. When you hear him talking beyond his paygrade, pull him aside immediately and set him straight. Advise him of his responsiblity to lead by example, which means no mutiny. If he continues in his behavior, than I would call him out publically (this would never fly in the military, but you can get away with it here).
3) Always hold those under your command to your directives. If they cry and whine about what 1st Sgt said, simply give them a 5 minute education on the rank structure all over again...or however long it takes them to realize you make the calls not him. This approach reinforces your authority, while undermining the upstart. After a while, people will start to see that when 1st Sgt. starts stepping outside his paygrade, THEY get in trouble. So they will be less likely to listen to him and remember what YOU initially said. There is nothing wrong with playing 'games' so long as you physically don't touch anyone...then it becomes hazing. If you said do 'this', and come back finding them doing 'that.' Then engage in disciplinary actions...eventually they will realize what you say matters. Now for games to play, there is always push-ups...as long as you get down there with them. I preferred taking everyone on a little walk, preferrably with lots of stairs, carrying 5 gallon water canisters...as this was an education session on 'water logistics.'

Answer 5

You need to pull him aside and remind him that you are the CO and he is the 1SGT. Conduct a verbal counciling with him in private. Don't get into an argument infront of everyone. If he continues to undermine your command, write up everything he has done in a written counciling memorandum and include the documentation that requires him to do as he is told. If he STILL does not want to follow orders you can either conduct some wall-to-wall counciling (kick his butt) or bring him in front of your instructor.

Answer 6

You can play games. I would be happy to take that opportunity to teach him something. What I like to do is make him do the same thing over and over again. Like I would tell him, "hey come here", "nope, too slow, go back" "come here" "get back" over and over again. You can do sit, stand, sit game too.

Answer 7

Report this problem to your JROTC instructors!!

Answer 8

Change your avatar name to WIMP!!! or punch his lights out!! :-P

Answer 9

Tell your instructors.

Answer 10

go full metal jacket on their a ss