It's just business

I continually remind my subordinates that it's not what happens that defines us but rather how we react to what happens. At the same time, I reinforce to them that mission success is our business and to remember that what we do is just business and never personal. Some of you will read that and think I've seen The Godfather one too many times. Actually, I don't think it is possible to watch that movie too many times, as it is filled with quips of wisdom. Applying the Corleone Family philosophy to the Army can serve any Soldier well. But, unfortunately, too many folks in the Army have very thin skin and extremely fragile egos. They also jump to conclusions as soon as thing go wrong - as they sometimes do. When something goes wrong on Bagram the tendency is to automatically blame Garrison even when the facts bare out differently. We deal with what I call "knee-jerk" reactions almost daily. This is why I make certain neither my subordinates nor me take anything personal and that we always react with professionalism and courtesy. This past week brought a case in point.

It started when we signed for a brand new transient billeting building from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The building is a large 2-story structure that houses up to 600 personnel in an open bay furnished with bunk beds and lockable steel cages for securing gear. On one end of each floor is a large latrine that includes toilets, sinks, and showers. USACE supervised a contracted company during the construction phase of the building in one of many projects on Bagram known as MILCON (Military Construction). Once the building was complete it was given an independent third-party technical inspection (TI) that, once passed, would allow the building to be accepted by Garrison and brought onto the base "density list". The density list is critical, as it allows service and maintenance contracts required to maintain the building and keep its facilities clean. In the case of this building, there was something missed during the TI. It turns out the construction company workers (a Turkish-based company) had been tossing empty bottles, rags, and trash down the main latrine drain pipe early on in the project. The building was a ticking time bomb for a huge sewage problem. The stage was set for disaster. It came within 48 hours of us signing for the building.

The day after we signed for the new building we moved a redeploying unit into the facility. It only took a few hours for the previously unknown blockage in the latrine to rear its ugly head. Late on the evening of the unit's first night the toilets began overflowing. Before long a "river of feces" flowed through the toilet side of the latrine. It may have been the most putrid thing I've ever seen or smelled. My team was already on the problem. But the unit's leadership had already jumped to the conclusion that Garrison had done this on purpose and that nothing was being done about the situation. Their commander refused to meet with me, instead choosing to go straight to higher command to complain. My CSM and I were at the building the entire time to monitor the situation. The unit's command team was nowhere in sight. We offered the unit alternate billets. They refused. But our technicians did, in fact, clean out the latrine pipe in an amazingly fast time. Simultaneously, a cleaning crew arrived to completely sanitize the place. Less than twelve hours after the latrines backed up they were not only back in service - they were even cleaner than when we first signed for the building. There have been no issues since. The unit's leadership proved just as unprofessional with the solution as they had with the problem. Their commander never acknowledged the rapid repair and cleaning of the latrine. No thanks were ever rendered. But my team just continued on our professional way. We've come to expect all the blame and none of the praise. It's just business. It's not personal.