Chapter 11
We are deep into the bitch session. Man, is there ever a lot of pent up resentment and anger. And that’s just from nine of them. If the entire unit is like this, we’ve got our work cut out for us.
But it has been a good bitch session. Once it started, it kept going. I asked Ritter to start. He started to complain about the lack of oversite on Schmidt. Then another mentioned how some of the married men were confined to the barracks and couldn’t go back home to their wives. Another complained that some of the previously convicted men were still not drawing pay, as their conviction resulted, not only in a loss of rank, but a forfeiture of pay, too.
Earlier, before the bitch session, when it was mentioned that Meyers was just a place holder, that was the mildest rumor about him. At first, the men were hesitant to open up. That’s why I asked Ritter to start. When the men saw that I wasn’t reprimanding him, then they slowly started to open up. And once it opened up, it flooded out.
I must have lost track of time because I see Josh and Meyers, in the distance, walking towards us. When the others see them approaching, the mood starts to take a nosedive.
“Gentlemen,” I remind them gently, “both your CO and the regimental XO sent me here. They want to know what’s going on. Please, take a deep breath and relax. I promise you that there will be no retaliation from what we’ve been talking about.”
The group looks towards Ritter, as he is the ranking SNCO. Ritter has been very intent on what I’ve been saying and, more importantly, that I’ve been listening to them and taking notes.
Ritter holds my gaze for a few moments, as Josh and Meyers continue to walk toward us.
“I believe him,” he says. Immediately, the mood turns around. We all stand up and wait for them to get closer.
“At ease, men,” Josh says as we all start to straighten up to salute. We relax. “How is everything going?”
“Better than I thought it would, sir,” Ritter says to Josh.
“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that, Ritter,” Josh says, as he reaches out and shakes Ritter’s hand. “We are only as strong as our trust and faith in each other. We know we have a lot of work to do to re-earn that.”
“I think today was a good day for that, sir,” Ritter says as the handshake ends. “Captain Clinton reminded me of what the army should be.”
“Thanks, Ritter,” I say blushing a little. “This is how the army should always be. Looking out for each other.”
“Yes, sir,” he says, smiling at me. “I’m starting to remember that now, because of you.” He reaches out and shakes my hand. Then salutes me, then Josh, then Meyers. And he heads back to the barracks. The rest then follow his example.
As they shake my hand, I can tell that the mood has lightened. There’s still a couple of them that have reservations and at least one still has resentment. But that’s natural. Nothing is fixed overnight or in one bitch session. But one bitch session can do wonders. The last one shakes my hand and salutes us and leaves the three of us by ourselves.
Meyers is looking at me.
“What?” I say with a smile.
“I hope I can be as people friendly as you, one day, sir,” he says. “I go out and talk to the men as much as I can but I’ve never had them react like that to me.”
“People skills can take a while to learn,” I say, blushing slightly. “One thing that I learned a long time ago is this: Make people feel important and valuable. The army may be this big, giant machine, but we aren’t cogs. We’re still people.”
“You are the epitome of that, Sir,” he says. “Honestly, when you asked for the list to talk to the men, I didn’t think they would give you the time of day. With you being a captain. Because of Captain Schmidt, anyone that rank or higher seems to trigger that PTSD I was telling you about.”
“C’mon,” I say to the two of them. “Sit down for a moment.” We sit down at the table where the bitch session happened. “You are correct, Meyers. When I first asked for directions to Ritters quarters, I encountered that. Your men are very, very gun shy around the higher ranked brass.”
“How did you overcome that?” Josh asks.
“Ritter yelling at me and chewing me out, helped,” I say with a smile. “He vented his feelings loudly, drawing the men to watch what was going on. When I didn’t react negatively to that, and actively listened to what he was saying, that helped.”
“I want to improve morale in the unit,” Meyers says. “I don’t think I want each of them yelling at me, though, to accomplish that.”
“I agree with that,” I say, nodding my head. “Here’s a couple things you can do. First, were you aware that some of your men are confined to the barracks?”
“What?” Meyers says shocked. “There shouldn’t be anyone confined anymore. I found out about that when we visited the hospital. That was the first thing I did when I took over is to remove that restriction.”
“It hasn’t been,” I say. “One of the men I talked to said it was still going on.”
“I will go to each person and tell them that it’s removed,” Meyers says, angrily. “No one should be confined.”
“Bring your XO, too, Meyers,” I say. “That will help boost his credibility while also making it known you did remove that restriction. You need to find out where the ball was dropped on that.”
“Damn right I will,” he growls. “You said a couple things. What’s the second one?”
“When you go and talk to the men, what do you actually talk about?”
“I ask each of them how they are doing. What I can do to make things better,” he says.
“That’s great to start with. But, that’s also very surface level,” I say.
“What do you mean?” he asks leaning forward.
“Remember when Royce came to you to interview you?” I ask him.
“Of course, I do,” he says.
“How did you help him?” I ask.
“Well,” Meyers says slowly, remembering, “I told him he has good instincts but his questions weren’t deep.”
“Correct. Here, as the commanding officer, you have to be able to drill deep with your questions but, more importantly, make connections. How would you feel if I came up to the XO here, and asked him those questions, then, turned around and asked you those questions and then asked the next person the exact same questions?”
Meyers sits for a few moments.
“That my answer doesn’t really matter, the questions are generic,” he says.
“Correct. The last thing we want is to make the men feel that way. Have you read the book: How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie? (Meyers shakes his head no). Get that book and read it. Then read it again. Highlight passages that resonate with you,” I tell him. “As the leader of this company, you can’t afford to be seen as unapproachable. You have to be able to connect with them.”
“Yes, sir,” Meyers says, standing up. Josh and I stand up, too. “I have to get those men released. I’ll ring the office and have them send the XO down here. Thank you, sir.” Meyers salutes us and we return it. Then he heads back towards his company, phone next to his ear. Josh and I watch as he walks and stops at a group of his men.
“Look at him,” I say with a smile, “becoming a better officer.”
“Yes,” Josh says beside me. “He’s going to do well.” We watch as Meyers engages with his men. “So, any thoughts?”
“Yeah,” I say, sitting back down. Josh does, too. “We have more than a morale problem with this company.”
“What did you find?” Josh says, leaning in.
“It’s little more of a hunch, but I’m damn sure of it,” I say. Josh looks at me expecting me to go on. “I think we have a traitor in this company.”
“That’s a pretty damning charge, Jim,” Josh says. “Why do you think that?”
“I saw all the signs of this when Matt was blackmailing me. I kept thinking over and over that he’d make a great intel officer. I just didn’t connect the dots that he was using our own tactics on me. That’s what’s going on here.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense, Josh. Someone, in this unit, is using our tactics against us. The moment his men heard that Karl was gone and being arrested, morale should have skyrocketed. It didn’t. The moment those seventeen men had their charges dropped, morale should have skyrocketed. It didn’t. When they were told that the chaplain was coming back, morale should have skyrocketed. It didn’t.
“There is an active campaign of disinformation and morale destabilization going on,” I conclude.
“We need to figure out who this person is, then,” Josh says. “Any idea who it could be?”
“No,” I say. “I highly doubt we would be so lucky as to find this person in the first group I talked to.”
“Do you have an idea on why this is happening?” Josh asks. “Why Meyers company?”
“That’s the wrong question, Josh, not Meyers company,” I say, “Karl’s company. What was Karl up to? What would he have done if he got the regimental XO position? We need to find Karl and we need to find who is doing this.”
“Could Karl and this person still be in contact with each other?” Josh asks.
“Sure,” I say, shrugging my shoulders, “why not? At this point, it’s all conjecture. Your guess is as good as mine. If we go down that rabbit hole, we could presume the traitor is the one who helped hide Karl and helped him get off base. Here’s a question back at you: Do we tell Meyers? He’s got enough pressure on him already. Do we want to add conjecture to it, too?”
“Is it conjecture?” Josh asks, looking right at me.
“No,” I sigh. “This feels right, Josh.”
“Then we have to tell him,” Josh says. “We can’t tell everyone that we have full faith in him and then keep this from him. That would be devastating to him. And his men if it gets out.”
“And the major?” I ask, looking at Josh.
“He put me in charge of this, while he deals with the fallout of Karl,” Josh says. Then he goes silent. His right index finger tapping the table as he thinks. “Right now, it’s conjecture that said traitor and Karl are working together. But, if this is something that Karl has a hand in, we need to let him know. I’ll inform him of our thoughts on this. Bottom line, it’s his regiment, he needs to know what’s going on in it.” And with that, we get up and head back to the office.
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