The benefit of the doubt. That’s what my mentor told me to give my team leader. Gosh I thought. The guy lied, cheated on me. There was no reason for what I did. I wanted to use The Mentor as a mediator because he viewed my opinion. So my team leader and me went to see him. I discussed my argument and then my team leader changed his reasoning. “I didn’t know about the 249. I had the chronological order of events mixed up,” he said. So, I was ok with it and our conversation had ended. Problem solved.

Later in the evening it came to me. I remember telling him everything, such as the problem with our M2, mounting a M249, and the all events in chronological order. He knew because I told him before, once he arrived back from R&R. I forgot I had told him until dinner chow.

Well, we had a little pow-wow and I was the target. I didn’t expect to become the target but that’s fine. I’m very open to criticism when it’s justified. So I took it, some of it. I didn’t agree with everything that was said. I’ll take heart to some of the issues that were brought up and work on them. I’ll also take other issues with a grain of salt.

There were issues that I brought up as well. I blame a lot of the team problems on our leader. Parts of those responsibilities are my duty as an NCO and I have failed. So I am partly to blame but most of my blame goes on my leadership. I let him have it and told him how I felt. The problem is I’m not good with using tact so I think I upset him a little bit. I tried to bring up these issues as best as I could with respect.