I don’t know how to gain T-Rex’s trust.

He’s like my son. I tell him do to do something and begins to question it. My son does the same thing until I make him realize that he failed because he didn’t trust me. Then, after he fails to do whatever it is, I make sure he knows it. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes. Today it happened twice with T-Rex. I try to treat him like an adult. He’s older than me. That’s one of the reasons I hate outranking him. It’s hard for me to get over that fact. It’s not a problem when they’re younger because I feel like I have more authority.

It all started early this morning when we were getting ready for mission. We were configuring the radios and I told him to adjust it a certain way. T-Rex thought I was wrong. He came to find out afterwards I was right. I didn’t rub in that I was right. I just asked him, “Can you get anyone now?” Sure enough it worked. I didn’t go anywhere else with it from there. I proved my point. Then it happened again in the afternoon.

We were on the road and we just happened to have to back up. I told him to stop like three or four times. Again, he didn’t listen. He wanted to do his own thing. Well, it cost him because he backed up right into a barrier. Thankfully, it didn’t do any damage to the Humvee.

He’s going to get me to the point where him and me are going to have to have a little talk. I’d rather he learn to listen than to have me tell him. He’s not a little boy.