And since I was reading Mrs. du Toit

Go check out this post of hers:

Back when I worked at UCLA, a few people who had perform trend analysis in their job descriptions, when asked to actually do it, responded, “I do not know how to do that.” And you couldn’t fire them for that. The employment rules said that it was your duty as an employer to verify that the person had the skills before they were hired, but if it ended up that they didn’t, you had to provide the gap training necessary for them to do their job. If they lied about their college degrees or previous work experience, you couldn’t fire them for that either. You had to verify it BEFORE you hired them, and if you didn’t, too bad. Only after you had provided the training and they refused to do it could you fire them, with about six months of documenting how diligently you tried to help them do their job properly… the job they contractually obligated themselves to do when you hired them, with a job
description as part of the contract.

Employment no longer seems like a private contract between individuals, that either party may cancel at any time, with notice. It seems more like adoption to me!

Back when I went through Primary Leadership Development Course (now Warrior Leadership Course) the one thing they blasted you with was books. Tons of them. Field Manuals. Army Regulations. DA Pamphlets. I literally had four huge binders sitting on my desk in the classroom, and each binder had two or three different books in it. You couldn't memorize it all.

You weren't supposed to memorize it all.

You were supposed to figure out how to get the information out of those regulations and field manuals and pamphlets. One of the things that amazed me when I took the course was, after getting an answer to some question or another, one of my fellow students turned to me and asked "How the fuck do you KNOW this shit, Dave?" I don't know it. But I know where to get the information. See this section up front? It's called a Table of Contents. I know it looks all scary with the italicized letters and lotsa numbers, but if you can decode the not-so-hidden meaning behind the weird symbols (and by weird symbols I mean words written in plain English without slang or "Like, totally!") then YOU TOO can find the information you seek!

I think by now people know I'm officially a quartermaster. I'm a supply guy, specifically for the motor pools and warehouses. I'm trained on the ULLS-G system, SARSS-1 system, and the SAMS-1 system.

OK, OK, those stand for Unit Level Logistics System-Ground, Standard Army Retail Supply System Level 1, and Standard Army Maintenance System Level 1. Happy now? Good. To put it in layman's terms, I'm trained to work in a motorpool supply system, a warehouse or other mass distribution system, or a direct support unit that supports company and battalion sized units.

Anyone want to guess what role I'm currently filling in my unit right now? Anyone?

Personnel NCO.

Schooling? None, unless you consider going up to a admin NCO from another unit and getting advice "going to school". I haven't touched an ULLS-G system in over a year. I'm using entirely different systems, different programs, doing a job that I was never trained how to do. And how did I learn my job?

I opened up an Army Regulation. I learned as I went. I picked the brain of anyone who could help me. "Hey Sergeant, how do I do this or that?" And I listened to those people and learned from them. Hell, I'd interrupt them in mid-sentence and say "Wait, wait, I need to write this down." And I'd whip out my pen and notepad and start taking notes. When I would send paperwork up the chain, if it came back needing corrections I would annotate what needed correcting in red ink, and then I would keep the old copy in my files so that I could go back later, when I was doing something similar, to check and make sure I didn't make the same mistake twice.

Because let me tell you, if the Army gives you a job to do, they don't want to hear any whining about how you don't know how to do it. Fuck all that, learn how! And so I did.

Now that doesn't mean that I'm a master of my job, and if I got the chance to go to school for it I'd jump on it in a red-hot minute. But I can function, and give my Soldiers the support they need.

Tell me, does that make me the odd man out? Because if it does, well then we're in trouble.