1SG Katrina Moerk gets ARCOM for trolling
No this is NOT satire, it’s not the Duffel Blog, it’s Military.com and it is about 1SG Katrina Moerk who got an Army Commendation Medal for scolding other soldiers in a social media chat room;
First Sgt. Katrina Moerk, now the first sergeant of Charlie Company, 741st Military Intelligence Battalion, was browsing a social media network’s community page earlier this year, when she came upon a video that she found offensive and sexist. When she commented as much, several respondents attacked her with insults. Some of these respondents were wearing uniforms in their profile photos, the first sergeant said, so she wrote to them directly.
“I looked them up, introduced myself and explained to them why they were stupid. And I [copied] the director of the Army SHARP program to help their units improve their SHARP training, because it was obviously lacking. And it’s kind of blown up from there,” Moerk said.
[…]
“I tried to explain why I didn’t care for it,” she added, “and [said], ‘If you don’t know who you’re talking to, be careful what you say in an open public forum on the Internet,’ and it just made it worse. When I started calling them by rank, they figured I was in the military and made jokes about calling people out on the Internet, or [that] pulling rank on the Internet is like calling somebody out in a bar.”
Things died down online, she said, but Dr. Christine Altendorf, the SHARP director, brought Moerk’s email to the attention of Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, then the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel. Shortly thereafter, the Army launched three administrative investigations, because Soldiers from three separate major commands were involved, either through producing the video or making inappropriate comments.
Her sergeant major called her the epitome of what an NCO should be. Lucky for her, an Army First Sergeant didn’t have more important things to do than to troll the internet looking for trouble. I come across things on the internet that offend me and I click away, I personally boycott that website, I don’t turn into a nosy scold. Lucky for her she clicked into something that the Army leadership is focusing on these days.
I have three ARCOMs from my two decades of service – I earned mine by doing my job and working towards the successful completion of the unit’s mission. Silly me.
ADDED: Here’s how she trolled the social media. She trolled me looking for me to grunt and call her names;
Category: Army News
I could have saved these men all the trouble they have been through by teaching them my golden rule for talking to women. Pay attention now, this is years of wisdom talking:
Women do not want to know what you think, they want to hear what they think…in a deeper voice.
Glad to help….I will be around all week.
You should also know, guys – and pay attention, because this comes from the women’s head (Navy for restroom):
If you’re the kind that f++ks and talks about it, the women will tell everyone within cell phone reach that you’re a lousy lay.
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/49307986.jpg
Someone in the HR Command passed on the Citation for her ARCOM:
First Sgt. Katrina Moerk, distinguished herself by outstanding service as the first sergeant of Charlie Company, 741st Military Intelligence Battalion. During this period, 1SG Moerk served as an Internet Troll on the lookout for critically bad internet posts in the Continental United States. She was instrumental in providing course material for the burgeoning United States Army SHARP program. 1SG Moerk coordinated 240 direct-Facebook attacks on ignorant, lower-ranking Soldiers. She directly ensured her rank was evident and displayed on social media, ensuring the safe, orderly implementation of discipline, which saved the Department of Defense precious reprimand paperwork. In addition, she led the newly formed First Sergeant Internet Troll Brigade through its initial trial-by-social-media-fire. The distinctive accomplishments of 1SG Moerk reflect great credit upon herself and the United States Army.
Her soldiers will follow her anywhere…..
but only because of morbid curiosity.
…or they’ll follow her to Hell and stop at the gate.
…and push her through.
https://imgflip.com/i/fv0jo
That smirk on her face… it’s like she’s thinking… “Hah! A medal on my chest for putting those machetes in the back of my counterparts at those other units… fair trade!”
This broad, has set the year end record…..
729 TAH comments
plus
601 FB comments
equals 1330 total at 04:45AM my time
Does this officialy constitute Trollgate, or am I over-reacting?
Well, hallelujah, anyway, my peeps!
Happy New Year!
Bonne nouvelle annee!
Freuliche Neues Jahr!
Feliz nuevo ano!
… and whatever else there is.
I’ve read through all of the NCO creeds of the different branches of military for our country and i hate to agree that she did what all of our military leaders should be doing, correcting the actions of her lower ranking military members. All members of our military that swear themselves to service to our country need to keep in mind that the uniform they wear and the flag on that uniform represent not just themselves but our country. How they represent themselves while wearing that uniform is important to many of us out there that have served in the past and to those that will serve in the future. No one wants to join a military that allows its members to act disrespectfully to another person whether it be person to person in the flesh or in cyberspace.
That she got an award for doing her job is a bit much, sorry Top. All of our leadership should be looking after their soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen and reminding them that whether they be active duty or reserve, they are members of the military that defends MY country and they need to conduct themselves accordingly at all times. If a 1st SGT can find you showing your a** then anyone can see you. Easy solution mind your P’s & Q’s dismiss yourself from said site and shut your face when your talking to leadership. If you wouldn’t say it to your direct leadership don’t say it at all.
To all the people out there that think it ok to sit here and bash on a military leader for doing her job why don’t you try doing something for her so she doesn’t have to.
You missed one of the biggest problems that most of us have with the actions of this 1SG. She threw the NCOs over this little rabble under the bus by not notifying them of the problems with their soldiers. Instead, she contacted the head of an entire Pentagon program to complain about the actions of the individual soldiers. That is the biggest reason that she has sparked the ire of those on this site and elsewhere. The right thing for her to do would be to contact the company-level NCO (or equivalent) of those service members involved in this stunt. Alternatively, she could have contacted the Battalion-level NCO (or equivalent) and it wouldn’t have been a problem. There may even have been precedent to contact a Company-level officer or Battalion staff officer over this incident, depending on the comments the service members made. Instead, she completely disregarded the entire NCO chain and went straight to a Pentagon flag officer. This threw the Company, Battalion, Brigade, Division, and Corps completely out of the picture. She went straight to Army. That’s six levels of separation between the soldiers and the person she contacted. That’s the problem. She didn’t even go to the Company- or Battalion-level SHARP officer, electing to go to the program director. The best equivalent would be that a Teacher’s assistant had a problem with a student and went to the State Board of Education rather than to the student’s teacher. There was no reason for this at all. To be given a medal on top of it is just that much more salt into a wound, because she was rewarded for violating the rules and the chain of command. This is the quintessential Blue Falcon action. All of the lower-enlisted, NCOs, and officers who were fired, received a black mark in their record, or otherwise severely punished is on her head. Yes, Joe was being an idiot, but every NCO knows that the reason is Joe is an idiot. You don’t run to the Pentagon because Joe is an idiot, you tell Joe’s NCO. That’s the way it’s done… Read more »
Flagwaver… couldn’t have said it better myself.
I really don’t get this. Things are sure different today than when I was in. When I left Vietnam there were many of use in the Company awarded the ARCOMM. I did not understand why or what for. I asked my Top why was I getting this? His answer was the best I ever received, he said, “Look at it as a, ‘Thanks for coming’ award and leave it at that”. No one ever offered any better. It was fairly common then for good conduct upon leaving Vietnam. As I think it was for Iraq and Afghanistan, though I would have to let those veterans speak to that. But to lower it to a glorified “Atta Boy” for such drivel as this ass kisser produced, sort of makes me want to take mine off my already small fruit salad rack.
[…] apparently, of writing rude comments to others online. She contacted milblogger Jonn Lilyea, who covered this story, identified herself as a 1st Sgt, and then called him an “asshat.” Evidently, 1st Sgt. Moerk […]
I read thebesig’s comment here: http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=57351&cpage=4#comment-2394635 as well as Dave Hardin’s response. When I recall some of the adolescent crap I put up with from fleet sailors, the idea that the military has zero tolerance for harrassment seems substantially overstated. If a zero tolerance policy is in place, then, in regard to the recent article about women personnel on a sub being videoed 7 times in the shower without their knowledge or consent, why was this not clamped down on immediately? The sailor who did that has issues with authority figures, not just with women in authority. He can’t ‘get even’ with a male officer/senior PO for perceived wrongs by doint this, but he could do it to women. So if this zero toleterance policy exists, why was this behavior allowed to continue without being stopped or the sailor reprimanded along with his enablers, until the video had been broadcast to several other ships? No one has addressed this. I doubt seriously that any of you GUYS want your dates to be told by your Mom about the first time your peed on your own forehead when she was changing your diapers, or how you used to play with yourself in the sink when she gave you a bath. Nor would you want some total stranger butting in on you in the middle of a shower. Aside from the fact that a massive percentage of adults in the current generation in the military haven’t the slightest concept of simple good manners in a social setting, I find it very difficult to believe that a zero tolerance policy has any effect at all or that it is being enforced. If it does exist in the military, it is not being enforced. If it were, the alleged video of these soldiers acting like repellent morons and the sailor and his enablers with those 7 videos could not possibly have gotten any further than the ‘thinking about it’ stage. The idea of such policies is to prevent these very things from happening, not react to them after the fact. So where is the… Read more »
I was in the Navy before I joined the Army. When I first joined, women couldn’t serve on combatants. When it came to those ships, it was “us males” and our way of “administering” discipline.
This included wall to wall counselings, as well as reefer deck counselings as part of the training tool bag.
Theoretically, if you tried to film someone in the shower in these situations, you were gay and were liable to get a serious ass whoppen for trying to film others in the shower.
On the other side of the coin, I remember one time when we did a turnover with a ship off the coast of Haiti. They were relieving us. All of a sudden, on the phones, a long standing back and forth continued.
Someone joked about someone else’s mother being part of the transfer package to the other ship, as they would’ve needed some sexual release. We laughed at that joke and didn’t think much of it.
When women were allowed to serve on combatants, we got inundated with sexual harassment, EO, and other types of briefings.
Today, with these instances coming to the surface with Sailors doing something stupid?
What you’re seeing is a result of almost 2 decades in decay of discipline. I’ve used the swimming pool on one of the Navy Bases. I kid you not, a young female chief petty officer was sitting at one of the gas pumps. She didn’t get out. There was a line waiting to use the gas pumps.
When I rolled up, and stopped, I saw her get out, put her iPad down, then start the pumping process.
This wasn’t an only item. You could look around and see that there’s a general lack of discipline in the Navy ranks.
That “filming in the shower” instance was just the tip of the iceberg.
As for the link, I’ve replied to Dave Hardin:
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=57351&cpage=4#comment-2399345
Well, the gag order doesn’t seem to apply to the Army Times, who has a new article that cites Jonn and Nicki
http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2014/12/31/moerk-commendation-award-trolling/21103073/
In reading the article, a couple of things popped out to me.
First, the circling the wagons seems rather perfunctory, almost like some people’s hearts aren’t truly into it. In fact, one could get the feeling that there might be others who feel this should have been handled at the NCO/lowest-possible level and not turned into the current circus by Moerk and Higher.
Second, Moerk continues to play the victim (no surprise), and my response to her question on how to say no to a three-star, it’s easy. You say no, and thank you. You tell them that knowing they feel you deserve it is reward enough, and that you can’t and won’t do anything to cheapen the award. It’s called honor and integrity, get some.
Sometimes saying no is exactly what you have to do as a senior Staff NCO to look out for your troops. I learned the power of the word early on as a young Sergeant. Reactions varied from complete failure to respond to “I’ll contact your Officer in Charge”; the latter was welcomed because it left an opening for additional scrutiny peer to peer, usually in the form of being told “no” again, followed up by “you’re an idiot”. No one likes a yes man (or woman).
[…] Story. She’s the First Sergeant of crying like a widdle baby to the thoughtcrime police. The person who submitted this GBA photo writes, […]
The Armed forces is full of self serving individuals that hide this fact by portraying the whole “do the right thing bit” in front of important people. I am not fooled by this bullshit. I am just glad that everyone else gets to see it.
[…] service.(For the record, I am no longer in the military, so bring it on 1SG Katrina Moerk..See story here…) In my previous career, I was a healthcare worker. It is punishable, up to termination, […]
[…] Anti-Harrassment (1SG Katrina Moerk gets ARCOM for trolling) […]