CSM Assaults Soldier During Road Rage Confrontation
From Popular Military: CSM assaults Soldier during road rage incident.
A Command Sergeant Major and a Soldier were involved in a road rage based altercation. This is something that lends itself to being watched, video posted below. You guys could sort this out.
From Popular Military:
“I took your tag number,” he said, flipping his wallet out like an FBI agent on TV. “If I find out.. You’re in the Army..Command Sergeant Major.”
“Oh, congratu-f***ing-lations,” Allison quipped.
“F*** you, you little bastard,” the CSM retorted.
After telling the CSM to leave, the NCO warned the Allison not to get him angry.
“What the f*** you gonna do?” the driver asked.
It was then that the CSM unleashed his mighty fury, striking Allison with the amount of force generally reserved for when little old ladies hit people with purses.
The video shows that his head isn’t the only part of him that gets exposed:
Thanks to Just An Old Dog for the link. You can read more here.
Category: YGBSM!!
His night job must be a Plumber. Or cable guy.
Someone needs to have an intervention with the female at the beginning of the video and let her know that Faux Woodland Camo does make her ass look fat.
I hope that night job pays well, since it’s liable to be the only one he will have.
The CSM needs to attend a refresher combatives course. His display of pugilistic prowess is weaker than Elizabeth Warren’s American Indian bloodline.
Well, someones career just ended.
3:1 said SGM is already retired and just can’t let go.
Or someone forgot his rank means jack shit outside the gate. Acting like a mature adult would have got him a lot farther.
Then again, they’re both jackasses.
You rank CAN mean something outside the gate. That is, it can demand respect when you act in a way commensurate with your rank. [This will be the first time writing the first part of this sentence] In my active duty days, if a colonel said to me “Hey Marine, you’re out of line. You need to fix yourself” in a calm and professionally colonel-like manner, I would heed that.
On the other hand, your rank also matters off base when you ARE NOT acting in a way commensurate to that rank. Like a colonel stealing ink cartridges from the Walmart on 17 and 34 in Jacksonville, NC or a CSM berating a guy – and then accosting him – in a road rage incident.
Well that is going to accost that CSM his job, it would seem.
New headline:
“Retired CSM….”
What was that?
The old guy probably already is retired. And what’s with the Euroweinie jacket? It does go well with the butt crack, though.
CSM striking with the thunderous force of a bag of wet marshmallow…
He must have thought his rank extended outside of his uniform on the civilian side of the street.
He also can’t be infantry, with a punch like that I’m not even sure how he’s in the fucking Army….what a pussy.
I see dumb shit like this regularly, because I’m on the road a lot, two morons getting all worked up over driving like ‘tards.
I have my pet peeves while driving to be certain, but these days with all the numbnuts who text, do their makeup, eat a sandwich, or the best one I’ve seen recently watch movies on their tablet on their dash while driving, I’m just glad to get home without incident.
Near misses are a regular part of my day every day I’m on the road. Especially here in the PRoM where pedestrians are granted legal powers that supersede the laws of physics.
I have learned to never make eye contact while driving. Just play dumb and go on your way.
Especially if you are armed.
Good idea. Didn’t realize that I also do that. Except at 4-way stop signs. There, it’s nice to establish “communication” with other drivers.
Of course, in my area, it is likely to be more of a, “No, YOU go first” kind of a thing. It seems that around here, the most expensive vehicle has the right of way no matter what. Took a while to get used to that. Also a lot of waving and nodding going on.
I had someone try to wave me through an intersection the other day in Tucson. Problem was, I had a stop sign and they did not. It was almost like an invitation to a t-bone (I didn’t go for it).
I see that a lot in AZ. I do appreciate the fact that they’re trying to be polite, but I’d really prefer they just follow the traffic regs.
At least the AIT kids on Fort Huachuca aren’t allowed to drive anymore so we don’t have to worry about them.
I get paranoid about things like that. Seems like a setup for an insurance claim to me (see officer, I had the right of way and that guy didn’t yield…)
I’ll do that sometimes when things are close enough that right-of-way is questionable, simply because if I relinquish ROW at least I’ll know where the other driver is. Think of a four-way stop where you and another driver get there within a few seconds of each other; you may be in the right but the other driver may think HE is. I’ll wave him through simply because that way he can’t T-bone me.
Like my motorcycle instructor said: “If you have the right-of-way and you get hit… you still got hit.”
VOV, et all, I caught this on Book of Face the other week.
I’m shocked that this shit went on (NOT) in Howard County. Buch of entitled assholes.
I drive this route at least 3 or 4 times a week so when I was about 5 seconds into this, I knew *exactly* where this was.
I just wish I knew what happened at the end when they both pulled over to the side of the road.
Wow. Had to watch that twice to see what kicked it off. The white Explorer cuts off the Nissan. It was way too closely, nearly hitting the Nissan with only a quick blink of the signal to warn him.
From there the Nissan goes way overboard. Looks to me like the white truck is trying to get away and the black truck is doing everything possible to cause an accident.
White Explorer would get careless driving and the black Nissan would get reckless driving from me. Then they can both go stand in front of the judge.
WTF, what a crock of shit. Someone is going to end up confined to a wheelchair for the rest of their life. Let it go, take the high road.
Where’s Brockway hauling the 40 yd dump when you need one?
Time for some serious ass kicking. Might want to take a ball-peen hammer to the dark vehicle.
I would certainly have memorialized the license plate information for some follow up therapy.
OTOH, from a practical standpoint, just as easy for the white vehicle to pull over and wait a few minutes, call 911, and let cops put a buffer in the system. Nothing good could come out the confrontation.
Ah, I don’t miss driving on 32 one bit. Too bad 32 does’t run through Ft Meade anymore, the MPs would have put a stop to that shit fast.
That’s why I try to avoid that part of the county.
That’s why I moved from that part of the country.
Get rid of the shitbag kid, too
Would have been great if he jumped out of the vehicle and started doing pushups.
Or if he got out and came to parade rest.
1st SEAC showing America his “Military Bearing”?/s
This CSM just validates my point that CSM is the most worthless rank in the army. It is over populated with way too many under employed bullies. And to top it off, he couldn’t punch his way out of a piss soaked paper bag.
^^^^ This right here.
Have I served with some great CSMs and SGMs? Yes, but even the ones who were decent soldiers spent most of their time doing things that didn’t actually need to be done.
Best Duffel Blog article title EVAR:
“Retiring E-9 shocked to discover private sector has no seats at table for abrasive, stupid people who stay around for long enough”
That one actually made me laugh out loud sitting at my computer.
I remember that one, that was hilarious.
The problem is that CSM wasn’t the most useless rank for decades.
The problem is that far too many people have gotten the job that know absolutely dick about WHAT their job is.
They think their job is to be important and to bug Soldiers about how their mustache looks. I’ve met way too many of these. (Well, when I was an E5, the CSM used to bug me about stupid shit, so that must be what I have to do too!)
There are many tasks and duties they could be accomplishing. For the life of me, I can’t understand why so many don’t realize that. Maybe because many of those tasks are hard work?
Playing the acting CSM for my battalion for a while, I found myself not nearly as busy as I was doing other jobs. But, I used that time to observe training and just listen to the goings on, not open my big mouth. I also was able to resolve a few long-term issues Soldiers had with a simple phone call. Even many phone calls weren’t working when I was a staff weenie.
I’ve dealt with worthwhile, useless, and hindrances in the CSM position. You’d think that with only 0.5% of enlisted ever becoming a CSM in the Army, that you wouldn’t get so many that show they shouldn’t be a Senior NCO, let alone a CSM.
Really, it’s all for that choice parking spot. 😉
Well, it was nice being able to park right near the front door. Though I never got to yell “get off my grass!” out the window. That one still kind of haunts me, like I need that to have closure on a fulfilled career….
Share the same sentiments with you, MSG Eric… at the last command I was at, I seemed to be the one that EVERYONE came to … the CMC was more concerned with his off-roading exploits than taking care of the Sailors an Marines assigned.
,” I used that time to observe … and…listen…”
Probably more useful than your other jobs. Too bad more people don’t spend more time observing and listening.
I actually told the NCOs when I gave them my intro brief as the CSM, “After this discussion, I’m going to stop talking and let you all do the talking. If you hear me talking a lot, you’re probably in trouble.”
White Fucking Trash…
Will he retire with E-9 money or a deserved lower pay grade. Me thinks he is the type of guy that likes taking rank away from the men in his command.
He will (or is) retire(d)at E-9 pay. If he is lucky he won’t spend any time in jail for assault. Yeah, the young (E-5?) was snotty, and disrespectful, but he was correct. If he catches any grief on base, he will likely find a good lawyer (or not so good, but shifty) and sue the snot out of the CSM. If nothing happens on post, he will probably just forget about it and bragg about it to his buddies.
If the dude is retired, he holds no rank so the Sergeant does not have to be particularly respectful while the guy is showing his ass. I render respect to those who merit it, not based on what is on their ID card.
Exactly; no matter how hard some try to make it so. What’s funny is when one retiree tries to pull that shit on another. Get over yourselves.
At least the retirees have earned a rank. It’s the dependopotamus throwing around the “Do you know who my [Dad, Husband, etc.] is?”
It’s the dependopotamus throwing around the “Do you know who my [Dad, Husband, etc.]
Saw that a lot as a Corpsman in Navy Hospitals. I’ll let you in on a secret, folks. If you ever came into my Radiology department and caused a scene, pulled out your ‘My husband is XXXX’, demanded to be taken right away b/c you were late for your hair appointment or some other useless reason, it didn’t fly. ‘I’m Mrs. Ensign Smith’s wife’ or similar bullshit got you a seat and a wait. Hated that crap as did my people. Be nice, have a valid request, and we treated you like royalty. Try your bullshit and you’re going to sit.
I worked with so many CSMs that I would follow into hell with, Sad, just sad.
I’d love to see the military biography of this E9. I’d also like to observe the unit that this E9 is supposedly the CSM of. I’m thinking it’s a spectacular clusterfuck.
That was awesome.
The problem with the CSM rank, especially at brigade level or higher, is that it is an example of authority without accountability.
Think about it: What IS the Brigade/Division CSMs job? Does anyone know?
I’ll put it a different way: If the Brigade or Division CSM takes emergency leave, does anyone replace him? Does anyone even NOTICE?
From what I’ve seen the Brigade-and-higher CSM adds very little if anything to an organization. Actually “pushing” the troops is the job of NCOs further down the chain of command.
Back before 1958 when the RANK of CSM was created, “Sergeant Major” was a duty position that was assigned to a squared away Master Sergeant. But there were a LOT fewer Sergeants Major back then because they just weren’t needed.
So what changed? You know if I was a cynical person I might think the SGM/CSM rank was created just so the Army could assign abrasive and obnoxious NCOs to a non-critical position until they retired.
And what’s ironic about the Army enlisted rank structure is that the grade just below CSM, First Sergeant, is arguably one of the most important, critical and influential jobs in the Army.
If the 1SG of a company is incompetent, the whole company falls apart. If the CSM of a brigade or higher is incompetent – does anybody even notice?
I disagree.
At battalion level, the CSM and the OPS SGM are critical jobs in training and maintaining those training standards, especially when talking about PSGs and 1SGs.
Higher than Bat, the CSMs are not that critical, but are part of the Command Team, made up of the Commanding officer and the CSM, and it is my experience after dealing with our allies, that the idea that every officer in a command position has a senior NCO next to him at al times, is probably one of the wisest decision our leadership ever made.
Additionally, it is my experience that the senior the CSM is the least angry and the more a problem solver they become, rather than creating problems like you seem to assume.
The last time I saw an angre CSM or OPS SGM was a Bat level.
Well, I agree with you about Battalion level but in that case, the Battalion Sergeant Major should, IMO, be the senior 1SG in the battalion (actually I think the duty should be rotated among the company 1SG’s.)
Operations Sergeant should be a Master Sergeant. No need to make him a SGM.
And there’s no reason the job of “senior enlisted advisor” to the Brigade and higher commander can’t be done by a Master Sergeant like it was during WWII and Korea.
The Ops SGM isn’t just responsible for what happens in the ops section, he’s responsible for what happens in all sections. In essence, he’s the enlisted chief of staff and turns Reds to Greens across the entirety of the staff. Granted, there are those Ops SGMs that don’t understand this.
The Ops Sergeant (E8 type) is soley focused on the Operations section and busy as hell. The Ops SGM pushes the staff as a whole to make them all function at a more worthwhile capacity.
Again, there are those that provide for a perception of why it is a “useless” position, but there are plenty of others you don’t notice because they are busy elsewhere.
FWIW: during World War II and Korea, the Army only had 7 enlisted grades. Master Sergeant was the highest enlisted grade at the time. (So was First Sergeant, but it was considered junior in priority to Master Sergeant.)
I don’t think making a Brigade or higher SEA position anything but the highest enlisted grade is ever going to fly. That’s particularly true if you’re going to leave CSMs as E9s (the highest enlisted grade) at Battalion level.
I had an angry BDE CSM sitting next to me in a Stryker in Afghan – ripping the TC a new one because they had driven into an uncleared lot without their mine plow on. Felt like a big fat seal when there was blood in the water and a Great White was circling… :). Also, I was with the Guard at the time, but prior Active. The senior NCOs in the Guard did not seem to understand that a RA Infantry Brigade CSM is the Lord of All that He surveys.
Meant mine roller, BTW.
I was in awe of the first Smaj I met in the 82nd in `63 as a 2LT. Had two combat jump stars.
Didn’t tolerate fools. A fellow 2LT would give him crap and he would stare ahead. When the 2LT left he pulled out the duty roster. The Lt never understood why he had Staff Duty every holiday and many weekends.
SMAJ helped me by saying things like would the LT like for me to…..(something I sould have done but didnt.)
Karma is no respecter of rank.
I suspect the old dude is not a CSM.
An Stolen Valor investigation is required.
I personally never seen a CSM that fat or without a regulation haircut.
On a different, yet familiar topic: This Air Force E-9 Command Chief is unceremoniously ejected from his post for getting VERY cuddly w/ a female subordinate.
https://www.stripes.com/relationship-with-subordinate-adultery-led-to-firing-of-air-force-global-strike-command-s-top-nco-1.563258
So was that because he was an E9? Or simply because he was a weak leader in a position of authority that wanted to get freaky with a subordinate?
He could’ve very easily been an officer doing the same thing. And there are plenty of examples of that too.
I’ll go with it being in his chain of command. Article said there was an appearance of favoritism.
What a career to throw away. Just look at this guy’s ribbon rack.
https://www.jba.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/772328/chief-master-sgt-thomas-b-mazzone/
Wow.
If you stare at it too long it starts spinning.
Or, as I was told by many a wise Chief during my career, “A stiff dick has no conscience.”
“Peace of mind before piece of ass”…
To sum up, if I was President of the Army, the rank of CSM would be eliminated.
E-9 would be First Sergeant since that is probably the hardest job an enlisted soldier can do (as a Platoon Sergeant I had to step in as acting 1SG a few times and I was astonished at how much there was to do in that job.) The rank of Sergeant Major would only exist at Battalion level and would be selected from the best Company 1SG’s in the battalion.
At Brigade level and above an E8 Master Sergeant would serve as Operations NCO and as senior enlisted advisor to the commander. You don’t need a bloated ego and a loud mouth with no accountability at that level – ADVISOR is exactly what that position should be.
E9 would ONLY be for those who wanted to step up to the difficult (and often thankless) job of First Sergeant.
Martin, when did you leave the military?
CSMs and SGMs today are team builders, with a Master’s degree prior to selection and an additional degree granted by the SMA sergeant major academy, and are key components of the Command team.
Or perhaps since my experience is limited to the infantry, we are just better than the rest?
I retired in ’05. My last deployment I was with a Headquarters Battery of a NG FA brigade and we deployed with not one but two E-9’s: A SGM who was the operations NCO and the brigade CSM. The SGM was squared away and kept things in the battery running (he was, in fact, for all practical purposes the Battery 1SG.) The CSM? Decent guy but he basically had no job. When he took mid tour leave nobody replaced him and I doubt anyone noticed he was gone. He did a lot of “make work” jobs like ensuring that all the soldiers were wearing tan patches on our DCUs instead of green subdued ones (when we deployed the Army didn’t have a tan subdued patch for our brigade so we deployed with green patches. About 6 months into our tour the tan patches became available.) The movie “Office Space” was very popular among the people in my unit and so the joke became that “The CSM is stopping by to make sure everyone is wearing at least 15 pieces of flair.” Later he came up with the idea of having “combat patch certificates” made and we even had a “patching” ceremony about mid-tour (I tried pointing out that a “combat patch” is officially a “[i]FORMER[/i] wartime service SSI” and therefore shouldn’t be put on until we were back in CONUS but nobody listened to me.) I think his other job was managing the mid-tour leave schedules. Certainly a neccessary job but also one that could have been done by another NCO in the brigade, not one that requires a CSM’s credentials. There was a CSM from another unit on Arifjan who’s only job seemed to be pointing out and correcting minor uniform violations (this while we were deployed to an uncomfortable and austere – though not particularly dangerous – desert environment.) Things like making sure that soldiers who wore “boonie hats” had the drawstring under their chins with the little slider thing pulled all the way up (because that’s how it shows it in AR-670-1 even though nobody ever actually… Read more »
Best First Shirt I ever had earned a Silver Star in Vietnam. He was 9 feet tall, and could collapse your lungs just by looking at you. He managed to always spot me skating from the other side of the base. (This was in the pre-camera’s everywhere era). Uber respect for him and would have followed him to Valhalla.
Had a Master Guns whose veins were filled with coffee. He knew everything about my MOS. Loved working for him (still keep in touch).
All the rest Senior SNCO’s I had —meh. Not so impressive. Unfortunately the good ones were few and far between.
We had a rather rotund CSM in one of my battalions that came over with a batch of other pentagon paper-cut warriors in late 1970. He flew on his first CA in the Viet of the Nam in a Huey where he was the only one on board (other that the crew) when the bird left the cold LZ. He promptly put himself in for a CIB, claiming an RPG round flew in one door opening and out the other just before lift-off. As far as I could tell, he did nothing useful other than kiss the hated Bn C.O.’s ass.
CSM Teressa King?
The Operations NCO is too busy doing operations shit to also deal with CSM duties at higher levels. You’re loading an already heavily taxed position with more work.
As well, you’re taking away a rank from the enlisted to make the next lowest one the highest. All that would happen is the same exact thing, only with less pay.
Are there many CSMs that do jack shit? Absolutely. Are there many CSMs that show they shouldn’t be a Senior NCO, let alone a CSM? absolutely. But, you can’t take away a position that is part of the command team to ensure enlisted issues are important and maintained.
Meanwhile, we have hundreds of 4-stars and hundreds more flag officers than we had during WW2. How many dozens of tasks at each level were taken away from NCOs and given to officers over the years to make them seem more important? Perhaps if there weren’t so many higher ranking officers and NCOs had more of the duties they used to, CSMs would be more valuable?
And yes, I’ve been in the Ops SGT position, the 1SG position, and the CSM position. 1SG really is the best job in the army. But, I’ve also seen plenty of shitbag First Sergeants. So what’s next? We go back to only having E7 as the highest rank? 😉
Not unlike the civilian world, where management gives mid-level (or low-level) flunkies important sounding job titles in the false hopes of motivation.
Then again, CIVLANT doesn’t give the rank/pay out like the military does.
But someone needs to tell those living in on-post housing that their grass is too high…
The housing office does that now. They also contract out to a grounds keeping company to keep the grass short. Sometimes they even send you warnings about your grass being too high, even though you aren’t allowed to cut your own grass because they pay a contractor to cut it. (Yes, really.)
Of course they do. 🤦♂️
That went well…
Was Basil Plumley the last real CSM that we had? Or was it when he (Plumley) retired, they no longer had a good role model? I worked for several 1SGs that retired rather than take the CSM slot cause they didn’t want to feel “useless”. (their words)
Spent many a year as a road warrior. Still do a good bit of driving. The idiots are everywhere.
Who was that big fat dude standing to the left of the CSM?
#DePendAPoMA or 11B transgender female.
In Korea I’ve Seen ROK Sergeant Major bitch slap his driver repeatedly for love tapping the rear end of a LMTV during a convoy. a pretty common occurrence over there. It’s funny because whenever I got guff from either one of my Katusas all I had to do was threaten them with calling the ROK Sergeant Major and let them go to the ROK army. And it was like instant attitude adjustment. Those Sergeant Majors def had a reputation. Lol
I worked on a ROK post for a couple months during the ’88 Olympics. I saw a ROK SGM punch a CPL out during an inspection, then slap the guy next to him because he flinched. We had a little KATUSA uprising once, 3 weeks of retraining under the ROK’s and they were docile little lambs, with a surprisingly improved command of the English language.
This ^^^^^. What camp were you stationed at in the peninsula Bro? I was at Camp Hovey. Did WLC at Camp Jackson.
I was at Humphreys, 88-90. Did PLDC at Jackson, JAN 90.
Down here in southeast Palm Beach County where I now reside, The snow birds/snow flakes from up north come down here and everything about driving 101 is thrown out the window. The CSM should go online and order a few of those anti plumber crack underwear shorts made out of fire hose linen sold by Duluth Trading. I use the term snowflake as a person that comes down to Florida at different times during the year and not just for the winter, although some would be considered political snowflakes as we mention on TAH.
Video No worky for me…
Likewise. “Unsupported format.”
I have good ones and bad ones (SGM’s-CSM’s).
Good ones are a great source of institutional knowledge and mentorship (for Officers as well).
Bad ones are clowns that hang out and act like fools and ogle young women while wearing to much gold and having whimsical mustaches.
Trying to talk to an idioit that got out of their vehicle to yell at you is dumb. Roll the window up and let them huff their own farts. This old man is lucky he didn’t get his shit destroyed for being idiot.
Yup. Would’ve taken a platoon of doctors to pull that ID card out of that E9’s arse!
If not for the video, I would have figured this was a Duffel Blog article. Even with the video, the fist thought that crossed my mind was “Duffel Blog’s upping their game.”
LTC Kratman writes rather glowingly of the CSM of the battalion in which I served. I heartily concur. The man simply radiated competence and Leadership, and was gifted at passing it along.
Why the actual Fark do we not -demand- this of any who aspire to the rank, and flush out the dross who cannot rise to that expectation?
The -process- is broken, and the -leadership- that is supposed to be minting CSMs is broken.
I think the mistake was in creating those spots in the first place. Once they create the vacancies they have to fill them. From what I’ve seen poorly performing CSM’s sometimes get “kicked upstairs” and stuck in an impressive sounding do-nothing billet (where the actual WORK is done by someone else) so they can “mark time” until retirement.
The biggest lie the Army ever told was that “every job is essential.”
Bullshit, squared and cubed. During my tour in Kuwait I saw more Lumbergh’s whose only job was putting cover sheets on the TPS reports than Initech will ever hire.
As a newly promoted E-7 my job was to monitor the number of showers, porta-potties and sinks at several deployment camps for the ARCENT-KU commander’s twice-daily briefings.
I was part of a team of about 7 people – led by a promotable Major – that included me, another E-7, two E-5’s and two lower enlisted whose only job was to report these to the ARCENT-KU commander twice a day. This job had previously been done by one E-7 and one E-5.
We spent most of our days surfing the internet and watching CNN and Fox News. That whole HQ could have functioned with about 1/3 of the number of people that were actually there, occupying space (and collecting a generous paycheck from Uncle Sugar, courtesy of the US taxpayers.)
It infuriated me that I was pulled out of literally my last semester of law school to deploy with this unit because when we got there they had to manufacture jobs for us. Not exaggerating. We showed up on ARCENT-Kuwait’s doorstep and the higher ups said “you need to find jobs for these people.”
And the office I worked in was not the exception, it was the rule. Everywhere I went, I saw the same thing: People sitting around with no real job, counting the days until they could go home.
It was a criminal waste of money and personnel, but I saw it all over Kuwait.
Large bureaucracies always create useless jobs/positions. Our military is no different, except it is better at it than some other government entities. I have worked in government agencies where there were people who did about one to two hours worth of work each day to collect the paycheck for their sinecure.
Some senior NCOs simply feel obligated to take a promotion. I’ll never forget the 1SG at the Drill Sergeant Academy who berated us candidates during combative, after hearing of a number of incidents. She told us she’d been selected for SGM and was upset because she had been “done with putting up with junior NCOs” but now “had” to stay. Glad I’m not an MOS that might ever serve under her; I can only imagine how toxic she is…
Anyone over E5 in a war zone is just there to stack shelves or prove the rule with their exceptionalism.
uh huh…not my experience. My experience was that SGTs and Privates require leadership that jr officers are often able to provide.
But then, I only deployed to combat 8 times, so what do I know….
What a dickhead.
indeed. This guy’s problem is not his rank, but his personality being out of control.
I’m sure he is a joy to work for…
I was never a CSM but I was 1SG of an Infantry Co in OIF and Bn OpsSgt and one of the most important roles of 1SG was working with the CO as a buffer between the officers and enlisted and the same goes for the CSM. I dont know about any of you other 1SGs but I spent a good amount of time tempering the good idea fairy and working with the PLs and PSGs in getting them lined out as an effective combat team. I also spent a shit load of time fending off the various BS coming down from BN including such gems as being told my gun trucks needed to have the bolts forward on the M-240Bs and put on safe while on the FOB ( one of my SqLdrs got written up for insubordination for arguing the impossibility of that task).
I also went out on patrol a lot and rotated day and night patrols among the various squads to not only evaluate that TTPs were being adhered to but to first hand see some of the issues so they could be addressed. Yes I was a dick about enforcing PPE, weapons cleaning etc but I dont know how some 1SGs or CSMs got the rep for just carrying a coffee cup or doing makework.
14 months of that and I was exhausted as was the CSM. None of these are useless positions at least in the Infantry, its just there are too many useless people filling those slots like this goofball.