Commander’s Corner Dragon Report Delta, 106th FMSU Inside this issue: The Corner 1 Robert Smalls 2 SHARP Training 3 Operation Dirty Harry 4-5 Do It Yourself Maintenance 6-7 From Me to You 8 Employee of the Year 9 Soldier Spotlight 10 Travel Destinations 10 Baby Showers 11 Welcome Back 11 Birthdays and Upcoming Events 12 Volume 2, Issue 2 February 2013 Greetings Dragons! Our Detachment Sergeant has some good words of wisdom for you that are very important, so I’ll be brief. For those of you with significant others, be sure to let them know how much you appreciate them during Valen- tine’s Day. Even if you don’t have a specific significant other, let your family know how much their support means to you. I expect everyone to call home or share something extra spe- cial with their loved ones this month! Also, remember to take a moment and pay tribute to those that lead in the struggle for equality in observance of Black History Month. Dragons! Hello Dragons, this month I’d like to talk about a discussion I had with a fellow Soldier. We talked about what was the best way to accomplish all missions. The debate centered on effectiveness verses pure effi- ciency. My first response was that anyone seeking to refine a process should study the procedures in place and observe the process in action to identify any inefficiency. The next step should be to change the pro- cedures and analyze the effectiveness of the changes. He countered with “well what if the process is efficient but not effective?” This small question started my wheels turning and weeks later I was still ponder- ing the question. A little while after that I attended Leaders Profes- sional Development and we were discussing the Army as a Profession of Arms. The question surfaced again and this time there was a more detailed description of what framed the initial question. The Army is asking this same question of all its leaders. “Should we solely rely on pure efficiency in operations or seek to understand the process in its entirety so that we can then be more effective at what we do?” Let’s take for an example a highly skilled heart surgeon. He can be consid- ered as the epitome of precision and efficiency by balancing the act of killing a person, and bringing them back to life during a heart trans- plant. But did we ever stop to think that if during previous appoint- ments, the patient could have been identified as a risk and subse- quently placed on a regimen that would not have resulted in surgery? This does not make him any less efficient as a surgeon but it does ques- tion the effectiveness of the approach. This, in my opinion is the prob- lem we are faced with as an Army. We have highly trained technically competent individuals that can accomplish a broad array of tasks in a wartime environment (ie…surgery). On the other hand we also have to have the foresight to accomplish Garrison operations that may require more attention to details that don’t affect the end result of our wartime mission; but conversely affect the overall development of an agile adaptable force of Professional Soldiers. With this in mind we should strive to have a baseline of efficiency in all that we do but we must also be aware of the requirements of our higher echelons of command so that we can make informed decisions effectively. Detachment Sergeants Corner
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Commander’s Corner
Dragon Report D e l ta , 1 0 6 t h FM S U
Inside this issue:
The Corner 1
Robert Smalls 2
SHARP Training 3
Operation Dirty
Harry
4-5
Do It Yourself
Maintenance
6-7
From Me to You 8
Employee of the
Year
9
Soldier Spotlight 10
Travel Destinations 10
Baby Showers 11
Welcome Back 11
Birthdays and
Upcoming Events
12
Volume 2, Issue 2 February 2013
Greetings Dragons! Our Detachment Sergeant has some
good words of wisdom for you that are very important, so I’ll
be brief. For those of you with significant others, be sure to
let them know how much you appreciate them during Valen-
tine’s Day. Even if you don’t have a specific significant other,
let your family know how much their support means to you. I
expect everyone to call home or share something extra spe-
cial with their loved ones this month! Also, remember to take
a moment and pay tribute to those that lead in the struggle
for equality in observance of Black History Month. Dragons!
Hello Dragons, this month I’d like to talk about a discussion I had with a fellow Soldier. We talked about what was the best way to accomplish
all missions. The debate centered on effectiveness verses pure effi-ciency. My first response was that anyone seeking to refine a process should study the procedures in place and observe the process in action to identify any inefficiency. The next step should be to change the pro-cedures and analyze the effectiveness of the changes. He countered
with “well what if the process is efficient but not effective?” This small question started my wheels turning and weeks later I was still ponder-ing the question. A little while after that I attended Leaders Profes-sional Development and we were discussing the Army as a Profession of Arms. The question surfaced again and this time there was a more
detailed description of what framed the initial question. The Army is asking this same question of all its leaders. “Should we solely rely on pure efficiency in operations or seek to understand the process in its entirety so that we can then be more effective at what we do?” Let’s take for an example a highly skilled heart surgeon. He can be consid-
ered as the epitome of precision and efficiency by balancing the act of killing a person, and bringing them back to life during a heart trans-plant. But did we ever stop to think that if during previous appoint-ments, the patient could have been identified as a risk and subse-quently placed on a regimen that would not have resulted in surgery?
This does not make him any less efficient as a surgeon but it does ques-tion the effectiveness of the approach. This, in my opinion is the prob-lem we are faced with as an Army. We have highly trained technically competent individuals that can accomplish a broad array of tasks in a wartime environment (ie…surgery). On the other hand we also have to
have the foresight to accomplish Garrison operations that may require more attention to details that don’t affect the end result of our wartime mission; but conversely affect the overall development of an agile adaptable force of Professional Soldiers. With this in mind we should strive to have a baseline of efficiency in all that we do but we must
also be aware of the requirements of our higher echelons of command so that we can make informed decisions effectively.
Detachment Sergeants Corner
Robert Smalls in Honor of Black History Month
Robert Smalls (1839-1916) was a black Ameri-
can statesman who was born a slave and made a daring
escape at the beginning of the Civil War. After the war
he served five terms in Congress as the representative
from South Carolina.
Robert Smalls was born a slave on April 5, 1839.
He was taken to Charleston as a youth. He soon mas-
tered the seafaring art and became the de facto pilot of
a Confederate transport steamer, the Planter. Smalls
never accepted his enslaved condition and was deter-
mined to free himself. He taught himself to read and
write, mastered the tricky currents and channels of Charleston Harbor. Sooner or
later his chance would come: he would be free. He had to be free.
The Civil War brought his chance. On the morning of May 13, 1862, while
the ship's white officers still slept in Charleston, Smalls smuggled his wife and
three children aboard the Planter and took command. With his crew of 12 slaves,
Smalls hoisted the Confederate flag and with great daring sailed the Planter past
the other Confederate ships and out to sea. He hoisted a flag of truce and delivered
the Planter to the commanding officer of the Union fleet. Smalls explained that he
intended the Planter as a contribution by black Americans to the cause of freedom.
Later, President Lincoln received Smalls in Washington and rewarded him and his
crew for their valor. He was given official command of the Planter and made a cap-
tain in the U.S. Navy; in this position he served throughout the war.