"Nightstalkers" I.

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Nightstalkers I.

Dysfunctional?

The info for this blog entry from the LA Times - - the story first read in the Chicago Tribune.

 American National Guard [NG] COMBAT ARMS UNIT, light infantry, deploying to Iraq in 2004  - - performing their job in what seems to be an adequate and competent manner, a unit however, developing a reputation as a "dysfunctional" unit, and now used as a teaching tool for those commanders seeking to "turn-around" "dysfunctional units"! That unit NG commander particularly thought to be responsible for lackluster and controversial performance!

"A look inside a National Guard unit known for valor, dysfunction"

"The former leader of a battalion of the California Army National Guard, his military career in ruins, tells his side of what happened in Iraq."

"But the battalion was also singled out by the military, Frey said, as a case study in dysfunction. Frey's soldiers engaged in petty turf wars with rival units. One was caught patrolling the streets of Baghdad with a Samurai sword swinging from his belt; another kept a "death list" that included some of his own."

The commander of the NG unit as having been deployed to Iraq being relieved of command - - a unit thought to be out of control, in particular, wanting to tell his side of the story, and seven years later at that!

Patrick Frey, thirty-two years of service, a Lieutenant Colonel and an unconventional gung-ho officer by all accounts, and singled out by some as being the source an attitude among the NG troopers that was troubling to active duty soldiers of the U.S. Army  His [Patrick] military career to include:

* An infantryman.
* A U.S. Army Ranger.
* A Marine.
* A trooper with Grey's Scouts [dragoons][ during the Rhodesian Bush War.

And in civilian life a Special Education teacher. Frey NOT necessarily a persons lacking in people skills I would have to think.

Frey noted for carrying a hatchet with him at all [?] times. Probably not a hatchet but A WAR TOMAHAWK! That weapon particularly unique to the U.S. military, there existing such tomahawks in the U.S. weapons inventory, even having a NSN [national stock number].

The full and complete details are all not clear from this LA Times article, but the NG unit 1st Battalion of the 184th Infantry Regiment, seems to performed in an adequate and even at times heroic manner, NOT really lacking when compared to other regular army active duty units!

Interestingly enough - - after Frey was relieved of duty, the new battalion commander, Colonel Wood, became the highest ranking American killed in Iraq.

Using this unit as an example - - a teaching tool for commanders - - the handling of "dysfunctional units" just seems to be a very bad idea. Criticism of this sort just makes the situation worse and solves nothing, if indeed the unit was "dysfunctional" to begin with!

coolbert.