There’s a saying in the military, and I suppose it applies to lots of organizations, “Rank has it’s privileges.”  In the military, most people take that to mean that soldiers in higher ranks may enjoy certain benefits or luxuries that a junior soldier would not.

Most people who have devoted a large part of their adult life to an endeavor would probably say that such privileges are just part of the deal — it’s an incentive for younger soldiers to stick around.  I can hear the reenlistment advisor now:  “Hey soldier, don’t quit now.  You’ve got 10 years in the Army and you are a staff sergeant.  By the time you reach 16 years, you could be a first sergeant….all that great pay and better housing.  Plus, you’ll be making all the decisions.”

Well, lately I have been thinking about RHIP.  I suppose it all started with the CEOs of the Big Three automakers and their decision last month to fly their personal jets to Washington, DC, to ask Congress to give them billions of dollars for their self-proclaimed failing businesses.  It seemed odd to me and almost all other Americans that they would do that.  Maybe their sense of entitlement — their belief that as a CEO they should be able to have those privileges even as they laid off tens of thousands of workers only days before Christmas — had clouded their judgement.

As Public Affairs practitioners, that’s what we do at night..we sit around thinking about stuff like that (what, you thought we had toga parties?).  Part of the reason is that perception is reality these days.  The public’s reality was that the companies could not need all that money if their CEOs were still flying their personal jets.  In that sense, their staff of advisors had failed them.

So, how does this apply to the 314th?  Well, it applies because members of the military sometimes fall into that same trap that caught those CEOs.  It might seem harmless in the beginning, and sometimes it really is, but sooner or later, it is all too easy to cross a line.

The 314th has already faced this challenge, starting on the first day away from Birmingham.  As we sat in the airport waiting for our flight to Philadelphia, the airline gate agent called me over to the desk.  It seemed that she had seven first class seats to give away, and she wanted me to tell her who should get those seats.  As a frequent flyer on that airline, I had already been “bumped up” to first class.

I’m not going to tell you that I always make the right decisions when it comes to privileges, but I can tell you I did this time.  I asked the gate agent to give the seven seats…and mine as well…to our junior enlisted.

When I went around and asked the young soldiers to give me their boarding passes, they did not know what was going on.  However, when I came back and gave them their first class boarding passes, it was evident.  It was only a two-hour flight, but it was enough to let them know they were just as important as everyone else.

Skip ahead six weeks to FOB Prosperity here in Iraq.  This time, the perk was improved billeting.  Although the rest of the unit was only given room in two tents (nice tents, but still very crowded tents), the commander and I were offered a trailer (see previous email about CHUs).  The trailer was pretty spartan — a pair of single beds, two night stands, and two wall lockers (mine was even broken).  As soon as it was offered, the commander and I began to talk about our possible courses of action.

“Sergeant major,” he said, “I don’t feel right about having this while everyone else is in the tent.”  I concurred, but I also reminded him that these trailers where not given away lightly…and refusing one now might result in a long wait before one was offered again.  He agreed, and we decided to keep the trailer, but to use it only as a storage room and a place to meet for evening discussions or change after physical fitness training.  We returned to the tents with the rest of the soldiers that night.

Would I have liked to sleep in that trailer?  You bet!  Sleeping in a tent, especially one across the road from a public address system that blares Islamic prayer and music at 5 a.m., is not my idea of comfort — but it was the right thing to do.

Luckily, my sleep habit was not interrupted for too long.  Yesterday, the billeting office at FOB Prosperity — specifically through the actions of MSG Robert Greco from the New Jersey National Guard — placed all our soldiers in trailers, starting this Sunday.

MSG Greco summed up the reason for his actions succinctly when he said that “there shouldn’t be any special privileges” when it comes to assigning the trailers. 

Thank you MSG Greco — may we all live our lives like you and never fall victim to the RHIP syndrome!