I will begin with my freshman year. That year I had true leaders who were seniors to look up to and mentor me. They taught me the saying, "What can I do for the unit, not what can the unit do for me." That is the last year I feel we had a true unit . I learned to respect my superiors, to always do what I was told and to never question it or there would be consequences. You would never say to one of them, "You are not my boss, you can't tell me what to do." I was taught to take care of myself as well as my subordinates. You never go crying to someone that you weren't being treated fairly, you took what was given to you because you followed your leader. A leader is someone you look up to, not run complaining to all the time that things weren't going the way you wanted them to. They did not demand your respect, they earned it. As I was taught before by Sgt. Major, you are not given respect

So you see why on Friday I was so upset. It was not just the incident that I was being blamed for there was a lot leading up to it that started coming out. I am sorry for my actions on Friday because I have never blown up on a teacher especially on an ROTC instructor who I look up to every day. I am sorry for my language as it was wrong to be using against an instructor. I would also like to say I am sorry for disrespecting you and Top, I should have never done this and will try harder in the future. I respect both of you and look up to you as my mentors.

What I am trying to get down to is why do you say I have all this responsibility and all this authority and you don't give me the rank for what you say I have?

, you earn it. And that until you can earn someone's respect, you can never be a true leader. Your subordinates need to trust you and not question your authority. If they are continually questioning you, then you cannot effectively lead them.

I was getting up extra early every day to pick up people who needed rides so that they could be part of the unit. I did not do this because I had to, I did this because I felt as a leader that I should be giving someone the chance to do something they want to do.

I teach in the way I was taught my freshman year because they were the ones setting the example and I follow that example

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Approximate Word count = 2614
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)