“Unpopular Choices” — How the Army Taught Me To Embrace Unpopularity
Sometimes making unpopular choices can be challenging. This is especially true if it goes against everything your mind and body want to do. The Army taught me how to embrace this, though. When I was deployed as a Tech Supply NCOIC, my job was demanding but rewarding. As an SSA leader, the responsibility of leading people to accomplish a sometimes impossible mission became very real for me. Making unpopular decisions isn’t always easy because you know that not everyone will agree with them or like them — but sometimes they’re necessary!
Being a logistician in the Army can feel lonely, and that loneliness can be demoralizing. As a Tech Supply NCOIC supporting an aviation unit for eight years, it felt like it was my shop against the world most of the time. Within the organization, we were the low-density population and, as such, were often misrepresented and misunderstood. I found myself fighting against this while at the same time keeping my Soldiers working and producing, even though I was not too fond of the unit or people there.
So, why did I do that?
I could have easily given the bare minimum and passed that down to my Soldiers. That would have been the easy way out and the most comfortable. But I didn’t. Instead, I pushed the shop to give their best even when…
