Strong Military Presence Critical for Success as Platoon Leader Essays

Submitted By gergollec
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Strong Military Presence Critical for Success as Platoon Leader Serving as a Platoon Leader is one of the most rewarding and exciting times as an Officer. A Platoon Leader is the one time during all the positions an Officer serves, that they have the greatest influence on a Solider. Everything that Platoon Leader does or fails to do is seen by his or her Soldier’s and has a direct correlation to what they do or fail to do. Following that, a Soldier’s performance has a direction relationship to the overall unit’s success. A unit’s success relies on the actions of its greatest population, and they are the Soldier’s; without them, we will fail. Thus, for our organization to be successful, it is imperative for our Platoon Leader’s to replicate the image of what is right. This is why I believe Presence to be the most important attribute of the Army Leadership Requirements. A Platoon Leader needs to walk and breathe military and professional bearing. This means a Platoon Leader must not only know the inside and out Army Regulation 670-1, Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia, but they also need exude it. Our Soldier’s are everywhere and wait to see if their Platoon Leader will screw up. The moment a Platoon Leader decides to show up to Monday morning formation without a haircut and in a dirty uniform, is the moment their Soldier’s start questioning the seriousness of Regulation 670-1. For Platoon Leader’s to be taken seriously by their Soldier’s, they need to be serious themselves. Soldier’s want to be proud of their Platoon Leader. During my tenure as Platoon Leader, I have noticed that one of the biggest aspects that Soldier’s brag about is their Platoon Leader’s physical fitness. I experienced this firsthand after the recent Towel Megellus Competition as I finished sixth in the Brigade and first in 3-319th AFAR. I had just taken over as Platoon Leader at this time and captured my results from the competition to set the standard for my platoon. I constantly invigorated my platoon to push themselves physically during PT, while performing their job, and outside of work during their personal fitness time. My platoon went on to scoring and sustaining the highest average AFPT score in the Battery if not the Battalion. Platoon Leaders that are confident in front of their platoon will inspire them to trust in their leadership. Even if a Platoon Leader is not sure they are pursuing the