The E-4 mafia strikes again..

For those of you who have been in the military, I have no doubt you’re well aware of the existence of a group of junior enlisted men, with the rank of Specialist, Corporal, Senior Airman, or petty officer 3rd class that roll around at least 4 deep and call themselves the “E-4 Mafia.” This group, though looking small, dumb, and inexperienced in fact wields great power in the units of the American military. It is capable of causing unit, branch, and even national incidents, ending jobs, and changing army policy. C company’s E-4 mafia is one of the more coherent, organized, and intelligent as far as E-4 mafias go. We’ve brought to the attention of our superiors numerous problems before, such as NCO’s abusing their rank, poor decisions on the part of our leadership, and lately, fixing supply issues by causing a national incident.

For the past year or two the US Army has been issuing a set of body armor called the IOTV (improved outer tactical vest) to its soldiers. It is far better all around than the older set, the IBA (Interceptor Body Armor.) All troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan have been getting issued the IOTV, until C Co. came to get our armor issued. When everyone was getting sized and issued their armor, numerous members of the company were informed that anyone wearing a large vest would not get their armor right away due to it being out of stock, they would be shipped in a few weeks. Luckily I wear a medium vest, so I was good to go. Numerous E-4’s in the unit…not so lucky. These men nodded and begrudgingly accepted the older, heavier, less effective IBA to wear while training for the next few weeks.

A few weeks went by. No vests. People began to ask questions that were graciously answered with “they’ll get here before you leave Shelby”. When our time at Shelby was coming to a close, again people asked about their vests, this time the answer was “you’ll get them in Kuwait” this was sketchy, and mildly concerning seeing “Kuwait” is basically a black hole that consumes all supplies in it’s vast depots and CONEX containers getting buried in the epic sandstorms (seen the mummy? Yeah. That junk actually happens.) We all began to worry, then, 2 weeks before our departure from Shelby finally someone asked when the vests would get in. They weren’t coming; the guys with the IBAs had to deal with it. The next day we saw a group of soldiers from the Brigade Support Battalion (cooks, mechanics, clerks, etc) wearing IOTVs, they would never leave the wire, never be shot at or blown up like us, yet they still got the new armor, and not all our guys did. That tore it.

There are a few things all soldiers going to war deserve, once is leadership he can trust to get the job done and bring him home alive. This cannot really be controlled, because dirt bags graduate OCS, ROTC, BNCOC, and every other army course every day. The second is no soldier should deploy with substandard equipment, this can be helped. The E-4 mafia sprung into action. Phone calls were made to local delegates from the Virginia House of Delegates, letters were written to senators, congressmen, and the governor. The next day Phil got a text from his mom. General Newman, the guy in charge of all Virginia National Guard forces, had personally called his parents to tell them their son would have the finest armor they could buy well before we entered a warzone. We didn’t even call General Newman. The governor must have gone to his office and asked what the heck was going on.

The vests arrived 48 hours later.

I Love democracy.