Read on Twitter
1/ I’ve been reading the #FortHood report today and I have a lot of thoughts, and feelings. I was first stationed at Hood as a 2LT in 1CD and I was most recently there as the 3CR PAO in 2016-2018. Overall, I’ve spent a little less than 6 cumulative years there...A THREAD...
2/ I am not sure which emotion I feel more - anger or sadness. But I feel a lot of both. Anger that something so horrendous could happen in the unit I used to be in. Anger that so many women at Hood have dealt with so many terrible things for far too long.
3/ Anger at how the public communication went. The “lack of community connection” mentioned in the findings in something I spent a lot of time working on when I was there. Probably more than I should have. But the reason I spent so much time on it was exactly what was mentioned.
4/ Community relations is often overlooked and can have a huge impact on an installation and/or unit. Community relations has to be a TWO WAY RELATIONSHIP between the community and the Soldiers. Not just the political/business reps and high ranking folks.
5/ Sadness for all the people who have experienced sexual assault or harassment and tried to just “soldier on” through it, myself included. It’s not ok. And it’s not an easy issue to fix.
6/ Sadness that perceptions about mental health care prevent people from seeking help. I know I didn’t want to bring up that I was going to a therapist because of the stigma attached to it.
7/ I’m still trying to process everything in this report. I think it’s a must read for any leader in the military, especially any PAO. And if you’re a male leader and you think that “this can’t be happening in my unit” you’re probably wrong, unfortunately.
8/ Ask your female peers to share some of the things they’ve experienced. It will probably surprise you all the things you didn’t know about that they’ve dealt with.
9/ At the end of the day, caring about one another as human beings and treating people with respect is how we move forward. Take care of people. Forced “leadership engagements” aren’t going to help build trust. It has to be genuine. You can’t force trust.
10/ “Intrusive leadership” does no good if the leader is the one harassing or assaulting someone. Again, it goes back to leaders caring about people and genuinely building trust.
11/ I know others have echoed similar sentiments on all of these things. But it’s worth saying again. Potentially more thoughts later, but that’s all for now.
