Punctuality is a very important thing in life. Getting to work on time when you are supposed to, is punctuality. Showing up for a meeting on time is punctuality. Showing up for an appointment on time is punctuality. It is very important to make it on time for work, meetings, formations (ten minutes prior), and appointments. Appointments in this case, are very important to make it to on time. It is best to show up for appointments early. If you leave home early to get to your appointment, it is much less likely you will be held up and become late by traffic or any accidents you may come upon as you drive to your appointment.
Missing appointments lets several people down. There are people expecting to see you, you are letting them down. There are people that need to be seen by the people you made an appointment with, you are letting them down by taking up valuable time from a dentist, doctor, optometrist, etc. when they could be there instead of you and having things they need taken care of. In the military, not showing up for an appointment is also letting down your squad leader, your unit, and the whole military organization. It can cost the Army a lot of money to schedule an appointment for you and then have you not show up for it.
By missing an appointment, you also show that you lack discipline and responsibility. It does not look good to your leaders and makes it seem like you can not be trusted with simple tasks. Punctuality is a big part of impression and it is very important to make a good impression. When you lack punctuality, it sets a bad example to others, friends, family, as well as other soldiers. If you were not taught in civilian life or learned through having a job, in basic combat training in the military you are certainly taught to show up early and be on time for formations and that should carry over to other aspects of your life, such as appointments.
Missing appointments takes away from everyone’s very valuable time. There is not excuse for being late or missing an appointment. If you leave for it early enough you will certainly make it. You should always take measures and do what ever it takes to be sure that you are reminded of any appointments you may have. Including marking it on your calendar, setting an alarm on your phone, posting sticky notes in obvious places with the info on it stating that you have an appointment, showing the date and time on the appointment.
Any time you get a new appointment made you need to let your squad leader know ahead of time so that he or she may plan ahead for work detail and let you have that time to be able to go to your appointment. When your squad leader sets for your time off to make it to an appointment, they are losing a person of their work force. So when you are not doing work and you also miss an appointment, it is an over all loss, thus causing the Army a lot of money. Missing appointments and a lack of punctuality can trickle down into other aspects of your life and career.
It can affect your relationships, for example. You can let your family down by never making it on time for important events. Missing events and being late often can also let your friends down and they would not want to make plans with you any more. Therefore, you could lose friends over a lack of punctuality on your part. By not making in to things on time, it shows that you do not care. It just does not look good on your part by others, your supervisors, friends, family, civilians, leadership and any one else. By not keeping up with your appointments, you show a lack of attention to detail as well.
Attention to detail is also a very important aspect to have in life as well as the military. Attention to detail is also a skill that you are trained on in basic combat training. It can affect many aspects of your life. It can affect your work, careless action and over looking details can get someone hurt and can cost a lot of money. Missing screws, bolts, or nails in construction can cause a structure to fall apart and fall on to someone and hurt them or even kill them. Such mistakes can not be afforded to be made.
By paying attention to detail you can ensure that you do not miss an appointment, formation, or anything else that is time critical. You not only take time away from other peoples day, but you take time away from your own day. Time that can be used to do something productive and beneficial to yourself and the military. Attention to detail also follows you when you go down range. It is important to be observant of what you are doing at all times. It is all much more than simply missing an appointment. Attention to detail down range can mean the difference between life and death.
You have to pay attention to getting all of your required gear with you as you go out of the wire. You have to be sure to get all things you need such as your weapon, your ammo, your water, all of your gear such as your eye pro, ear pro, ACH, IBA, magazines full of ammo, your optic scope if you have one for your weapon, you must be in the correct uniform. Missing any of the required items you need for combat can cost you, your battle buddies, or others their life. You do not want the guilt of the death of someone else on your hands and you family does not want to go through the heart ache and pain of losing you.
Deaths down range can be helped to be avoided but paying attention to detail. If you forget something like your water source, full of water, it can drag everyone else down and slow you down with everyone else. If you do not have your own water source of water, others would have to divide up their water supply in order to help sustain you and keep you from dehydration and heat related injuries. If others are giving up their water, that is less water for them when they need it and they are all more likely to be susceptible to dehydration as well as heat injuries.
Do not forget your water. Attention to detail. If you forget your ammo, you can not fight if you run in to contact with enemy combatants and a situation evolves. You are unable to fight back and defend yourself or a battle buddy and supply cover. Again, if others have to divide up their ammo and resources so that you will have some, you are dragging them down with you and they are more likely to run out of ammo in combat sooner that they would have you had brought your own ammo and a sufficient supply of ammo.
If you forget your weapon, it can be a serious issue for many obvious reasons. You need your weapon to fight, it is just as bad as not bringing any ammo, actually, worse. You cannot even borrow ammo from some one else to fire in your own weapon if you do not have one. Some one else can not just simply give up their weapon to you so that you will have one to fire and fight back with in combat situations, then they would be out a weapon and can not defend their selves. Not only will not forgetting your weapon slow you and others down in combat, but it can put you and your team at risk.
Losing a weapon is a serious screw up on your part and any one else’s who loses one. The loss of a weapon can result in an enemy finding that weapon and using it against you and your battle buddies. A weapon is a sensitive item that you are responsible for and must maintain at all times. It is apart of the soldiers creed, the very creed that all U. S. Troops live by. “I will maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself. ”. Losing a weapon can result in UCMJ and can cost the government a lot of money. It takes a lot to look for and recover a weapon.
The whole post is shut down and no one can leave until the weapon is recovered. Attention to detail and accountability. You can not afford to forget your IBA or ACH, that is your armor and it will keep you alive in combat. If you do not have either of these, how can you fight? You simply can not. It makes you more susceptible to being wounded or even killed in combat and again can pain your family, friends and loved ones as well as your battle buddies. You have to remember that in the Army, you are a part of a giant team, the biggest team in the U.
S. , the best team in the world. You can not loss your military bearing and make mistakes due to your lack of attention to detail. It can get and will get your team mates killed and you do not want that on your mind. Your battle buddies have families, friends, and loved ones back at home waiting on them just like you have back at home waiting for you and hoping to see you again, hoping that nothing happens to them just like your family, friends, and loved ones are hoping nothing happens to you. You can not forget your eye pro.
Shrapnel can get in to your eyes and blind you, destroy your eyes and leave you blinded for life, then what good are you to the Army? You’d have to get a medical discharge and that would be an unfortunate ending to your career in the military. You have to have your ear pro because if not you can damage your hearing, even if it feels like it is just fine, hearing loss is painless. Attention to detail. Again, without attention to detail, you can easily forget things and mess up, miss appointments and cost the government a lot of money and cost yourself a lot of time.
Consequences for missing an appointment can result in disciplinary action such as a negative counseling, a two thousand word essay, going before the sergeant major, UCMJ, and better soldiers classes on a weekend, that can sometimes be scheduled on a four day weekend and take up more from your time that you could spend out with friends or family, or catching up on some yard wore or chores. Yesterday, I messed up and missed an appointment at a dental facility. The government pays civilians for their work to do on you during that scheduled appointment time.
If they are there and not working, they aren’t getting work done and are getting paid for doing nothing, just to reschedule and have to see you on another day which the government has to pay for that day as well. The government does not have a lot of money to waste on the military with missed appointments. In order to avoid missing appointments, to further ensure you do not miss any, you must take action and set in to action plans to make sure you do not miss an appointment and that you make it on time. I have decided to write down what all appointments I have scheduled on a sheet of paper and hand to my squad
leader. I will also take a picture of that paper and save it as the wallpaper to my phone, which I look at every day, several times a day (perhaps hundreds of times) and I will see it every time I look at my phone and will be reminded of what events are coming up. I have also began sticking the appointment stickers with the time and date of the appointment on it on to my steering wheel where I can see it every time I get in and drive my car, so that way I won’t go a day without being reminded as I have to drive my car every day to get around post and make it to formations and other things.
These are just some examples that others may take to ensure themselves of their arrival to appointments in a timely manner. You must show up at least 10 mins early to all appointments, try to show up earlier than that to help ensure you do not have any issues on your way to the appointment and you do not find yourself having to rush. You must always live by the Army values and warrior’s ethos. This is a part of that, making it to appointments on time and not letting down your leadership and the Army.
