Civilian Behavior on Military Bases
I’ve been here at Walter Reed for a long time, and I’ve seen far too much when it comes to the civilians that work here on the base. The way in which they treat military personnel on base is downright rude and unprofessional.
At another military base I was at several years ago, prior to a deployment to Afghanistan, I remember having to deal with rude and unprofessional behavior from the civilians that worked there, and now I see the same type of behaviors here at Walter Reed. For some reason the majority of civilians, including the this includes the civilian-base police, don’t seem to respect the military personnel stationed here.
No Respect from Civilians
For example, here at Walter Reed a couple of the soldiers went out to the parking lot to find that their vehicles were stamped with boot prints. When they called to find out why this had been done, the officer who left the boot print was rude and downright unprofessional when talking to them. Not only did he use a belligerent, unprofessional tone, but he also referred to one of them as being ignorant for leaving the unmoved car in the parking lot for over two weeks.
First off, there are no posted warnings in the parking lot that states that cars need to be moved regularly. So it’s ridiculous that this particular, so called police officer has been doing this for months now.
After I overheard the conversation with one of the soldiers and the officer, I called the officer’s supervisor. I came to find out that this has been an ongoing issue with the officer ever since he was hired a few months ago.
He is a parking ticket police officer, and according to his supervisor he has been warned to stop putting his boots on the cars in the wounded warrior parking lot, yet he continues.
This is just an example of what I myself have witnessed here since arriving several months ago. It is bad enough that there is very little parking here, but to deal with a parking ticket officer who has no respect for the military, and especially the wounded warriors that are here, is worse.
To top it off, both of these soldiers had recently been in the hospital during the time in which the boot prints were placed on their cars. This is a prime example of how military personnel are treated at bases across the country by civilian personnel, and this type of behavior is unacceptable.
Act Accordingly
This wasn’t my first bad experience with civilian employees on military bases. In my 16 years of service with the military, I have dealt with, and bore witness to, civilian-employees that show no respect towards military personnel on base.
I would like to remind any civilian working on base to just show your respect. Just because you watched some movie that showed military personnel being yelled at in boot camp doesn’t give you the right to disrespect them.
If you need a reminder, there is one simple reason for not doing this. Without us you wouldn’t have a job! Therefore, if you are working on a military base as a civilian, ACT ACCORDINGLY. Treat the military personnel there with the respect that they have both earned and deserve.
- What’s Missing in Today’s Military: Integrity - March 20, 2018
- What’s Missing in Today’s Military: Honor - March 19, 2018
- Veterans without Care: What’s Wrong with the VA? - December 18, 2017
