Sensitive Items Research Paper

In the Army, there are a variety items that fall under the “sensitive items” category. In today’s modern politics, they have chosen to cut the budget down to a very small size for the military. Therefore, securing valuables such as issued items which include: helmets. IBA, IOTV, and anything else issued to you by the United States Army, is extremely important. This not only saves the Department of the Army money, but securing anything you may have also protects you, and in the long run, saves you money as well. If you leave anything unsecured or out in the open, that alone leaves it at a high risk of being stolen or damaged. Say one day you leave your helmet, body armor, or any other type of TA-50 (issued items) in your car. You decide that
it is not much of a risk, there is no one around or in sight at the time, and you are going to leave your car unlocked because you do not, at the time, feel the need to lock it. You tell yourself that you will not be away longer than five or ten measly minutes.
You then get done with whatever it is you were doing for those five or ten minutes. Then, upon your return, you suddenly have an issue. What is this? The issued items you left in your car while you were away are not there anymore? Here, we have a problem. That issued gear is quite expensive. Now that your gear is missing, let’s look at the problems this alone has presented for you. On the obvious side, you have no clue where the missing gear has went off to. For all we know someone could have pawned it off for a decent price for their own profit. The items need to be replaced. But the Army has a set budget and does not have the financial power to pay for anyone else’s mishaps this go around. Therefore, the facility that issued you your TA-50 is going to issue you a statement of charges. The stolen gear consists of an Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH), an Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV), and the plates. All of that alone costs around one thousand dollars, if not more. That is one thousand dollars out of your pocket, all because you didn’t take the time to secure your sensitive items inside your room. These items should not be stored in your car anyway according to Fort Campbell
regulations. All soldiers are one hundred percent responsible for everything they have. If it is issued to you by the Army, that means you have signed for it stating that you are claiming full accountability of all the equipment you were provided with. Now that we have stated one of the most obvious consequences, let’s look a little deeper into the situation itself. After you received your statement of charges, you have been ordered to report to the Sergeant Major. Already, this is not going to be pretty. You have shown your superiors that you are not responsible enough to have complete accountability of your equipment. So what does that mean? That means your impression on your leadership is stating that you are not a responsible or disciplined soldier, fit to face the mission at hand. At the same time, this is also making your leadership look bad in front of the Sergeant Major because he is probably thinking that your leadership is not doing a good job in squaring you away.