Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 03, 2010

700 friends on Facebook, but how many of them show up when you want to go out for a beer. That chaplain is really earning her pay; she’s giving Melissa some really good advice.

Lonely at the top. No more Enlisted club. Let’s go to the NCO club for a cold one.

Might be a good time to talk to some other NCOs, maybe seek out a little mentoring.

A few strips ago, GT had the team plotting ways to undermine Mel’s authority, so where is this respect?

I agree, Lew & Cdward. Melissa needs to spend more time with other N.C.O.s. In addition, there’s always this awkward transition when one of the team becomes the leader.

Their plot to overthrow is a form of respect, Sandfan. They know that it takes five of them to match one of her.

Melissa is a great character.

Yeah. Maybe “moving up” means not necessarily having friends, but more having “peers,” and “collegues.”

Many “buddies” will come and go, but earn the respect of your “collegues,” and you’re about set for life.

BrianCrook said:

“Melissa is a great character.”

As is The Chaplin. Churches would be held in much higher esteem if they were led by the likes of her instead of pedophile priests, political whackos and con-artists selling miracle healings and divine cheques arriving in your mailbox.

700! that’s 2 many frenz for FB. i bet most of them are associates or frenz of frenz.

Respect must be earned. You can’t buy it though I’ve seen it tried.

You can’t order or bully your way into it. Seen that too.

Too many enjoy the power that a single “stripe” confers and that results in poorer performance and the rebellion you see portrayed here.

“Once a Leader, always a Loner”

brewwitch: If you would get out and try them personally, you would find that most churches ARE led by the likes of the chaplain. The types you mention get all the attention, not those who quietly go about their daily task of helping people.

@stuart_estes—you have told the truth in a very short paragraph. Go visit a real minister, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Kind of like the Democrat’s agenda eh, Mr Russell? Or the Republican’s agenda too for that matter.

NCO clubs always had the best food and the coldest beer. AND the more intelligent of the Military population.

At least that was my experience as an Army Brat, and later as an on-base working civvie when I had OC privileges …. NCO was still the best!

Go, Mellisa!!

If you don’t have any friends left, you didn’t have them to begin with. They were having you.

About the only thing I remember about that correspondence course I took in Personnel Management while I was in jail, was the presence of the “Formal Organization” and the “Informal Organization”(ie. how it’s described on paper vs how it operates). They’re often not parallel, and can lead to organizational confusion and conflict. The sooner Mel understands those dynamics, the sooner she’ll have more control of the organization.

My grandfather was a breveted Col. in WWII, and the only organizational conflict he ever talked about was “The Japs”. Apples and oranges I guess. That was New Guinea, this is Afghanistan.

But with 700 Facebook friends who cares?

… need to lose touch …

been drinking and watching Fox all day, eh stebon?

@stebon:

Maybe that’s the difference between “libs” and “cons…” “libs” like Trudeau can take a break once in a while to tell a story about empathetic characters, while “cons” are on the warpath 24/7 to bring down “the man THEY didn’t vote for.”

Meh. I think it is a GREAT thing that GBT, as horribly “liberal” as the cons on this board seem to view him, actually portrays military personnel as intelligent, complex people, instead of one-dimensional characatures of the “military-industrial complex.”

Hell, even B.D. (remember him? He was GBT’s original “straw man” of all things “conservative”), has developed, shown flaws and brilliant insights.

If anything, I think Trudeau has done a tremendous service for the “uniformed services.” Not bad for one of those “pinkos” out to destroy “traditional ‘American’ values.”

Note Major Meng is missing her glasses in the last panel.