Photo By Terrance Bell | Command Sgt. Maj. Tim M. Lebouf capped two years of duty as the 262nd Quartermaster...... read more read more
FORT LEE, Va. (June 8, 2017) -- “Young Soldiers are impressionable” has reached echo status, reverberating from the earliest days of the republic to the present and inevitably into the future.
A statement based on more than 200 years of facts, it is a call to protect fighting men and women with what is known to be right and just.
As it is a verifiable truth, it also is counsel to those relatively few who will knowingly violate it or fail to heed it for whatever reason.
For the perpetrators, there are those like Command Sgt. Maj. Tim M. Lebouf. The 29-year-Soldier – who was the 262nd Quartermaster Battalion’s top enlisted Soldier until Tuesday – was stained by the actions of leaders early in his career and has since used the experiences as a force against anything in opposition to stated standards of conduct and discipline.
“When I began coming up the ranks, I started to see good and bad NCOs,” said the 49-year-old. “I used to tell myself, ‘When I get enough rank, I’m going to fix some of that,” meaning he decided to be a part of the solution for those who fell short of the standards.
The impetus for his drive came during an early 1990s assignment at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Chaffee, Ark. He was a junior enlisted Soldier who was working as a petroleum, oil and lubricants clerk.
“I had a boss and we worked in a supply office for the OCs (observer controllers),” recalled Lebouf. “He would allow the females to sit around, talk and do nothing in the office while the males went out and did all the manual labor. That used to piss me off; we’re all Soldiers.”
Lebouf’s fix: “When he would leave and I was in charge, I would make the females do the same things as the males,” he said, noting favoritism of any kind has no place in the Army.
A native of Hawthorne, Calif., Lebouf shares his hometown with the Beach Boys, the popular music group, although he was far removed from surfing and beach culture. In fact, he was somewhat shy and a bit withdrawn. Lebouf was assigned to special education classes in elementary school but emerged with confidence and ambition resulting from the tutelage of teacher Beverly Hunley.
“She was my lifesaver,” he said. “She told me ‘you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.’ If I didn’t have her, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. She got me to believe in myself. I saw I could do things I (previously) thought I couldn’t do.”
With a newfound faith in himself and his abilities, Lebouf joined the Boy Scouts where he was nourished with the social interaction he previously lacked and a plethora of challenges ranging from self-interests to community service. Lebouf eventually became an Eagle Scout and passed on the fruits of Hunley’s legacy, volunteering in support of special needs children for an entire summer.
When Lebouf joined the Army Reserve in 1985 as a finance specialist, he lived with his parents and attended community college. He grew tired of the arrangement and went active duty, telling the recruiter he desired something in which he could work outdoors and ride in a truck – due to his lack of enthusiasm for walking.
“He said, ‘What about a fueler?’” said Lebouf of the petroleum supply specialist military occupational specialty. “I said, ‘yeah, I can’t deliver fuel without a truck.’ I don’t have to hump it on my back. I can do that.”
Lebouf’s gleeful anticipation of his job as a junior enlisted Soldier was tempered by the realities on the ground. It was easy enough, he thought – do what you are told as a contribution toward mission completion – but that was a bit too simplistic, he said. Instead, there were individuals who always wanted to sham at the expense of others like himself. The solution was to make rank and fuel a culture of doing things the right way, a least in his own universe.
“I used to not like to see certain Soldiers get away with getting out of work while others would be out there busting their butts,” he said, “so when I became a platoon sergeant and higher, I was always looking for that Soldier who was shamming.”
“Shammers,” said Lebouf, were dealt with harshly or encouraged to “get out and find another job.”
Taking the hard stance to enforce standards of discipline did not make him a popular figure among some, but “the Army is not paying me to be popular,” he said. “They’re paying to enforce the standards of discipline they expect from their Soldiers. If popularity comes with it, I’m fine with that, but if it doesn’t, I’m not going to sacrifice my standards of discipline for it.”
That hard line once caused Lebouf to be suspended (and later reinstated) from a coveted position, an incident that still generates painful recollections.
“It was like being stabbed with a dagger – for just doing my job,” he said, noting the Army standards are diminished each time Soldiers lower theirs.
Over the years, imposing the “hard but fair” rule upon troops is Lebouf’s dominant course of attack, his standard operating procedure, his guiding light in stormy weather. Put simply, “soft but fair” often falls short of victory, he said.
“I want a hard Soldier, someone hard and tough enough to go into battle,” he said. “I don’t want a ‘softee.’ That’s not how you win wars. We start making them soft, we’re going to start losing them.”
Retired CSM Cynthia Howard, a former Transportation Corps regimental CSM, was Lebouf’s battalion CSM during his tenure as a first sergeant with the 87th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion at Fort Stewart, Ga. She said his hard and fair reputation was fully intact with troops.
“He was really more of a father figure for those Soldiers, and that really set the tone,” said Howard. “He went to wit’s end to take care of them. At the end of the day, they appreciated it.”
At the end of the day, it was all about taking care of Soldiers, an endeavor so dear to Lebouf’s ticker he logged six consecutive years as a first sergeant.
“Being a first sergeant, the senior guy in the company – for whatever goes good or bad with that company – to mentor and shape those NCOs and Soldiers was a great thing,” he said. “That’s what makes it all worthwhile. Everything else about the Soldiers whining and complaining about me – I don’t care. ‘Thanks for everything you did for me’ is what makes me want to get up every day. I loved taking care of Soldiers.”
In his current position, Lebouf has less direct contact with troops who are mostly advanced individual training students and have comparatively short stays here. Nevertheless, he tried to impact them as best as he could.
“Whenever I did my in-brief to new Soldiers every Monday, the first thing I told them is ‘I’m a 92F,’ and they were usually surprised,” he said, noting 92F CSMs are rare.
In another rarity, Lebouf has spent the past two years assigned to the same element in which he was a student 29 years ago. Coming full circle, he observed, is a rewarding experience and something he often shared with students.
“When I told them I was sitting right where they are 29 years ago, and now I’m back here as the CSM, a lot of them looked at me like, ‘OK, I can do this,’” he said. “They can see the connection.”
Indeed, young Soldiers are impressionable.
Lebouf acknowledges the support of his wife, Olivia, and his daughter, Laura. His next assignment is with the 953rd Quartermaster Detachment Theater Petroleum Center at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2017 14:55 |
| Story ID: | 238074 |
| Location: | HAWTHORNE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 144 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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