DAMN!
I am so glad I am out and from what I hear glad they denied me when I tried to get back in, sorry if this seems like a slap, but especialy the army.
It sounds like there is little is any leadership, and thus everything is micromanaged. And that sort of system does not develope leaders. It developes bureaucrats, which is the enviroment that was allowed to develope durring the 90s so the senior level zeros and ncos of today were learning their craft then, and poof here we are.
In my take, its part of uniformity. Everyone knows their duties, and knows the kit they are required to have for said duties. Poof enough said, done. A man is supposed to have the items he needs to handle his tasks. Part of SOPs and such.
In the olden days
it was the NCOs and even non rate team leaders to ensure their men had what they needed to handle their mission, and that is what we did. All were deemed capable of doing their jobs and expected to do them, if they didn't preform well they found a place for them in supply or the mess hall counting, inventoring or something else that needed to be done but required no knowledge, skill or initiative where a screw up couldn't result in casualties or degraded mission.
The junior NCOs did their jobs, they were treated as adults and became leaders. The Platoon Sgt simply checked with the squad and team leaders who would give the thumbs up, or alert any issues, and the Pltaoon Sgt would handle it or refer it to the platoon comander (seldom was this done, things got handled "inhouse" at usualy the squad level.)
Thus, our leadership became excperienced, we became professionals and considered ourselves such, the officers and seniopr NCOs left us alone and they did their own jobs and not ours (unless new Lts showed up who seemed to want to do everyones job which we had to show them we knew our shit and they didn't so we would expose them at every chance when they messed up. After a while they would learn and back off.) In the end, we did run like the proverbial machine, trust of the enlsited was developed by the officers and we developed trust in them <or made them look like utter fools and they would disapear to supply or the motorpool> and we all could focus on our jobs and mission and have much less stress for all invovled.
One thing, and again this is from my time back in the stone age and now sitting on the sidelines, but, isn't leadership "inastilled!" I do not mean through classes or reciting codes and creeds or being sent to a school or course. For us, you already had to be a leader to go to those things. It sounds like the leaders are just laying down on the job, and I mean the small unit leaders, or has it become such a climate where "that is the way it is." Because the system has been doing that for so long, where the officers don't let the men and junior leadership do what they are supposed to do.
Remember, trust is needed because you are going to have to trust everyone in your team with your life! So, they need to be trusted to do their most basic of tasks and that is pack their own gear and what is needed to accomplish the mission!
Lists are needed, but not down to how many needles in your sewing kit. And yes for the REAL items for those who slack, they pay the penalty, replaced, grab an e-tool to make a full sized mock up of a trenchline or every example of a fixed defesnsive position in the manual for a company. "Oh you left that behind again! Well remember the full sized examples you dug last time? Well, now you get to crawl under the barracks and dig them there!"
How can troops learn to be good NCOs if they aren't allowed to do their jobs?
Sadly, I am told this is similiar with junior officers as well.