Q: Is the juice worth the squeeze?

A: It depends on who you ask -- the person getting the juice, or the person doing the squeezing.

This question encapsulates the biggest problem logisticians in my unit face. Nine times out of ten, they're two different people. The person getting the juice will say, "Of course," while the person who has to do all the work begs to differ. The root of the problem lies with the size of the unit.

Although we're called a brigade, it's only because we're headed by an O-6 colonel. As a training unit, we only number about 100 people. This throws our customers WAY off, as they tend to assume we're another 3,000 person unit, just like them. As I often have to explain, we're not.

Consequently, we rely on the divisions we train for a lot of our logistical needs, and this leads to some awkwardness. In the Army, the notion that "Support Implies Subordination" is pervasive. If you're here to support Me, the thinking goes, then you have to do what I say. And my needs are more important than yours.

So even though -- without us -- they might as well be running around the forest shouting, "Bang! Bang!" there are definite limitations on what the divisions will provide. We have to persuade our customers to assist us (the squeeze), just as we assist them.

The other side of the coin is managing expectations for people within my own unit. Just the other day, I got a call from someone with a great idea.

"Instead of making us drive back to the fuel point," they said, "how about you place another fueler where we're at?"

If we lived in a world of infinite assets, there'd be no problem with this suggestion, and we'd hop right on it. But as it is, we don't control the assets we utilize. Every truck and every driver we ask for means one less available to the owning unit, and we're hardly ever their top priority.

So while, in our infinite vanity, we consider every last bit of juice to be absolutely worth it, we're not often in a position to make that determination.

And no matter how much you bug the logistician, I can't change that.