Posted on 01/05/2012 4:19:57 PM PST by shove_it
Command Sgt. Maj. Jeffery T. Stitzel, regimental sergeant major for the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), was the Army’s first NCO of the year in 2002 while serving as a sergeant first class.
Since that inaugural competition – now known as The Best Warrior Competition and held at Fort Lee, Va. – Stitzel has seen the status of the noncommissioned officer evolve into having a more crucial role in the Army.
"We’re asking noncommissioned officers to do things now at the staff level that we entrusted career course-graduate captains to do," Stitzel said.
Adding, "You’ve got noncommissioned officers writing training guides for their commanders. You’ve got noncommissioned officers that aren’t just the battle NCO, but they’re in charge of the talk while deployed. It’s just a testament to how the noncommissioned officers have grown."
That advancement in trust and leadership has lead to growth within the NCO Education System (NCOES), Stitzel said.
Intermediate Level Education that is being taught to majors at the Command and General Staff College has been implemented at the Sergeant Majors Academy. Distance learning opportunities have also expanded throughout the NCOES to further learning opportunities.
"We’re seeing that our noncommissioned officers are smarter, and they’re being entrusted more," he said. "They are doing phenomenal across the spectrum."
Stitzel has seen this growth and trust expand to NCOs in the Army, and across the entire U.S. armed forces.
"We are the premier corps within the world," Stitzel said. "Every other country wants to emulate how our NCOs complement the officer corps."
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at ausa.org ...
Nothing new.
Been that way for looooong time.
For every General there is an NCO the kept him alive long enough to learn his trade.
“Please, stay out of the way, Sir...”
I remember a young LT. at NAS Alameda demanding we clean the puke out of his cockpit, then the Master Chief showed up.....
Ha! I knew as an Ensign my job was to run cover for my Chief and keep the DH and XO occupied while he got the job done. That and the pwork and message traffic. Any additional time had damn well better be spent on my SWO pin or there was hell to pay. We had a CO that drank and the day after departure and the day before arrival he’d be on edge looking for an excuse to let loose on someone. The chief and I had an agreement that we’d stand inside the cic entryway on those days so we would catch the flak instead of our sailors.
I like to remember that one of the original purposes of NCOs in modern armies was, as a column of soldiers marched onto an enemy column, side by side, to “take” the enemy musket volley, then bayonet the enemy before they could reload.
The NCOs would be at either end of the column, with a few behind the column. If any soldier left his place in the column, the NCOs were supposed to bayonet them.
I remember my LT in Iraq in 2008 didn`t like a policy of the BDE CSM. I told her to go `set him straight` about it and let him know who outranks who. She declined and said, `I don`t think that would go over very well.`
During my brief time as a commissioned officer, I made it a point to become aquainted with my Squadron CSM. That old man taught me much!
“We had a CO that drank”
No! Infamy! Lies! I once escorted my Chief out of a rather unpleasant situation at The Blue Parrot lounge in Orlando, Florida. I was absolutely golden after that. :)
Ha!
I trained a lot of 1LTs to make CPT and helped COLs make decisions that affected the entire maintenance field in Texas.
Damned fine example of caring for your people.
In charge of the "talk"?!?! Somebody mis-transcribed their recorder. I'm certain they meant, "TOC" (Tactical Operations Center).
Well I appreciate the sentiment but I was always amazed at the nco powers of the straw : it always seemed chief got the long one 90 percent of the time ( and I think the other 10 he was just being nice)
One of the hardest decisions I had to make was accepting a warrant officer appointment or promotion to SFC from below the zone (in 1978). I took the warrant and for the most part am happy, but many times I wish I had not. I did have some great CWO’s to teach me and I always ran cover for the NCO’s as they were too busy getting the job done to have to worry about the crappy stuff.
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