In my opinion the military is a great institution and it’s personnel are some of the best America has to offer. I have experienced serving during the Carter administration through the Clinton administration and while both individuals loathing of the military, ineffectual leadership skills coupled with their self serving innate character they could never breach the skills, intelligence or the spirit of the American Fighting Man.

Our current poor excuse of a Commander in Chief who has never served may think that he is in charge but he is not. We will suffer his political policies, men will die needlessly, but what is so different now than during any other democratic led administration. It’s o.k. we did not sign up to serve them. We signed up to serve our country which unfortunately includes them. But it also includes the best of the best. (Other Veterans). It also includes that guy that has your back wearing the uniform. So good news for the other people who have taken the time to post on this blog, take heart the administration will change. In reality they make little difference on the ground. A good Sergeant is going to do what is right in spite of echelons beyond reality officers and politicians. As a First Sergeant I only had to make an officer suffer his own decision that contradicted mine one time, then he would learn to listen to the NCO.

Back to Johns point on what our military can produce in terms of leadership. The average veteran does his or her time and gets out. Many during this short tenure are taught basic leadership skills, including lead by example, take charge, be accountable, be decisive, plan, do, check, act. If you are good enough during your first hitch you may become eligible to become a Sergeant (Buck Sergeant – three stripes up) If you are elected or if a slot is available in school while you are in a promotable status you will attend Primary Leadership Development Course. (PLDC). This is a 30 day live in course where basic leadership skills are drilled into the fiber of your being. Believe me, drilled into your core.

If you stay in for the second hitch and are good enough you may become eligible to strive for the rank of Staff Sergeant (SSG). Three stripes up and one stripe down. Then you attend Basic Non-commissioned Officers Course (BNCOC). This is a live in course usually three months in length that focuses on leadership and a deeper study of your skills.

If you become a lifer as I did the next stage is a Senior Non-commissioned Officer which is Sergeant First Class(SFC) which is three stripes up and two stripes down. Then you attend another 3 month live in training called Advanced Non-commissioned Officers Course (ANCOC). This again focuses on leadership, and deeper into your technical training.

The next phase is to become Master Sergeant which is three stripes up and three stripes down. The determination between a Master Sergeant and First Sergeant which has the same three stripes up and three stripes down plus a diamond in the middle, is which path you choose to guide your career on. If you focus on accepting the hard jobs such as squad leader, and platoon sergeant then you are in line to become a First Sergeant. If you become a First Sergeant then you go to an additional training course called “The First Sergeant Course” which teaches you the administrative portions of being a First Sergeant.

The ultimate top rank is Command Sergeant Major (CSM) which is three stripes up, three stripes down with a star and oak leaf in the middle. When you achieve this rank you attend the Command Sergeant Majors Academy which is 1 year long.

The purpose of this dissertation is to show you the basic schools that Non-commissioned Officers in the United States Army attends. The intense leadership focused training that a civilian would never have the opportunity to get exposed to builds strong leaders so much so that they are not even aware of the function, they just are leaders.

What course does a civilian take that would compare to eating, living, sleeping and breathing in a lineage of leadership schools such as the army has? None…….
Long story short, the Army institutions from West Point, ROTC, OCS, and the Non-commissioned Officer Education System (NCOES) system which I just explained builds leaders. The problem is once you have attended all of the training and become a civilian your leadership instincts have become so trained and tuned that you are not aware that you make others that are senior to you insecure. You become a threat by performing the way you have been trained. And that is a story for another day. And its not so easy to make a civilian live by their decision because their training has been developed on how to blame others, deflect and defer to survive. Which is also another discussion for another day.

Thanks for the recognition of all Veterans, and especially the kind words extended to this retired First Sergeant.