Focus on NCOs
By Maryland National Guard Public Affairs Office—
Senior noncommissioned officers are groomed and not made. There are years of service, professional military education, and lessons learned through life’s experiences in molding a soldier or airman to into top level NCOs. Many NCOs at the highest levels in the services understand the importance for NCOs to be adaptable and to thrive in joint environments. With more than a decade at war, it is clear that the services must work together to successfully accomplish the nation’s war-time mission.
There are many stakeholders in the success of senior NCOs. The more obvious ones are the junior enlisted members and officers. Professional development is a critical component as the NCO corps is the backbone of the services.
The week of Oct. 12 – 17, 2015, brought focus to the NCO corps in the Maryland National Guard. That week Sgt. Maj. Siim Saliste, sergeant major of the Estonian Defence Forces, visited soldiers and airmen, participated in roundtable discussions with senior NCOs and attended the capstone event a joint E-9 professional development dinner. Under the State Partnership Program this was Saliste’s first visit to Maryland to see how we develop our NCOs.
“I see a lot of similarities yet we are a bit different. It doesn’t really matter,” said Saliste. “We have the same goals, we’re partners, we’re friends, and we’re allies.”
These types of events are helpful to developing the enlisted force to be totally interoperable with NATO and to create long-term and sustaining relationships.
“Everywhere I went I noticed the NCOs were always prepared, they always had an answer, they knew how to describe their challenges and most importantly they had suggestions on how to confront these challenge,” said Saliste.
The theme of the capstone event was developing adaptable NCOs for a joint and ever-changing environment. The special guest speaker was retired Command Sgt. Maj. Cynthia Pritchett. Pritchett was the first and only female to serve as the senior enlisted leader of a sub-unified combatant command in time of war. She addressed the importance of joint operations and for senior NCOs to have a full and complete understanding of the capabilities of the force.
“The last 15 years of combat has shown us that none of the services go into these deployments as a separate entity,” said Pritchett. “It’s truly a team thing. Separately we all bring our own strengths to the fight but collectively we bring much more bang for our buck. Embrace the importance of understanding our sister services.”
Maj. Gen. Linda Singh, the adjutant general of Maryland, noted that she would like the NCOs to walk away from the dinner thinking that they need to reach out and do a little more, in terms of their own development. She would also like them to see that the opportunities that exist can be challenging to get if NCOs are not building the right skill sets.