Quote:
Originally Posted by perardua
How does the US use NCOs? I'm curious to see how it differs from my own experience.
|
The more appropriate question would be how do we
not use them.
All of the things you talked about with your NCOs, you see in the US military as well.
NCOs will lead patrols. They'll assume the duties of a Platoon Leader. They'll fill duties of staff officers. They'll basically do everything except assume command of a Company or higher. They'll sign for millions of dollars of equipment. They'll be responsible for analyzing intelligence that determines the outcome of various decision-making processes. They'll train individuals, crews and teams.
They are where the rubber meets the road.
But we also hold them to a higher standard than other nations do. I guess it's the level of responsibility and professionalism that we expect from them. For instance, in the Iraqi army, NCOs to the level of Sergeant Major really have no authority. It's the officers that run their army. Stuff that a Staff Sergeant or a high-speed Sergeant would do in our Army, would have a Captain in charge of it.
I can't really give you specifics that will make a light bulb click on and say, "Oh, I see it now." It's more than just combat leadership though. It goes more to their value. For me, some things that come to mind...
As a PL I had an E5 that had gone to Malaysian Tracker School, a couple of civilian shooting courses (Army-sponsored attendance, that is), and a lot of high-speed, low-drag training that he really lucked out on. Contrary to what Jester thinks of me, I knew that I could rely on him to do what was right and ensure that his guys were doing the same thing (yes, I still conducted PCIs on his guys so that no favoritism was perceived and that no one would think I didn't do it to him, so I wouldn't do it to them). I was the only PL in my company that sent an E5 out as a patrol leader on any patrol.
After I took command of my first company, I received guidance on tasks that I needed to train my men on, I came up with a timeline of when I wanted to train certain parts and what the ARTEPs and MTPs said we needed to be able to do, and I went to my NCOs and had them tell me what we needed to do to achieve a T-level proficiency. How did we train those tasks? I entrusted the safety and proficiency of my men (as well as my reputation as a commander) to my NCOs. Granted, I had a First Sergeant who had been a Master Gunner, a Drill Sergeant, and God-knows-what-else; a Platoon Sergeant who was the head instructor at the US Army Sniper School (one of my instructors as a matter of fact) and had developed the Army's Long-Range Marksmanship/SDM Course; a Platoon Sergeant that had been to every school under the sun except for Ranger, SF, Sniper, and Master Gunner it seemed like; and another Platoon Sergeant who had been in the Army for 18 years. They've forgotten more than I'll ever know. I took what they came up with then, made the training plan, and started delegating out classes to Platoons to teach the Company.
Webstral, your thoughts? You were an officer as well.