Preston to senior NCOs: Focus on teaching sgts.

[CommunityEditor]

The Army’s top enlisted soldier told senior NCOs he wants them to spend more time teaching junior sergeants how to take care of soldiers.

Sgt. Major of the Army Kenneth Preston told a roomful of high-ranking non-commissioned officers Tuesday that recent surveys have revealed that young sergeants don’t know enough about what it takes to be a good NCO.

“The feedback is we have great warriors; they are combat veterans, they know how to lead a patrol … they know how to do a four-man stack and take down the bad guys,” Preston said at the 2009 Association of the United States Army’s Annual Meeting and Exposition. “But back in garrison, they don’t know how to take care of soldiers. They don’t know to deal with situations that come up in soldiers’ and their family’s lives.”

Eight years of war continues to create stress on the force, Preston said, describing how NCO professional development has suffered from the high operational tempo. In the past, it was commonplace for first sergeants to dedicate an hour each week toward professional development of the unit’s NCOs. These short sessions covered everything from how to counsel a soldier, how to inspect a room and how to keep records on training, he said.

“This is the thing that is missing right now among our formations,” Preston said. “If you want to talk about taking stress off the force and improving quality of life for all soldiers … you’ve got to invest, you’ve got to spend that time and the best way is to teach — just to carve out a little bit of time, whether it’s one hour a week for a professional development forum, that becomes absolutely critical for teaching all of our NCOs what to be, know, and do.”


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...n_ncos_100609/

[FatCat40]

After the shenanigens of the past 5 yrs, promoting SOLDIERS to NCOs in 2 yrs, fostering a mindset of "quantity over quality".....is anyone truly surprised at this? And the bad thing about it, a lot of the SENIOR leaders that were fast tracked under the same mentality (SFC-8 yrs, MSG-12......) THEY may not be equipped to teach the junior NCOs themselves. JMO.

[RONALD45]

Sgt. Major of the Army Kenneth Preston told a roomful of high-ranking non-commissioned officers Tuesday that recent surveys have revealed that young sergeants don’t know enough about what it takes to be a good NCO.

Well maybe if you would quit passing regulations to promote them to NCO IN LESS THAN TWO YEARS we might actually have the time to teach them what they need to know BEFORE they become NCO's (duhhhh)

[RONALD45]

Riiigggghhhhtttt this coming from the same Army that has lowered promotion standards, shortened NCO schools, made most of the course material online "flip the slide" instead of in classroom instruction by an NCO. Let's not even talk about Sergeant's time training taken out of the hands of NCO'es and now conducted post wide at battalion or brigade level.

Proving once again that in the Army the Right hand no longer knows or cares what the left hand is doing. It is follow our words not our examples as of late.

[cobra6]

Think about it...that idiot Preston is the one who came up with this nonsense...he needs to just go away he is a pogue

[anamericansoldier]

I think that the SMA needs to take his own advice. A buck SGT's failure falls squarely on the leadership who promoted him (and allowed him to get his stripes in 2 years) and on his senior NCOs, leading all the way up to the SMA.

[ghostrider]

News Flash; SMA Preston you!!!!!!!! started this madness. Should have thought about what you are quoted as saying when you lowered the standards for NCOs, no wonder they don't know much today and even those so called fast tracked senior NCOs no even less.

[Creaminess]

Lots of things to blame for young sergeants not being ready to be NCOs; here are just a few:

1. Automatic integration to the promotion list: If somebody isn't motivated enough to go to the promotion board, they should not be promotable. In many MOSs, you can get promoted with the minimum number of points without ever boarding. If an NCO I work for was promoted that way, I'm not going to have a very high opinion of him or her because no initiative was taken to get promoted.

2. Mandatory promotion board appearance: Now, I know that Soldiers don't HAVE to appear before the board when fully eligible, so long as there's supporting documentation stating why the individual isn't being recommended to be boarded. However, the policies these days are such that it's easier on leaders to just board somebody who's not ready or not deserving than to cut through all the red tape of blocking a board appearance. That's no excuse, as leaders should always do the right thing no matter what. Still, it seems the system is geared toward forcing leaders to put Soldiers in front of a board, even if they should not.

3. SMA Preston: Dude, you do NOT have a good reputation, especially among NCOs. If you've found that policies that you've implemented aren't working, at least have the guts to admit it and then do something to fix it.

[skiftcky]

WEAK! The NCO Corps that I am so proud of has fallen victim to soldiers being promoted to SGT without being properly trained and/or prepared PRIOR to said promotion. The learning curve should not start at promotion. It should be complete at this point. The only "teaching" that should be done to a Sergeant should be the job of a Staff Sergeant. In the NCO Creed it clearly states... "I am AWARE of my role as a Nocommisioned Officer. I WILL fulfill my responsibilities inherent in that role." No where does it say that the NCO will learn his responsibilities. As a Sergeant you should be fully prepared, equipped, and empowerd to do your job and take care of your soldiers prior to being promoted.
I have seen sorry soldiers be promoted to E-5 because of poitns being 450 and good, hardworking, knowledgeable soldiers fall in under them because they did not meet the points criteriafor their MOS.Tell me where the sense is in that one. The NCO Corps has become weak due to those who do not know their job being put in to the position. We should know as a well equipped, proffesional Army that you do not go into something half way. Why is Preston allowing his NCOs to be the weak link in the chain?

[ghostrider]

I agree with you 1000 times over. The NCO Corps is absolutely the worse I have seen in my 20 plus years in the service. And before any senior states well it's your job to train them that is true but quit using it as a crutch because unless youe have on blinders you can't tell me the NCO Corp is just plain pathetic at this point and time. Now don't get me wrong there are some of us out there busting our butts to do what we can but to only see us trangress backwards. It really is a shame and I really feel sorry for these junior NCOs who want have a clue what being an NCO really is, thanks SMA Preston for nothing!!!!!!!! you have absolutely decimated the NCO Corps with all this jibberish.It's really time you think about calling it a career, really and quit putting your own self righteous issues first and forehand. I can go on and on about the gaggles with the Corps startting with that hideous new I'm a bus driver uniform and then the NCO education system I will stop at those because this talking point just really pisses me off more and more.