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Preston to senior NCOs: Focus on teaching sgts.

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.”

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