NCOs, stay in your lane—the Army needs you there

FA Journal,  May-August, 2002  by Patrecia Slayden Hollis

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Sergeant Major of the Army Jack L. Tilley

Army Staff at the Pentagon

Q. NCOs play what role and have what responsibilities in the Transformation of the Army?

A. The Army's Transformation encompasses far more than just the formation of the IBCT [initial brigade combat team] at Fort Lewis, Washington. The Army's Transformation involves the entire officer, NCO and warrant officer education systems, the integration of the Army and Secretary of the Army staffs--just about every aspect of the Army.

But as far as the NCOs down in the units are concerned, they will have the same role and responsibilities in the transformed Army. The equipment and unit organization might change and technology will be more advanced, but they still must focus on the basics and stay focused on their jobs.

As a sergeant in the Army, I've worked with seven different tanks. That didn't change my leadership style, techniques of developing people or how I fulfilled my responsibilities to soldiers and the unit--just my equipment changed. Now education-wise, some things may change, but that is based on technology.

The NCO needs to "stay in his lane." He must understand the basics of soldiering, know his MOS [military occupational specialty]; lead, counsel and train his soldiers; enforce all standards; and live the Army values-be the best at what he does. In war, there is no "Second Place" for the NCO and his soldiers. That's the NCO's focus during transformation.

Q. The Army education system for officers, NCOs and warrant officers is transforming with the Chief of Staff's new Leader Development Campaign Plan. Although the redesign of the NCOES is not final, why are we redesigning NCOES and what can you tell us about the redesign?

A. We surveyed some 34,000 NCOs about the NCOES and what we needed to improve to better develop NCOs. Late this spring, we will finalize the plan and release the details of the redesign.

The NCOES that I went through was developed in the mid-1970s, so it's time to transform our education system. We are taking a look at all NCOES courses and revamping them to ensure that what the NCO needs to know is in the right course at the right time in his career.

Basically, we are looking at distance learning for the common core information, which would allow soldiers to stay in their units longer. So for courses like BNCOC [basic NCO course] and ANCOC [advanced NCO course], students would learn the common core subjects via distance learning before they came to the resident courses.

We are not adding any distance learning to PLDC [primary leadership development course]. Young soldiers need to come on site and interact with each other and their instructors to learn leadership skills.

But we are adding some financial planning to PLDC, so our future leaders can manage their finances and invest for the future. In BNCOC and ANCOC, we are going to educate NCOs about their retirement benefits--let them know what they can expect before they retire.

We are slipping the Sergeants Major Academy to earlier in an NCO's career. Right now, the average for attendance is more than 20 years of service. We want to bring that down to about 17 years. NCOs need to know some things earlier in their careers. That's the same reason we are taking some information in the Battle Staff and First Sergeant Courses and moving it down into BNCOC and ANCOC.

One of the things people don't realize is the civilian education level of the NCO Corps has gone up considerably. About 20 years ago, the average education level was a high school diploma. Today, the average education level of the NCO is probably at least an associate's degree...many have more education. A degree is not a requirement, but because of the national emphasis on education, NCOs today are more highly educated.

So, we are developing the Army University Access Online. This is a $500,000,000 program that gives soldiers laptops and printers for their Army distance learning requirements and to go to college. In a few years, the Army will start issuing laptops and printers to soldiers.

Right now, we have about 125,000 soldiers forward deployed in Korea, Germany and other places. We have another 75,000 soldiers deployed in operations in places such as Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, even Afghanistan. This Army University Access Online program will ensure soldiers "on the ground" have the equipment they need to complete the distance learning requirements for their NCOES courses in a timely manner and continue their college education from wherever they are.

Overall, we are increasing distance learning requirements. But we need to be careful not to overload the soldier--not to overload the unit that has to give him duty time to complete distance learning requirements. The Chief of Staff of the Army agrees we have to strike a balance of distance learning and resident instruction.

Q. Do you see the Army combining or partially combining OES and NCOES course POIs [programs of instruction] wherever possible?