Photo By Staff Sgt. Ian Kummer | A new class of enlisted leaders graduates from the Warrior Leader Course (WLC) at Camp...... read more read more
CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – The California Army National Guard’s newest generation of trained junior enlisted leaders returned home April 26 from their first level of instruction as noncommissioned officers: the Warrior Leader Course.
The 17-day course held at Camp Williams, Utah, by the 640th Regional Training Institute, Utah Army National Guard, not only gave soldiers from around the nation the skills needed to be more effective leaders, but the tools to help their home units maintain Army standards.
“Coming through WLC (shows students) the way things should be done, but it’s up to them to use these tools and resources and apply them to their units when they get back,” said Staff Sgt. Jeff Jones, a WLC instructor at the 640th RTI. “Hopefully they’re taking what they’ve learned here back and applying it at the unit.”
The students learned a variety of tactical skills like and navigation and squad movements, but they also learned many administrative tasks like how to give a counseling statement, draft an award recommendation, and write a memorandum for record.
Like every other Army course, WLC has minimum standards that need to be achieved in order to graduate, but in the end, how much the students get out of the course is entirely dependent on individual effort.
“You only get out of it what you put into it,” said Jones. “Some people put more effort into this than others, and those are the ones who go back home and apply it.”
“I think I will be able to pass a lot of this knowledge on to other soldiers,” said Spc. Nick Lebeau, a signal support systems specialist with the 132nd Engineer Company, 579th Engineer Battalion, California Army National Guard, out of Redding, Calif. “I want to teach people how to motivate soldiers, to care about soldiers, to listen to soldiers, to mentor them, and teach them how to progress in their careers in the Army.”
While many of the more senior sergeants attending the course were already familiar with most of the topics covered, WLC provides a strong foundation of knowledge for junior soldiers and newly-promoted sergeants to learn the roles they may find themselves in either in a combat zone or in their units.
“(WLC) gives me a heads up so when I get to be (sergeant) I will already have that knowledge,” said Lebeau.
Unlike in previous years, the distance learning-based Structured Self Development level 1 (SSD-1) is now a prerequisite for soldiers to complete prior to attending WLC. This helps better prepare them for the material presented during the courses, particularly students from units that do not have any peers who have attended WLC recently to help them prepare.
“Now that SSD-1 is a requirement, there are a lot more people picking up and understanding what they are going into, versus people who would just show up without SSD-1, and couldn’t get any feedback from anyone at their unit,” said Jones. “It gives them the information that will be covered a lot more in depth here.”
Communication is a two-way street, and the WLC staff encourages input from the student soldiers about ways to improve the curriculum.
“Without finding out what went well and things that need to be improved, we don’t really know what is going to work the best,” said Jones.
At the end of the day, the true beneficiaries of WLC are not the noncommissioned officers who form their leadership skills, but the soldiers under their charge.
“As a leader, your success is based on how well your subordinates do,” said Jones.
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2013 18:35 |
| Story ID: | 106571 |
| Location: | CAMP ROBERTS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | REDDING, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 544 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, WLC warriors, by SSG Ian Kummer and 1LT Brianne Roudebush, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
