Photo By 2nd Lt. Jeremy Dunkle | Army Col. West Whitmire, the Alabama National Guard Director of Strength Management,...... read more read more
47 Soldiers from various units in the Alabama National Guard graduated from class 17-305 of the Unit Retention Noncommissioned Officer (URNCO) course conducted at Fort McClellan, Alabama, July 29 through Aug. 11, 2017.
The course educates and trains unit representatives on proper unit retention and attrition management to help meet unit strength objectives within the Alabama National Guard, and helps to retain high-quality, trained Soldiers within our ranks.
Col. West Whitmire, the Alabama National Guard Director of Strength Management, spoke to the graduates and emphasized the importance of retaining quality Soldiers.
“We are a large National Guard, with over 10,000 Soldiers,” said Whitmire. “But we have a much smaller population to recruit from than California or Texas. So it becomes incredibly important that our retention NCOs do their very best to help units keep the Soldiers they have now.”
Sgt. 1st Class Charles Allen and Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Holcomb became Certified Master Instructors specifically for Alabama’s URNCO course to help train Alabama guardsmen across the state. They were also assisted by class advisors Mr. John Gray and Mr. Everett Stephens. Sgt. 1st Class Jimmy Yarbrough, the State Retention NCO, handled the administrative needs of the course and is helping coordinate another URNCO course for the state for the spring of 2018.
“This class is to educate and train qualified retention NCOs at the unit level so that they can make a direct impact for the state strength readiness of the Alabama National Guard,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jimmy Yarbrough, “and this course is mentally straining. It’s not so much physically as it is mentally demanding; there is a lot of digging into regulations and policies that directly correlate with the retention and attrition of the Army National Guard.”
Yarbrough said that this is the first URNCO course in the state, and they are hoping to do another course next year.
“Another class is pending in FY18 in the month of April,” he said. “The National Guard Professional Education Center will determine whether or not we get that course based off of the needs of other states; but, we are going to be requesting another 50 seats.”
| Date Taken: | 08.11.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.11.2017 15:53 |
| Story ID: | 244625 |
| Location: | FORT MCCLELLAN, ALABAMA, US |
| Web Views: | 842 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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