Photo By Sgt. Stephen Campbell | U.S. Marines with Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron (MALS) 12 pose for a group photo...... read more read more
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Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron (MALS) 12 conducted a Lance Corporal Leadership and Ethics Seminar at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, March 25-29, 2019.
The seminar was conducted in order to bolster the number of junior Marines that meet training requirements for promotion.
This was also the first time MALS-12 conducted an event like this.
“We utilized the station’s Lance Corporal Seminar for quite some time, but there simply weren’t enough seats this time around so we created our own,” said U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Martin Balcazar, the squadron gunnery sergeant with MALS-12. “Sgt. Maj. Lester Williams (Sgt. Maj. of MALS-12) and I had been talking about making our own seminar for quite some time, so we saw this as an opportunity to actually put it into action.”
A lance corporal’s role in the Marine Corps is to begin the transition from a junior Marine into a non-commissioned officer by gaining experience and profieciency as a leader. The role of the seminar is to bridge the gap between basic leadership skills taught in boot camp and the progression of skills taught in Corporals Course later in a Marine’s career.
“There have been times when a large amount of responsibility has been placed on a lance corporals shoulders, and we need to develop them in a way so they can have sound judgement,” said Balcazar.
MALS-12 started with nothing, but with the help of fellow Marines and on-base organizations the seminar was made possible. It required approximately 30 days to plan and build the course to get started.
“I really wanted to make sure we provided quality education to these Marines,” said Balcazar. “I didn’t want it to be a check in the box or a PowerPoint presentation, so that meant we needed to reach out to outside resources.”
Staff at the Base Memorial Chapel helped provide a classroom inside Capodanno Hall, station Communication Strategy and Operations provided hard copies of discussion guides and station Motor Transportation provided passenger vans.
The seminar itself consisted of leadership and ethics classes, special duty assignment panels, officer panels, physical training sessions such as an obstacle course and a hike to the Iwakuni Castle, as well as other classes and activities.
“It was a lot of effort, but at the end of the day I would say it was absolutely worth it,” said Sgt. Holly Hanks, an aviation ordnance technician with MALS-12. “I feel like we met our mission and made a better product to return to the fleet. The lance corporals and the seminar staff gave their utmost effort and it shows.”
Although future seminars are not set in stone, Balcazar said he will be recommending to his command to conduct one once every quarter.
| Date Taken: | 04.02.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.02.2019 20:27 |
| Story ID: | 316515 |
| Location: | MCAS IWAKUNI, YAMAGUCHI, JP |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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