Photo By Master Sgt. Paul Wade | After loading one patient students of the Warrior Leader Course rush back to transport...... read more read more
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo - Here is a recipe for disaster. Try and create a well-oiled fighting force with junior non-commissioned officers and enlisted Soldiers who are from different states and have never worked together. Make sure to mix in various military occupational skills like finance, military intelligence, aviation, and cavalry, to name a few, and then have them conduct small unit combat operations. Finally toss in leadership changes every day and expect positive results in two weeks.
With these ingredients you would imagine a clashing of opinions and a complete utter breakdown in team cohesion, but this is what the U.S. Army subjects their future enlisted leaders to during the Warrior Leader Course, a boiling pot of unique Soldiers and skills.
"This course is distinctive. It brings together different MOS's, which combine our knowledge and helps in areas some might be rusty" said Spc. Lee Caldwell, an 11 Bravo infantryman with Team Spartan, Co. A, 1-185th Combined Arms Battalion (Armor), Task Force Nightstalker. "This course helps us better ourselves because we all need to be Soldiers first and what it comes down to is working with other skill sets and knowing each others part."
Warrior Leader Course is the testing ground for those Soldiers wishing to enter the ranks of the NCO Corps. The Multi-National Task Force-East KFOR 11 mission held three classes at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, and brought eight National Guard instructors from Regional Training Institute's across the United States to help teach, mentor and guide students as an effective tool to aide the Soldiers when the time comes to earn their stripes.
Another unique aspect of this NCO education course is it was offered to deployed Soldiers at their duty location. "If we were in Iraq or Afghanistan I would have had to send my guys [to this course] after we were done with our tour," said Master Sgt. Edward Martinelli, Task Force Falcon's training NCOIC. "It really helps for [National Guard] Soldiers to knock it out here while family and work aren't affected," Martinelli said. He then added that the California's 40th Infantry Division, who is in charge of the mission, had been planning these courses months before even being mobilized. Their efforts paid off as more than 160 National Guard Soldiers from Alaska, California, Texas, West Virginia and Maryland graduated.
The WLC cadre had a laundry list to test and evaluate each Soldier: performance around the garrison and living quarters, tactical leadership in the field, running an Army physical fitness training session, passing the Army Physical Fitness Test and height and weight, land navigation and teaching a class. Almost a parallel for the challenge the students would face in working with someone outside their unit, the RTI instructors had only met each other days before the start of the first class.
"This is my first time doing an Mobile Training Team. [The cadre] didn't know each other when we arrived and we had four days to click," said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Graham, Senior Small Group leader, 640th RTI, Camp Williams, Utah. "Luckily, we were already on the same page because we used the Course Management Plan and Program of Instruction."
Graham led his eclectic band of subject-matter-experts, who brought their own seasoned brand of leadership and experience from Camp Shelby, Miss., Camp Cook, La., Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa., and McCrady Training Center, S.C., and made the most of the limited training area space within the confines of Bondsteel's perimeter. "We didn't know what to expect in regards to the terrain we would be working with but it worked out well in the end," said Graham.
"It was absolutely fantastic to be able to see the route of march we would follow from our classroom," said Staff Sgt. Daniel Nagle, 3rd Battalion, 166th RTI, FITG, referring to the rolling hills with thickets of trees the students would use as their field training site. This added bonus helped the Soldiers with their troop leading procedures, map orientation, phase line construction and ultimately created some of the most realistic sand tables. Despite the close distance from their desks to the wood line the instructors came up with ingenious ways to transport their troops into the tactical portion of the course. Soldiers piled in the back of Bradley Fighting Vehicles or jumped onboard Black Hawk helicopters. This helped increase the realism and gave those who never rode in one the experience and adrenaline rush of being inserted into a simulated combat situation.
"We got 100 percent support from the units and felt they gave us their best Soldiers," said Graham. Staff Sgt. Christopher Petty, another Small Group leader from the 154th RTI out of Camp Shelby, Miss., agreed.
"These young Soldiers we have here are going to make outstanding leaders," remarked Petty. "They impress me with their willingness to learn. They are taking this course seriously," said Petty, who is also part of an MTT for the first time. "They are learning to come together and be successful at it. They are adapting as we go and getting things done to the best of their abilities," said the Tupelo, Miss., native.
With only two weeks to squeeze in all that the U.S. Army expects new sergeants to know, the cadre sets aside the last few days to bring the classroom concepts to raw reality. Each troop is subjected to two field evaluations.
"The instructors and this course really hammer home the concept of what leadership is all about. We study counseling and all that it entails. We go over a lot of the things I've seen my leaders do but now it makes a lot more sense why they do it," said Spc. William Tobin, a 15 Tango UH-60 Black Hawk repairer and crew chief with the 1-169th General Support Aviation Battalion based out of Edgewood, Md.
Tobin, who spent four years on active duty as an infantryman, says he can see the learning curve being more difficult for those without a combat arms background but believes that each student can overcome any inexperience by getting involved and setting the example.
The action in the field hits a crescendo when platoons face off against each other, leaders are hit with casualties and must respond with confidence and authority, combat lifesaver skills are tested and a landing zone is secured while a MedEvac is called in.
"[The cadre] makes sure that we understand what it is like to be an NCO, to lead troops. That is what this is all about," said Tobin, who is from Church Hill, Md., essentially, what the instructors are teaching, is to live by the NCO Creed.
It may take time for some of the 160 new graduates to fully realize their new found responsibility and run with it in full stride, but when Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston paid a special visit to Camp Bondsteel and conducted an NCO Induction Ceremony the new sergeants got a huge kick start.
Preston spoke about his three-step process in how leaders should grow and utilize sergeants in the Army. Step one; establish a standard. Step two is put someone in charge of enforcing the standards. Step three is to hold the sergeant accountable.
The thirteenth sergeant major of the Army made it very clear what he and the rest of the NCO Corps expected of the graduating class, after all it is written in the U.S. Army Creed of the Non-Commissioned Officer, which can be traced back to 1973, and is considered the yardstick by which to measure an NCO.
"I am aware of my role as a Non-commissioned Officer. I will fulfill my responsibilities inherent in that role."
With the creed and Preston's process, and not to mention the great training from the MTT cadre, the students now have a good recipe for success.
| Date Taken: | 07.14.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2009 03:55 |
| Story ID: | 36335 |
| Location: | CAMP BONDSTEEL, ZZ |
| Web Views: | 898 |
| Downloads: | 501 |
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