Nebraska National Guard instructor named facilitator of the year in NCO Leadership Center of Excellence competition

Photo By Lisa Crawford | Staff Sgt. Tony Franklin, an instructor with the Nebraska Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 209th Regiment (Regional Training Institute), was selected as the NCO Leadership Center of Excellence FY20 Facilitator of the Year for the Basic Leader Course Small Group Leader. Franklin competed against peers at 33 NCO academies in three rounds of assessments. The competition began back in March 2020 but had to be postponed several times due to COVID-19. The final phase of the competition concluded in early July 2020. The NCOLCoE will hold an award ceremony virtually at a date and time yet to be set. (Nebraska National Guard photo by Sgt. Lisa Crawford)  

ASHLAND, NEBRASKA, UNITED STATES

08.25.2020

Story by Sgt. Lisa Crawford 

Joint Force Headquarters - Nebraska National Guard

CAMP ASHLAND, Neb. -- Staff Sgt. Tony Franklin, an instructor with the Nebraska Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 209th Regiment (Regional Training Institute), was selected as the NCO Leadership Center of Excellence FY20 Facilitator of the Year for the Basic Leader Course Small Group Leader.
A graduate of Pius X Catholic High School, Franklin enlisted in the active duty U.S. Army in October 2005, where he served as a communications sergeant and then an intelligence sergeant with the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for about 11 years. Franklin then returned home to Nebraska and transitioned to the Nebraska National Guard in March 2018, where he has since served an instructor for the Basic Leader Course at the 209th RTI.
“It is an honor to win the award for the 1/209th RTI,” Franklin said. “I really enjoy the people that I work with who are professionals that come to work every day eager to teach future leaders. I have learned so much about teaching and facilitating from many of the instructors out here. I really enjoy instructing Soldiers and trying to mentor them for the three and half weeks that they are here so they can leave here with the knowledge they need to be great future leaders and continue to help the Army be the amazing force that it is.”
Franklin competed against peers at 33 NCO academies in three rounds of assessments. The first round saw each contestant assessed by their academy commandant on their performance in the Army Physical Fitness Test, surveys and overall performance during the past year. Once the Soldiers were selected by their commandants, each contestant submitted a packet that included an essay and a video of the Soldier facilitating a class using the Experiential Learning Model. The essays were graded by the Mission Command section off the NCO Professional Development Directorate (NCOPDD) at the NCOLCoE. The videos were assessed by the director of NCOPDD. Once the scoresheets were tallied and the top three candidates from each category were selected, the Soldiers went in front of a virtual board led by NCOPDD via Microsoft Teams. The board consisted of sergeants major from all three components – active, Guard and Reserve and was led by the deputy director of NCOPDD.
The competition began back in March but had to be postponed several times due to COVID-19. The final phase of the competition concluded in early July. The NCOLCoE will hold an award ceremony virtually at a date and time yet to be set.
The NCO Leadership Center of Excellence provides professional military education that develops holistically fit, disciplined, well-educated professionals capable of meeting the challenges of large-scale combat operations in a multi-domain environment.

• Date Taken: 08.25.2020
• Date Posted: 08.25.2020 11:46
• Story ID: 376736
• Location: ASHLAND, NEBRASKA, US
• Hometown: LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, US