Photo By Spc. Nathaniel Gayle | Students of the 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy practice physical readiness...... read more read more
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U.S. Soldiers attending the Basic Leader Course at the 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy resumed in-resident courses, Camp Normandy, Germany, July 8, 2021.
Leaders and Soldiers alike are excited to get back to the face-to-face education the academy was conducting before the pandemic, but will do so at a slow and controlled pace.
"This will be the first cycle we have Soldiers staying and living full-residence on Camp Normandy," said Sgt. First Class Peter Notkin, the Chief of Training at the 7th Army NCOA. “This is the second of a three-phase approach we are using to re-integrate full residence courses.”
Phase One was a hybrid class which was a mixture of resident students learning at the physical academy location,, and Soldiers throughout U.S. Army Europe and Africa conducting the classes virtually. During this phase, the Soldiers who attended the academy in-person were all from the local Grafenwoehr and Vilseck communities, and did not live at the school. This phase took place from May 14- June 9, 2021.
In Phase Two (alpha), the current phase, local Soldiers are attending and living at the Academy, while the remainder of students continue training virtually. During Phase Two (bravo), all Soldiers in Germany will stay at the academy, while locations such as Italy and Belgium will remain virtual. Finally, during Phase Three, all Soldiers will stay at the academy for the duration of their training, as it was done prior to the pandemic. Phase three is scheduled to take place Sept. 3-29, 2021.
“We are using the phased approach to safely mitigate COVID,” said Notkin. “We also have a lot of new instructors who have never experienced a residence course, and the phases will allow us to properly prepare and continue the exemplary facilitation of the Basic Leader Course.”
Sgt. Brea DuBose recently graduated from a virtual BLC class, and is excited to see the academy going back to in-resident training.
"BLC was a lot of fun, the instructors at the academy did a great job of making sure the curriculum was as rigorous and engaging as possible" said Dubose. “But there were some setbacks doing it virtually, such as faulty connectivity and communications lag during video instructions. I’m glad they are re-integrating the residence course.”
The 7th Army NCOA is one of the last academy’s in the Army to still conduct virtual training, due to some of the unique challenges they face.
“It’s a little harder for us here in Germany because of how large of a footprint that we cover,” said Notkin. “We are extremely unique because of the range of how far students come to attend to receive training. Our challenges will be to ensure we stay vigilant and continue to mitigate COVID through our standard operating procedures we have emplaced.”
| Date Taken: | 07.08.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2021 09:52 |
| Story ID: | 401029 |
| Location: | CAMP NORMANDY, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 280 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 7th Army NCO Academy is back...in person, by SPC Zachary Stahlberg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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