Photo By Sgt. Tara Fajardo Arteaga | U.S. Army Spc. Sarahi Arriaga-Miranda, assigned to 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion,...... read more read more
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Sgt. Tara Fajardo Arteaga, 113th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
ŻAGAŃ, Poland – A single chair sits empty at the front of the conference room in the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division headquarters. Three senior non-commissioned officers sit at the head of a table with their notebooks at the ready. All of a sudden, there are three loud knocks at the door. The president of the board bellows “enter!” and U.S. Army Spc. Sarahi Arriaga-Miranda, a human intelligence collector assigned to the 588th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 3/4th ABCT, enters the room.
She walks to the empty chair and stands at attention. The president of the board tells her to sit, and she sits at attention, awaiting their questions.
This is the start of the NCO board, the process where a specialist or NCO is asked about their knowledge and leadership skills and is recommended, or not, to promote to the next rank.
The three board members are senior NCO’s who have years of experience in the Army and know exactly what it takes to move to the next position.
“Our role is really determined by a series of questions and answers determining if these Soldiers are ready to lead at the next level, are they ready to be a sergeant,” said 1st Sgt. Ronald Greer, first sergeant of Delta Company, 588th BEB. “This is not becoming an E5, that’s a pay grade. This is the important step of becoming a sergeant.”
Arriaga-Miranda has served the last two and a half years in the Army and found out recently about the NCO Board opportunity.
“I had 12 days to get ready,” said Arriaga-Miranda. “I shut myself in my room. I got the list of subjects that are up for grabs on the board and I studied and studied!”
For each board a memorandum of instruction comes out with a list of topics that can be covered and the Soldiers who want to participate in the board are given that list to study from. They then attend the board and are grilled on the topics from that list.
“That’s your time,” said Arriaga-Miranda. “You’re put on the spot, you’re put under pressure, and it just shows who you are. You’re showing yourself and the board that this is how you’re going to act under pressure and the board members are there to see that. The members of the board, people with years of experience in the military, judge if you’re ready to promote or not. And if you’re not, you come out of the board knowing what it is that you need to work on. So, I think it’s a good way of judging a Soldier if they’re ready or not.”
If they show knowledge of the topics, confidence and have proven to be a leader, they will become promotable to the next rank, and in this case to become a sergeant.
“I approach this by seeing ‘does the Soldier have the potential to be a leader in the U.S. Army?’” said Greer. “I ask questions in the board to create a dialogue, each board member is different.”
At the end of the board, each candidate is advised if they will be recommended to promote.
“I passed! They recommended me to promote,” exclaimed Arriaga-Miranda. “Honestly it means a lot to become promotable. Everyone on my team already said, by recommending me to the board, that I was ready to promote. The board was my chance to prove to everyone that I deserve to be here.”
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2022 05:22 |
| Story ID: | 429267 |
| Location: | ZAGAN, PL |
| Web Views: | 407 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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