Photo By Capt. Monika Comeaux | Command Sgt. Maj. Guitaud Leandre, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the...... read more read more
By Pfc. Brian LaBombard
13th ESC
FORT HOOD, Texas - Cadence calls thundered across Fort Hood, Texas, as non-commissioned officers of the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) participated in an esprit de corps NCO run on the morning of March 21.
The motivational run was led by Command Sgt. Maj. Guitaud Leandre, the provisional 13th ESC Command sergeant major. After completing the run, Leandre gathered the NCOs and spoke about the importance of NCOs in the Army.
Leandre focused on esprit de corps and NCO leadership throughout the Army. “I want the feedback of the senior NCOs … to see how we can address some of the issues we’re having in the Army,” said Leandre.
One of the subjects that Leandre spoke earnestly about was the Freeman Café Dining Facility. Leandre said, “Throughout the post, they hold a competition every year … Freeman DFAC won the Thanksgiving competition. The DFAC is really, really good and it can be better if we go in and support it.” The DFAC may be shut down due to low number of meal card holders visiting the facility, and Leandre encouraged the NCOs to speak to their soldiers about the issue.
“The Army is changing, we’re going back to a lot of the things we used to do,” noted Leandre. Marching soldiers to their destinations is something that the Army did on a daily basis, remarked Leandre. “A first sergeant can march his company, a platoon sergeant can march his platoon and a section sergeant can march his section to the DFAC.”
After Leandre’s speech, NCOs gathered around a spread of water and fruits provided by the USO.
Sgt. Harris Disla, from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 13th ESC said the NCO run made him proud and gave him a sense of success and fulfillment. “It pumps up and inspires young NCOs, like me, to get out there,” said Disla.
“I felt the run was very refreshing, it was very motivating, said Sgt. 1st Class Schlandria Y. Edwards, G1 non-commissioned officer in charge of strength management from HHC, 13th ESC. “It made me feel good as an NCO to be able to run with my peers…”
In the afternoon, Leandre hosted a senior NCO call at the Freeman Café where he discussed the importance of direct communication between leaders and subordinates. He later briefed the NCOs on how vital it is that all soldiers focus on their structured self-development. Leandre announced, that in the coming weeks, there will be a direct link on the Army Knowledge Online portal for soldiers to access the Structured Self Development website.
“It was good to be there amongst my peers and see how we all felt towards things that are going good in the Army, versus things that were going wrong and how we need to police ourselves up and how we also needed to be there more for each other to support soldiers more,” said Edwards.
Edwards would like to see more lunches, more NCO runs and more NCO professional development, especially for the ‘fast trackers’ who have gotten promoted to senior non-commissioned officers relatively fast.
“We can gather a lot of knowledge from those individuals who are getting ready to retire … I would love to just get all that knowledge from them before they put up the uniform for the last time,” said Edwards.
| Date Taken: | 03.21.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.22.2012 20:53 |
| Story ID: | 85645 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 279 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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