Students attending a NCOES course should not have to take an APFT or weigh-In upon arrival -- these are unit level tasks that need to be completed before reporting NCOES and physical fitness/weight control testing responsibilities

Unit level leaders have an inherent responsibility to maintain and manage Soldiers physical fitness and weight control standards; therefore, we must hold these leaders accountable for the execution of these tasks.

The purpose of the NCO as established throughout its history from the very beginning was focus on leadership roles. As the history of the NCEO, the educational component of the NCO shows, academic instruction was a requirement of the program -- the NCEO was indeed established with that in mind, and it has been only recently that hands-n components have been added in order to bring the NCEO into line with the 21st century and as response to the 2001 terrorist scare.

Nonetheless, the focus on leadership with sub-categories of trust, self-confidence and technology in order to fulfill this requirement, has been the modus vivendi of the program.

Recently, the NCEO has become more involved in assessing and regulating Soldiers physical fitness and weight control standards. The argument of this essay is that doing so deviates from their mission who is to accentuate the soldier's leadership component and to help him develop towards that end.

II. Introduction

The purpose of the NCO as established throughout its history from the very beginning was focus on leadership roles. As the history of the NCEO, the educational component of the NCO shows, academic instruction was a requirement of the program -- the NCEO was indeed established with that in mind, and it has been only recently that hands-n components have been added in order to bring the NCEO into line with the 21st century and as response to the 2001 terrorist scare.

Nonetheless, the focus on leadership with sub-categories of trust, self-confidence and technology in order to fulfill this requirement, has been the modus vivendi of the program.

Recently, the NCEO has become more involved in assessing and regulating Soldiers physical fitness and weight control standards. The argument of this essay is that doing so deviates from their mission who is to accentuate the soldier's leadership component and to help him develop towards that end.

The thesis of this essay, therefore, is that Unit level leaders have an inherent responsibility to maintain and manage Soldiers physical fitness and weight control standards; therefore, we must hold these leaders accountable for the execution of these tasks.

B. Main points that support the "Thesis Statement"

1. Purpose of the NCOES

III. Purpose of the NCOES

In order to best understand the purpose of the NCOES, we have to know something of the history of the NCO and its offshoot, the NCOES.

The NCO actually came into existence in the beginning of the State although with various names and undergoing various revolutions. The purpose of the American Army, however, has been more or less constant as articulated by Maj. Gen. Ernest Harmon during WW2.

"The Constabulary School [later to merge into the NCO] is more than a place of instruction. It is a cradle, so to speak, in which we hope to establish the character, the espirit de corps, high standards of personnel [sic] conduct, and appearance of the Constabulary. As most subjects taught here are entirely new to the soldier and the normal training of soldiers, it was felt necessary to obtain as quickly as possible the maximum number of graduates to act as instructors to their units and to spread the Constabulary standards." (Elder, 2009)

In early 1949 the Noncommissioned Officers Course, initially a 4-month course, came into effect using lectures, conferences, demonstrations and practical exercises. The emphasis was on incorporating instruction on leadership, tactics, command and staff, automotive principles, personnel management, among other subjects.

In late 1949, then commander of the Constabulary Maj. Gen. Isaac D. White decided that the officers of the Academy would receive special training consisting of academic teaching only, not hands on exercise. His objective, as he articulated it to the graduating class in 1949 was the following: We propose, in carrying out the academy's primary aim of developing you as leaders; to teach you how to teach others; how to reproduce for your men, the subject matter which you are taught here. (ibid.)

Clarke would later rate the results of this program as constituting one of the most successful ventures of his long illustrious career. The three major departments were Leadership and Command, Tactics, and Personnel and Administration were charged with the conduct of the training. The day started at 5am and concluded at 11.00pm. By 1951, NCO had graduated almost 4500 students.

Due to the results of the Korean War which brought a need for better trained and ready soldiers, the Army's NCO Academy / Educational system (NCEO) was established in 1957 with the proviso to standardized Army educational requirements and methods across the board.

The directive stated that the "purpose of Noncommissioned Officer Academies is to broaden the...

The NCEO offered a comprehensive, professional educational environment where each individual had the opportunity to broaden his knowledge and to discover new areas of knowledge outside of his military training. Students were also offered a college electives program and received an opportunity to participate in a college degree program. The point of this observation is that the focus was on academy rather than on hands on training. The NCEO would continue to develop and transform during the coming years, but focus on academia and leadership remained constant.
In 1989, NCO Leader Development Task Force noted that NCOES was not completely aligned with unit levels of leadership and went on to recommend requiring attendance to promotion; PLDC for sergeant, BNCOC for staff sergeant, ANCOC for sergeant first class, and the sergeants major course for sergeants major.

In 1992, some of the recommend improvements included adding rifle qualification requirements, train-the-trainer course and "shared" field-training exercises.

Nowadays, the soldier must receive appropriate training for the next grade level under the Select, Train, Promote system prior to promotion. Career planning has also been added to the mix.

Organizers of the NCEO recognize that the 21st century calls for new skills and requirements. The structure therefore represent s that. The core values of the NCEO has, however, remained unchanged. These according to- Col. Kenneth Simpson and CSM Oren Bevins, Commandant and CSM, Sgts. Maj. Academy, (1989) are to:

To build NCO self-confidence

To increase tactical and technical competence in preparation for higher levels of responsibility

To inculcate the values of the professional Army ethic. (Elder, 2009)

It is these three strictures that will now be examined each in turn.

A. To build NCO trust and confidence

Len Koontz, now sergeant major, formerly Team Leader, Platoon and Company Radioman, sees trust and self-confidence as being two of the major building blocks of a successful leader.

Trust is needed in order to both inspire trust for one's colleagues and students, as well as to have trust for one's teachers in order to incorporate the lessons and to effectively model them.

Self-confidence is needed in order to 'do the good fight'a nd to have faith in oneself that one can follow the demanding curriculum and succeed in a harassing program and, in turn, inspire others.

Said Koon "without courage, endurance, integrity and self-confidence you cannot sustain success.. Most of the effective combat leaders I have known were self-confident without being over confident or arrogant [and] trusted their men and delegated authority when appropriate." (Combatleadership.com)

Trust and self-confidence can best be instilled by leaders of the NCO mentoring new officers and teaching them the requirements of the program and how to adjust themselves to it in a smooth and as effortless as possible manner.

It is extremely important for the lieutenant to know that he can rely on his NCO's for their full support. New officers are trained from the first day of OCS to seek the advice and support of their NCO's. They expect the NCO's to be competent and are usually very willing to accept guidance and recommendations from them. The bottom line is that NCO's should do everything in their power to ensure that new officers quickly learn the things they need to know to win battles and minimize casualties during those battles. (Combatleadership.com)

With such a program in place, the leader will inspire trust in his cohort whilst generating self-confidence in both officers and himself.

B. To increase NCOs technical and tactical competence

The remotely located student cannot always connect to the classroom. High-tech, as per computer and Internet, are therefore used to connect the student to the proceedings. High-tech is used in other ways too in order to bring the classroom training to life.

In…