The future of the U.S. Army's noncommissioned officer corps after 9/11

Future of NCO Corps

Future of Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps

A critical link

The past and present

The future after 9/11

Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps has traditionally been important in the armed forces of the U.S. Provision of training and mentoring to the general rank soldiers and effective assistance to second lieutenants has been the traditional responsibility of NCOs. The NCOs are technicians and team leaders as well. The role has significance in the future as well. After successfully participating in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, NCO Corps is planned to go through a 'consolidation' phase in which non-performing senior NCOs will be retired early. Junior and mid-grade NCOs will be retrained to meet the requirements ofirregular warfare contingencies and in-rank counseling.

Future of Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps

Introduction

The Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps is termed as the backbone of the U.S. Army Reserve and the Army National Guard. The NCO Corps being 'the backbone of the army' are assigned with important roles and responsibilities that these noncommissioned officers perform during war and peace time. Having performed roles of technical experts, trainers, small unit leaders, and foot warriors of the army, the NCOs have remained the keepers of army's high performance tradition (Fisher, 1994). The assumption of roles and responsibilities of American NCO has incorporated input from respective roles of NCOs in English, Russian, and French armies. However, the evolution of American NCOs has been one of its kinds as their future is potentially bright in the U.S. The main roles that today's NCO in the U.S. army assumes are Sergeant Major, first sergeant, corporal, and quartermaster sergeant. While remaining a timeless strength in the U.S. army deployments, home and abroad, the future of NCOs is highly debated currently. Although, NCO Corps was increasingly questioned over its importance in today's automated warfare environment, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have once again got the importance of NCO Corps realized. The following section will highlight how NCO Corps is placed to remain important in the coming decades in their role as 'the backbone of the army'.

A critical link

The U.S., prior to 9/11 had visibly changed its tactics of anticipating war situations. With much reliance being shifted on machine intelligence and neglecting of critical role of a human link between foot soldiers and their officers, the role of NCO Corps was made limited. However, after a ground presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan was necessary, the U.S. Army again recognized the importance of junior and senior NCOs. Essentially, the NCOs provide a link between the foot soldiers and the officer corps of the army. This holds true on a vice-versa basis as well. While performing the role of trainers and mentors, these NCOs also perform as administrators and motivators for the lower ranks. This multiplicity of their roles provides the NCO Corps with the most important collaborative and coordination related responsibility in army. Without such a link, there may be a total lack of effective communication and dissemination of information.

The past and present

To help understand the future of NCO Corps, one has to look at the past and present of this corps. The traditional roles and responsibilities and current status of NCOs will indicate that whether there has been a radical departure from war tactics by the army or not. If not, the role of these NCO ranks is also firmly poised for the future growth. May it be the U.S. Or the Canadian Army, the land army law requires the NCOs to provide a link between officer and soldiers. Translating the directives of officers into action through the soldiers is an essential responsibility that NCO Corps have performed. The NCO Corps has been responsible for daily operations of army units, from welfare of the junior staff to the effective implementation of orders from the officers (Horn, 2002).

The morale and motivation of general rank is also managed as well as assessed by the senior NCOs. This is the most vital responsibility during both peace and war time scenarios.

The senior NCOs have also been termed as the 'eyes, ears, and the conscience' of general rank soldiers. This implies that these NCOs are the physical watchmen links performing monitoring responsibility. Being ears of the general rank imply that NCOs are vital for information collection from the general rank soldiers. Being conscience implies their important role as 'motivation and morale' assessor during wartime activities. A dual role is always performed by the NCO Corps, provide information to higher rank officers and manage the human resources in lower and general cadre ranks. The U.S. Army Human Resource Command (HRC) is kept informed through the senior NCOs regarding performance and other matters of general rank soldiers as well as junior NCOs. Since the NCOs have progressed their way up in the army chain of command, these NCOs are the most experienced human resource on the entire army. While officers receive superior training and development exercises, they lack experience on the ground. The officers are introduced, guided, and provided with a liaison link by the NCOs. This role and responsibility has been traditionally performed by the NCOs and continue to be so. The deployments in new regions, ground operations by the combat units, and rescue and search operations, all are effectively assisted by the junior and senior NCOs. The availability of good sergeants for preparing the troops for the wartime is essential (Horn, 2002).

Training is another aspect of historical role of NCO Corps that will continue in the future. The NCOs perform training exercises and introduce and inculcate soldier's way of life in the general rank. The training was provided by the NCOs for both survival and combat purposes. This trend continues and shall remain so in the future as the role demands physical endurance and experience of managing human resources, the general rank soldiers being recruited. The vitality of a senior NCO is vital in orientating Second Lieutenants, the newly joined junior officers. The senior NCOs are assigned the task to assist the Second Lieutenants in gearing up for the wartime. NCOs are assigned the responsibility of helping 2nd Lieutenants by providing advices, mentoring, and providing with feedback and information. Thus, NCOs not only guide the soldiers in acquiring the survival and combat skills, they also provide assistance to their platoon leader to enable him to lead the platoon effectively. NCOs are therefore experienced member in their units and platoons to whom soldiers look forward for guidance and officers look for effective assistance.

The future after 9/11

The future training and development (T&D) of NCO Corps has been reemphasized by scholars and higher command of the U.S. army as well as defense experts. In 2008 study conducted on behalf of Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Krepinevich (2008) asserted that higher density of officers and NCOs is required to combat the changing nature of armed conflicts. Increased and rigorous training of junior NCOs is required to make the general rank of soldiers more receptive to changed war tactics. The author also suggested that since brigade combat teams (BCTs) are not enough in number, neither can be developed, to match the requirements of irregular warfare contingencies, NCOs Corps should be highly developed to meet demands of irregular warfare, without deployment of BCTs on full scale. The last ten years of war in Afghanistan has left NCO Corps to be more in demand than during the three decades prior to 9/11. Increasing number of NCOs are managers, team leaders, and resilient warriors acquainting officers with ground realities. The valor displayed by Sgt. Joshua R. Labbe, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) in War of Afghanistan has reignited the passion in junior NCOs by leading as a brave senior NCO (Shmccall, 2011). Thus, in the wake of withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq completely, the future of NCO Corps will involve technical and tactical proficiency of senior NCOs along with releasing low performing NCOs. Extensive training and development of junior and mid-grade leaders of NCOs will be conducted. Further, the NCO Corps will focus on in-rank counseling training of NCOs.