2 MAY 2013

IN FRO

NT

By JENNIFER MATTSON NCO Journal

As the drawdown continues in Afghanistan, NCOs need to spend more time focusing on and honing their garrison leadership. In the past de-

cade of war, the Army has focused on sending Soldiers downrange, and often as those Soldiers returned to a garrison environment, they were given very little dwell time before ramping up for deployment. As the opera-tional tempo slows, senior NCOs need to return to the basics of garrison leadership.

Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Schultz, command ser-geant major of the U.S. Army Reserve, wrote an article “Back to Basics: the lost Art of Garrison Leadership” where he highlihgtings what NCOs need to know to return to a garrison Army.

“As we move back to a garrison environment, we need to remember that we are a profession of arms,” Schultz said. “We as NCOs are professionals, and we need to ensure our Soldiers are being professionals — both while deployed and here at home.”

Leadership presents challenges no matter what the environment, but they are different challenges. In a gar-rison environment, Soldiers continue to need standards of conduct and good order, Schultz said.

“The challenge of garrison leadership is to install the traditions and battle drills,” Schultz said. “We need to continue to hone our tactical skills and stay sharp while we’re in garrison. We also need to be well-rounded NCOs who respect the traditions of garrison leadership — those things like NCO induction ceremonies, dining in and dining outs and the importance of the Sergeant

Audie Murphy Clubs.”

Bringing back in-garrison traditions require NCOs to learn more about their Soldiers, the his-tory of their units and the distinc-tions of the NCO Corps.

“The garrison

Leading Soldiers in garrison

Command Sgt. Maj. Allan Fairley accepts the USAG Benelux colors from Col. James Drago as he as-sumes responsibil-ity of the garrison from Command Sgt. Maj. Ralph Ford during an of-ficial ceremony on Caserne Daumerie, June 8, 2010. PHO-TO BY KEVIN DOWNEY

TOOLKIT

NCO JOURNAL 3

environment is something we need to refocus on,” Schultz said. “We’ve gotten away from the garrison leadership, and rightly so, we’ve been at war for 11 years, but need to place more emphasis on it as we move forward. There are Soldiers in today’s Army who have never been to a dining in or a din-ing out, who have never seen an NCO induction ceremony or an NCO of the year board. We need to instill in this very tactically proficient Army the traditions of the NCO Corps.”

The focus on garrison leadership shouldn’t overshadow what’s be-ing done downrange. Instead garrison leadership is meant to build NCOs into the competent leaders they need to be while in a deployed environ-ment, Schultz said.

“We still have Soldiers in harm’s way, and we still have Soldiers deployed,” Schultz said. “So the focus still needs to be on the training and preparing our Soldiers to go to combat. We can’t lose sight of that. We talk about garrison versus forward deployed Soldier. With us being at war since 9/11, our Soldiers are technically and tactically proficient, but more technically proficient than we’ve ever been. The garrison lead-

ership lends itself to some of the technical or NCO responsi-bilities that we’ve lost with good reason as we’ve been at war.”

Garrison leadership isn’t simply about catching up on classroom or power point lessons; it’s about getting to know junior Soldiers and instilling them with the Army culture.

“We don’t need a power point or a classroom,” Schultz said. “We need to get outside and talk to our Soldiers about the traditions that we have and to reinforce what they’re learning in Structured Self Development and at the NCO Academies

about the Army history and traditions.”

The lessons NCOs learn in garrison can help them suc-ceed downrange.

“We need to get to know our Soldiers, and we can do that very easily in gar-rison,” Schultz said. “The more an NCO knows

his Soldiers, the more he’ll be able to play to their strengths and understand their weaknesses while deployed. It’s taking time out to do what I call ‘tree time’ — to sit under a tree with your Soldiers and learn more about them and their families. It’s taking time to do sergeants time, where we can all learn more to hone our warrior tasks and battle drills.”

Next MoNth: DeVeLoP A FItNeSS PRoGRAM

In-garrison issues Domestic Violence

Alcohol abuse

Divorce and marital issues

Crimes

Suicide

Felonies

High-risk behavior

Drug use

Financial Issues

Sexual Assault

Sexual Harassment

Garrison leadership opportunities

DINING INS/DINING oUtS

CeReMoNIeS including change of responsibility, change of command and NCo Inductions

ReSPeCtS to the FLAG

SeRGeANt AUDIe MURPhy CLUB

BARRACkS AND UNIFoRM INSPeCtIoNS

SoLDIeR CoUNSeLING

“We’ve gotten away from the garrison leadership, and rightly so, we’ve been at war for 11 years, but need to place more emphasis on it as we move forward. there are Soldiers in today’s Army who have never been to a dining in or a dining out, who have never seen an NCo induction ceremony or an NCo of the year board. We need to instill in this very tactically proficient Army the traditions of the NCo Corps.”— COMMAND SGT. MAJ. MICHAEL SCHuLTz