Quote Originally Posted by Stan View Post

1. I am suggesting that your short time in the service and as an NCO provided you with limited exposure. That said and IMO your conclusions about the NCO Corps in particular and the Army in general are founded on limited experience. Not that you need 20 plus years to qualify, but I have found the majority of junior NCOs and Officers only fully begin to understand the Army and her system after about 6 or 7 years time in service.

2. I’m not sure what you are referring to regarding NCO Corps intellectual culture. If you take a quick look at the educational requirements for E-6 or E-7, you’ll find those promoted attended college on their own time, and received Associate and Bachelor degrees. The incentive is there to not only improve the NCO Corps, but more importantly the individual soldier.

3. There's being an intellectual, and then there's being intellectually curious. The two don't necessarily correlate. Some of the Army folks I’ve know that left college with a 4.0 GPA were in fact, some of the least intellectually curious people I've ever met. This is but an individual trait and yes; some people actually believe that ignorance is bliss. Overall I think the NCO Corps has developed into a well oiled machine thanks in no small part to her NCOs.

4. I sincerely appreciate your time in the Army and your desire to improve life for our Soldiers !

@1. OK, fair enough.

@2. I found this to be true in the non-combat arms MOS's but not so much in combat arms. There are various reasons for this but time is the biggest.

@3. Yes, I have known people who can only recite what they've learned from books. IMO, some of the least intellectual curious people are people who have spent their whole lives on college campuses.

Please understand, I don't want to see the NCO corps turn into a intellectual society. I want to see scholarly thought become just one more tool that the NCO can use. You wrote you think the NCO Corps has become a well oiled machine, I'll go one step further and say the US Army has become a well oiled machine, and that the NCO Corps has played the biggest part in this. Today's Army is more dangerous (to our enemies) than it has been in all its history. I don't know what percentage of our soldiers have served in combat, but I assume that its over 70%?

I look at education as being something that can make a person better. Just as the Army can make someone better. I would also like to see some SNCOs and Junior Officers spend some time as interns at major corporations. Spending some time managing and coordinating in corporate America would give the leader another experience at which to view leadership. I'm thinking about some logistics NCO's running a UPS or GM supply chain for 6 months. Or how about some infantry NCO's doing "ride alongs" with NYC or Detroit Police officers for a few months? I'm talking about creating an even more well rounded NCO. They could also spend time working in a NGO as well.

So besides being technically and tactically proficient, and being physically fit, scholarly thought now becomes part of personal and professional development. This might sound hokey, but I'd like see NCOs forming book clubs to discuss COIN books. So its more than just promotion points, its adding another "weapon" to the arsenal.

@4. Thank you for the kind words.

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After thinking about and discussing my program, I am starting to see it as a bad idea. Or at least, not very feasible. If someone wants to go to school while going on deployments every few years, they could join the NG or AR. Besides this, I think it will create a wedge between program soldiers and non-program soldiers. Managing these soldiers will be somewhat difficult too.

I had a PL who went away for a few years to finish his degree. There should be similar programs for NCO's. If anyone deserves to take a break and exercise the mind for a year or two, its the NCO with 10 years, not the private after 1 deployment.