12th Combat Aviation Brigade

Story by Sgt. Brandon Little

By Sgt. Brandon Little
Task Force XII PAO

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq – The Army has thousands of M-16 rifles, manned and unmanned aircraft and a countless supply of high-tech missiles in its arsenal. Even with all these cool weapons and gadgets at its disposal, few leaders will argue that the Army's most valuable resource is its Soldiers.

It takes a great deal of time and effort to train each of these Soldiers, and just like any other successful corporation, it's in the best interest of the Army to try and hold on to such experienced personnel.

Three career counselors from the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade gave an Army Retention Course, Aug. 18-22, 2008, to train sergeants to become unit-level retention noncommissioned officers to help keep those skilled individuals in the Army.

"Normally the Army has a Mobile Retention Training Teams come to each installation; once or twice a year they come to U.S. Army Europe," said Master Sgt. Joseph Organ, the 12th CAB senior career counselor. "Due to funding, and [high tempo operations], they haven't in the last few years so we decided to go ahead and initiate our own course for the brigade."

The course covered several major areas of the Army Retention Program, which ranged from reenlistment bonus eligibility to contract extensions.

"We tried to cover a little bit of everything, to include helping Soldiers with financial issues," said Organ, who hails from San Angelo, Texas. "We want them to be able to tell those Soldiers all the benefits of staying in the Army."

In addition to Organ, Staff Sgt. Rodrequez Lemon and Staff Sgt. Jose Olivo were responsible for helping to organize and instruct this retention course.

"I got the idea to organize this course from a similar course that was held here a few months ago," said Lemon, the career counselor for 5th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. "I knew that we had quite a few [retention NCOs] in our brigade leaving, so I presented [Organ] with the idea of having this course."

"I'm glad that they invited me to help them give this course," said Olivo, the career counselor for 3rd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment. "I hope all of these Soldiers get a good grasp of the retention program, because bottom-line they are the ones who will be talking to those Soldiers on a day-to-day basis and they need to provide them with the right information."

The program is designed to help train retention NCOs but not every Soldier who participated in this class will fill that position. Retention information, like most information in the Army, is mainly circulated by word of mouth from Soldier to Soldier.

There are a lot of 'barracks lawyers' out there, so it benefits the retention program if the correct information is filtered down to the Soldiers, said Lemon, a native of Jacksonville, Fla.

This course was not just for noncommissioned officers in 12th CAB, there were Soldiers in attendance from several different units who were stationed from here to Al Asad.

"The material we're using [with our classes] is the exact same one that the MRTT uses to instruct its courses," said Organ. "All of our slides and training material come directly from the career counselor schoolhouse."

An MRTT, which has two instructors, usually teaches this course to nearly 200 Soldiers at a time, but this 12th CAB sponsored training had 25 students and three instructors to provide more individual if needed, said Organ.

A former MRTT instructor made several visits with Soldiers in the course to answer any additional questions or concerns.

"I would definitely put the knowledge that the Soldiers in our course have gained on the Army Retention Program against any of other course out there," said Olivo, who hails from Los Angeles.

"I think that this course provided us with a lot of great information on the retention program and it taught me where to look to find answers," said Sgt. Robert Jones, a unit retention NCO in 3rd Bn., 158th Avn. Regt. who attend the course. "I would recommend that all Soldiers take this course to educate themselves and their fellow Soldiers."

This retention training will also be given to Soldiers quarterly once 12th CAB returns to Germany.

Although the Soldiers who attended these classes got plenty of knowledge, these career counselors say it's the Army that benefits the most from this training.

"We're training retention NCOs at the lowest level; and more noncommissioned officers you have equipped with retention knowledge, the better battalion and brigade retention programs are going to run," said Lemon. "The better the retention program is, the better equipped the Army is to maintain its most valuable resource ... the Soldiers."

(Sgt. Brandon Little writes for the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade Public Affairs Office)

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