USF-I CSM welcomes deployed son into NCO corps

Courtesy Photo | Sgt. Jamaal Allen (left), a logistics supply specialist with Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, United States Division  

CAMP RAMADI,, IRAQ

10.01.2010

Story by Staff Sgt. Tanya Lumbard 

4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq—The top enlisted Soldier in Iraq visited Camp Ramadi Oct. 1 to take part in a promotion that hit a little closer to home than most.

“Growing up, my father was always there for me,” said Sgt. Jamaal Allen, who was inducted into the non-commissioned officer corps by his father— Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Allen, command sergeant major of United States Forces – Iraq—during a promotion ceremony. “He’s a family-first person, and that’s what I love about him.”

Jamaal, a logistics supply specialist with Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Advise and Assist Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, United States Division – Center, and a Fayetteville, N.C., native , now serves alongside his father in the Army’s time-honored noncommissioned officers corps alongside his father.

“My father was assigned to Multi-National Corps – Iraq, while I was deployed to (Forward Operating Base) Kalsu with the 4th Brigade Combat Team (3rd Inf. Div.) in 2007-2008,” he said. “I guess I’m kind of the abnormal Soldier. It makes me feel really good to be able to have my dad here.”

Jamaal said he considers his father his hero, and that joining the Army was a decision he made to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“As a child, I saw my dad touch the lives of a lot of people,” he said. “He helped out a lot of people and I always wanted a job where I could help others.”

The 27-year-old junior leader said he appreciates the life lessons his father taught him as they directly relate to Army Values he embodies today.

Jamaal said he plans to use his father’s guidance from the past to help him lead his Soldiers in the future.

“Since I take my dad’s advice, I will offer the same advice to my soldiers,” he said. “Some soldiers don’t have a father figure, or a mother figure at that, so I think that I could provide them with the good advice my dad gave me. I just want to be the one who can help my soldiers, and like my dad, put my soldiers first.”

The newly promoted NCO said he is proud of his father’s military accomplishments; especially his father’s recent tenure as the senior enlisted leader in Iraq.

“I’m very proud of him,” Jamaal said. “I can only hope and wish that whatever I do in the future, I can amount to what he has done.”

“My dad is really busy,” he said. “I know that he has a lot of stuff going on and for him to take time out and have his schedule revised to come out and pin me (to the rank of sergeant) means a lot to me. He didn’t have to do it, but he did, and I love him for that.”

• Date Taken: 10.01.2010
• Date Posted: 10.07.2010 06:35
• Story ID: 57653
• Location: CAMP RAMADI,, IQ