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HONOLULU - More than 100 noncommissioned officers packed into a crowded room to listen in to the first Senior Enlisted Panel during the Association of the United States Army Institute of Land Warfare LANPAC Symposium and Exposition May 19.
While this is the third year for the LANPAC conference, the senior enlisted portion is new at the 2015 three-day symposium.
“The inclusion of a senior enlisted panel here brings out the importance of our most valuable product – those we lead,” said Gen. Vincent Brooks, U.S. Army Pacific commander. “This is a profound acknowledgment that land forces remain essential to stability and security in the region. We seek to enhance our land forces through people, partners and products.”
The panel was lead by Command Sgt. Maj. Bryant Lambert, USARPAC Senior Enlisted Advisor. Bryant said it was important to include a senior enlisted panel during LANPAC to ensure that the perspective from the senior noncommissioned officers about what our NCOs roles and responsibilities are in the Pacific and to enhance cooperation, foster relationships for interoperability and to further enhance capabilities.
Panelists included senior enlisted advisors from across the region including:
• U.S. Forces Korea, Sgt. Maj. John Troxell
• U.S. Marine Forces Pacific Sgt. Maj. William T. Stables
• 1st Corps Command Sgt. Maj. James P. Norman
• New Zealand Army Sergeant Major, Warrant Officer Mark Motriboy
• Australian Army Warrant Officer David Galloway
• Mongolian Army SEA, Lead Sgt. Daribish Oyunbold
• Chief Warrant Officer Siak Ping NG, Singapore Armed Forces
• 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Command Sgt. Major Charles Tobin
• Communications Electronics Command, Command Sgt. Maj. William Bruns.
“The job of our NCOs is to instill discipline and ensure that the commander’s intent is accomplished. Regardless of the Army in which one serves, we have to give the authority to NCOs, train them properly and have the trust in those noncommissioned officers in different environments to be successful,” Lambert said.
“Our armies are very much alike in that we expect our NCOs to be creative, adaptive, and confident in their ability to act on the ground without orders,” Lambert said. “You must train them first and instill the pride and discipline in them to be effective.”
Each panelist agreed the foundation for successful military relationships transcends cultural and language barriers or the uniform one wears for his or her nation as a soldier, sailor, airmen or Marine.
“We will find that regardless of uniform we wear, we are more alike than we are different,” Norman said. “Our problem sets are pretty generic when it comes to taking care of our young service men and women and ensuring they are trained to take on whatever mission they are given.”
The four-hours-long discussion covered joint operations in a multinational environment, but centered on respect, dignity and pride for NCO Corps across the region. Without those crucial elements, every senior enlisted leader stated that creating a mutually supportive coalition team is difficult and creates challenges that are easily overcome by developing mutual trust.
All 10 of the panel members spoke repeatedly about everything in the land forces domain being a human endeavor and that people are the center of gravity.
The Mongolian Army senior enlisted leader said they’ve adopted the motto, “Respect creates Trust,” as a training philosophy for their NCOs. Oyunbold discussed how soldiers from Mongolia participate in exercises and missions all over the world and how much of an emphasis his country has placed on education in the NCO Corps the past two decades.
“Mongolia was closed off from the rest of the world until 20 years ago, and as Mongolian citizens are traveling around the world and bringing back a lot different perspective, knowledge, ideas and participating in the multinational environment, our NCOs are seeing things in a different way,” Oyunbold said.
“They’ve grown more mature and analyze things in different ways. It’s really been wonderful and brings a lot of value to our NCO Corps,” he added.
Troxell talked about how NCOs always figure out a way to communicate and get to know one another no matter where they are from, but said the U.S. military, and its partner nations, need to continue to hone horizontal communication in order to be more effective in a joint and multinational capacity.
“Interoperability is the ability, confidence and comfort to operate in any environment,” Troxell said.
The 1st Corps Command Sergeant Major agreed.
“I think it’s important that we get the operational aspect down to the Soldier level. By having all the senior enlisted leaders from all the different countries sitting on a panel together, we can not only shape what our generals and our chiefs are doing, but we can take that and translate it into operational language that our Soldiers can understand,” Norman said.
Working in a coalition environment, the senior enlisted leaders emphasized that NCOs need to discuss national caveats so everyone is aware of what Soldiers can and cannot do.
“Just because they cannot do something does not mean they are less effective, but it’s a restriction by law,” Lambert said. “We must teach, coach and mentor our subordinates to understand those restrictions and that they are not violated. We know that even if we have restrictions, our NCOs will overcome that, accomplish the mission, build the bond and strengthen relationships.”
“In order to get the team moving together, we know what the glue is: it’s the noncommissioned officer,” Lambert said.
| Date Taken: | 05.19.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.20.2015 01:10 |
| Story ID: | 163886 |
| Location: | HONOLULU, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 76 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Respect and Trust: Keys to Success for joint operations in a multinational environment, by SGM Kanessa Trent, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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