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For the first time, the Army’s Basic Leadership Course is now available at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 22-day course is the first leadership training a Soldier must complete in the Noncommissioned Officer Education System to move up in rank.
It all started with the senior enlisted leader of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Command Sgt. Maj. David W. Carr’s vision to fulfill the need for deployed Army Reservists and National Guard Soldiers stationed here to be able to attend BLC, said Army Staff Sgt. John Dalgleish, the senior instructor of BLC here. It is difficult for those Soldiers due to state budgets and slot availability, which limits the advancement of their career.
After a Soldier completes BLC, they are then eligible to enroll in Structured Self-Development 2, which is now a pre-requisite for the Advanced Leadership Course, the next step in leadership development. NCOES alternates between the online SSD classes and institutional training levels until the soldier reaches the highest rank of enlistment of command sergeant major.
“The structure of the whole course is divided up among three modules,” said Dalgleish. “The first module teaches basic leadership. They learn communicative writing in how to write counseling statements, NCOER (Noncommissioned Officers Evaluation Reports), memos and awards. The second module of training instructs them on how to directly conduct training to their future Soldiers, such as oral briefs and classroom presentations.”
BLC is non-specific to a soldier’s Military Occupational Specialty. First and foremost, a soldier’s primary mission is on the battlefield which is the foundation the course curriculum is established.
“The last module is war fighting,” said Dalgleish. “We as Soldiers have all come to realize, it doesn’t matter what your MOS is; we are war fighters first. So, we then teach them basic battle drills, tactical reports, and land navigation.”
Normally, an NCO Academy hosts BLC with all Soldiers required to live in the barracks together. At GTMO, the classroom portion of BLC is held at the Sampson Elementary School and the Soldiers are authorized to live in their assigned rooms here. However, On Day Zero, the Soldiers are still expected to bring in all the required items listed on the packing list.
“A Soldier can better prepare themselves for BLC by learning to pay attention to detail,” said Dalgleish. “In the past we have noticed that Soldiers always come with the best intention to make Commandant’s List or make honors. Then the smallest little thing of forgetting one item will ‘gig’ them because they don’t have all the required items in the packing list. If they want to be here they need to take it upon themselves to get their stuff straight as well.”
A Soldier’s decision to attend a leadership training school like BLC sets the tone for their future military career. By training a Soldier into becoming one of the Army’s most professional leaders, an NCO, it establishes a stronger and more adaptable Army and ensures our military’s effectiveness for years to come.
| Date Taken: | 03.28.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2016 09:10 |
| Story ID: | 208607 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Web Views: | 103 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, New Army Career Advancement offered at GTMO, by SGT Sarah Kirby, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
