Building Sergeants

VYSKOV, CZECH REPUBLIC

06.01.2017

Story by Lt. Col. Kevin Hynes 

Joint Force Headquarters - Nebraska National Guard

When Maj. Gen. Daryl Bohac first travelled to the Czech Republic in 1998 as a participant in the State Partnership Program, he went with a fellow 155th Air Refueling Wing officer with the understanding that they would be speaking with their Czech counterparts on aircraft maintenance and logistics support.
His visit had little to do with those subjects, however.
“They were much more interested in our enlisted development process because they had to convert from a conscript service to an all-volunteer force to be full NATO members,” recalled Bohac, the current Nebraska National Guard adjutant general who was a major at the time. “I can remember sitting in a hotel room calling back to Nebraska because (Maj.) Kelly (Carlson) and I didn’t know a lot about the Army approach, the training cycles and the paths for their (noncommissioned officers).”
“We built a briefing on the fly sitting in a hotel room in Prague that we presented to senior Army leadership of the Czech Armed Forces,” Bohac said. “They were very interested in that… much more interested than what we had to say about logistics and maintenance.”
What Bohac probably didn’t completely understand at the time was that this theme of NCO leadership development would become enduring as the Nebraska and Texas National Guard’s partnership developed from its fledgling beginnings in July 1993 into what is now an enduring and multifaceted partnership that is considered one of the most robust in Europe.
Recently, the Nebraska and Texas National Guard had a major hand in helping the Czech Armed Forces make a major leap forward in the development of their NCO Corps when Guard Soldiers from both states helped the Czechs develop and then conduct their first-ever Basic Leaders Course in Vyskov, Czech Republic, this past spring.
According to Command Sgt. Maj. Monte Kerchal, the commandant of the Nebraska Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 209th Regiment (Regional Training Institute), which is responsible for conducting NCO development courses, the Czech BLC was the result of years of conversations and planning that picked up considerable steam in April 2016.
“In April 2016 the Czech military hosted a senior NCO meeting with their partners from Texas and Nebraska,” Kerchal said, adding that Command Sgt. Maj. Bill Uhing of the 67th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade and state operations and training office represented Nebraska at the conference.
Kerchal said the NCOs discussed the American approaches to NCO education and development.
“Right now (the Czechs) are going through an education of how important an NCO can be on the battlefield,” said Kerchal. “Under the Soviet system, it was real heavy in officers in comparison to enlisted (personnel)…now it’s NCO-heavy, but the roles really haven’t been let go.”
“For example… a captain or a lieutenant shouldn’t be doing pre-combat inspections; that should be an NCO doing those things so that officers can focus on missions and mission planning… NCOs take care of training, clothing, maintenance and making sure that the soldiers are ready to complete that mission when the commander gives the word,” Kerchal said. “So, this is really that natural progression.”
According to Command Sgt. Maj. Marty Baker, Nebraska Army National Guard command sergeant major, it is part of an ongoing debate within the Czech Armed Forces.
“There are still a number of (Czech soldiers) who remember the old Russian model, which was officer heavy. Basically your NCO is just another private (in that system),” Baker said. “And what (NCOs) did, sometimes, was no different than what their privates do.”
“So, (the Nebraska and Texas National Guard has been working with the Czechs) to help them ascribe to our school of thought where the officers do the planning and the NCOs do the executing,” Baker said. He added that in his discussions with senior Czech NCOs, it became clear that the Nebraska and Texas National Guard could play a significant role in this evolutionary way of thinking.
Kerchal said that during the April 2016 meetings, the Czech leaders indicated they wanted to develop a similar approach to training their NCOs. When Uhing returned to Nebraska, he contacted Kerchal and gave him the initial concept of what the Czechs wanted to develop.
Last September, the Czechs once again convened a meeting in the Czech Republic to further discuss the actual implementation of a basic leaders course. This time, Kerchal and 1st Sgt. Marc Sheehan of the 209th RTI represented Nebraska.
“We showed them how we were going to deliver their instruction. It was going to be a lot of PowerPoint and instructors talking,” said Kerchal. “The next day we put them through the Adult Learning Module Facilitation type instruction,” Kerchal said, adding that this program is designed to help instructors better understand how adults learn so that they can cater their course instruction to best meet the needs of their classes.
“They fell in love with it,” Kerchal said.
The next month, October, National Guard BLC instructors from Nebraska and Texas returned to the Czech Republic where they taught “a condensed” instructor training course, small group instructor course and the adult learning module for approximately 25 Czech candidate instructors. Staff Sgt. Nick Reece, a small group leader with the 209th BLC was one of those chosen to attend the instruction.
According to Kerchal, the Guardsmen also worked with the Czech military academy officials on the course content and then built a training schedule from that.
“(The Czechs) decided that it was going to be a 50-day course. So, between October and early January, the Czechs worked on finalizing their courses of instruction before initiating their first BLC in January,” Kerchal said.
A total of 52 Czech students attended the course, with most of the attendees being between the ranks of corporals and sergeants “with a couple of staff sergeants.”
This past March, the Czechs graduated their first class of BLC students. In attendance at the graduation ceremony in Vyskov were Kerchal and Baker. Baker also served as the keynote speaker for the graduation.
“One of the things that I said was that our Army has been around for a long time,” Baker said, “but we still change things. We have a good base over time, but we’re always willing to make changes to make it better. In a lot of ways, they’re still reforming.”
Baker, who has had a number of engagements with the Czech military – especially its senior NCOs over the past year – said he senses that in some quarters of the Czech military there is frustration that it has taken so long to institute some of the changes in regards to the duties and responsibilities of NCOs. In a lot of ways, he said, it’s understandable considering how large of a shift was required to go from a Warsaw Pact model to one based upon NATO’s framework.
“No matter where you go, there’s always this debate between the ‘Old Army’ and the ‘New Army,” Baker added. “It wasn’t like you were going to change that overnight. It’s going to take time and they have to buy into the changes… I think that’s kind of where they’re at right now.”
Later, the two Nebraskans had an opportunity to visit some of the classrooms where advanced NCO training was taking place.
“It’s pretty close to what we teach,” said Kerchal. “Obviously, their doctrine isn’t perfectly in line… but some of it was almost identical to what we teach.”
“They have their own way of teaching specific subject areas… but it’s obvious they’re working pretty hard on this,” Kerchal added.
“They have some riveting instructors because when they were up there talking, you could look around the room… everybody looked really attentive to whoever was speaking,” Baker said, adding that they also got to join in classroom discussions about the students’ feelings about the differing roles of officers and NCOs. “It was kind of fun to see what their perceptions were. A lot of the concepts that they were putting down on the butcher block paper were the same as ours.”
Baker said it’s clear the Czech military is making huge strides.
“To be able to get a project like this is a breath of fresh air and it’s real stimulating,” said Kerchal. “I’ve been in (the military) for 32 years and to be included in a project like this is pretty neat.”

• Date Taken: 06.01.2017
• Date Posted: 12.13.2017 15:51
• Story ID: 258749
• Location: VYSKOV, CZ