Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Crawford | Spc. Lyndsey Vanderhoof (right), noncommissioned officer in charge of the 373rd...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – The Creed of the Noncommissioned Officer guides the behaviors of sergeants and above within the enlisted ranks in the absence of orders. Those NCOs, in turn, guide junior Soldiers, molding them into future leaders.
As the non-commissioned officer in charge of the 373rd Expeditionary Military Intelligence Battalion S6 section, Spc. Lyndsey Vanderhoof, a support systems signal specialist, has begun molding herself into the leader her unit needs.
“When you walk into a room and you’re at a table full of first sergeants, there’s a little trepidation occasionally,” admits Vanderhoof, a native of Seattle, Washington. “It’s about confidence, it’s about being the subject matter expert, and it’s about knowing your Soldiers.”
Vanderhoof fell into the role of a sergeant first class after her former section NCOIC unexpectedly decided not to reenlist.
“He just moonwalked out of there and they had no NCO in the section – no one,” Vanderhoof explains with a laugh. “I was the highest ranking at the time, as I was promotable, and they were like, ‘Well, until we can get someone else in, here we go.’ So I started picking up little pieces here and there, and it developed into the full-fledged acting NCOIC role that it is now.”
Still in charge of her section, her role is no act.
“She is taking charge very well,” boasts 2nd Lt. Drew Taylor, officer in charge of the 373rd S6 section. “She’s been on orders for the last three months. She’s running the shop; I’m the OIC, but she’s in charge. She’s the one who really knows what’s going on; I’m learning from her.”
Vanderhoof now finds herself out of the office and in the field at exercise Always Engaged ’18, granting her the opportunity to put her team’s skills to the test.
“In the office everything’s a lot more administrative, and I’m more managing my team – periodic health assessments, making sure everyone’s up on readiness and keeping good communication – and out here it’s a lot more hands on,” she says.
She adds, “It’s fantastic: we have the radios set up and pulled out, we can do full checks to make sure everything is functioning correctly, and we can do inter-unit coms and test systems that haven’t been touched in years. It’s good practice, too, for Soldier tasks … which enable my guys, No. 1, to practice and also to supervise, which they need more of.”
Always Engaged assesses the proficiency of a Military Intelligence Readiness Command unit—in this case, the 259th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade. Supporting that assessment, Vanderhoof and her team were charged with establishing communications among the various units on the ground.
“The S6 mission, at the bottom line as a signaler: make it so people can talk,” Vanderhoof explains. “We hit the ground Sunday night, late, and we had coms up before midnight. I consider that a success. If you’ve got radios working and you’ve got other systems at least beginning to be functional, you’ve done such a huge push in your job. For Always Engaged, because there are so many units working in concert, I think that the coordination and organization has been the biggest piece.”
Even though Vanderhoof serves in a leadership capacity for her team, she still gets plenty of time to take things apart and put them back together again.
“These systems really fascinate me!” Vanderhoof proclaims, clapping her hands in front of her. “And they’re really cool and really interesting … there’s so much out there, things you wouldn’t even think to imagine.”
With a highly technical field like Vanderhoof’s, her military occupational specialty and those like it are in high demand – so high, in fact, that her team is short staffed.
“The S6 section is supposed to be 15 people; I’ve got five,” Vanderhoof sighs. “My guys are super enthusiastic, and I really appreciate that; they just bust their butts. We make it work, but … I would love to have a slightly larger section – that would be phenomenal – and then we could better manage some of the things that are coming at us because the weight would be distributed a little bit more.”
Fortunately, Vanderhoof has the full support of 373rd E-MI Battalion.
“I have incredible support from my battalion,” Vanderhoof boasts. “That’s really empowered me to be able to take this role and run with it. It’s been a huge learning curve, and I’ve really benefited; it’s a great way to develop as a junior enlisted Soldier, and hopefully I can take that experience into becoming a sergeant.”
| Date Taken: | 07.16.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.20.2018 17:36 |
| Story ID: | 285065 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Hometown: | SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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