U.S. Army South hosts Colombian Army senior enlisted leaders during PISAJ engagement

Photo By Staff Sgt. Ashley Dotson | U.S. Army South hosted Colombian Army senior enlisted leaders for the 15th iteration of the semi-annual military-to-military engagement, "Programa Integral para Suboficiales de Alta Jerarquía," or PISAJ. Senior enlisted leaders attending PISAJ were able to receive SERE briefings while at Fort Benning, Ga. on June 16.  

SAN ANTONIO, TX, UNITED STATES

06.28.2021

Story by Sgt. Ashley Dotson 

U.S. Army South

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-Fort Sam Houston, Texas - U.S. Army South hosted Colombian Army senior enlisted leaders for the 15th iteration of the semi-annual military-to-military engagement, "Programa Integral para Suboficiales de Alta Jerarquía," or PISAJ, from June 14-19 at Fort Benning, Ga. and June 20-25 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
“We are here to enhance essential leadership skills of the Colombian senior non-commissioned officers (NCO),” said Command Sgt. Maj. Trevor Walker, U.S. Army South command sergeant major. “We are fully committed to assisting our partners in the areas that reinforces Colombia’s commitment and goal to professionalize their NCO Corps.”
PISAJ is a U.S. Army South-hosted engagement between the U.S. and Colombian armies. This year, senior enlisted service members from the Colombian Navy, Peru and México were invited to participate.
“The United States NCO Corps is an integral part of what has made the U.S. Army so successful throughout 246 years of service to our Nation,” said Walker. “NCOs conduct the daily operations of the Army; they are the vanguard for leading, developing and training Soldiers. Because we (U.S. Army) have been successful in this aspect, our partner nations, such as Colombia, want to bring their NCO Corps to that same level. This program helps them to see how we operate and gives us a venue to share ideas and lessons learned so one they don’t make the same mistakes we did and helps on areas so that they can further develop their NCO Corps. It also helps us strengthen our partnership in the process.”
During the two weeks of PISAJ, the senior enlisted leaders focused on human resource reform, human rights, NCO development, gender integration and operations. The Colombian Army determined NCO development as one of the pillars of their current transformation necessary to develop into a strategic combined arms force capable of deploying alongside the U.S. Army worldwide.
“PISAJ is very important for our NCOs and, as the leader for the 32,000 NCOs in our military, I can tell you this is very important for strengthening and developing the professionalism of our NCO corps,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army William Cuellar Duarte, sergeant major of the Colombian Army. “To come here and experience this training is very gratifying for our NCOs and it contributes to developing and strengthening their capabilities as the next sergeants major and to serve as future senior enlisted advisors.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Benjamin Jones, command sgt. maj. of U.S. Southern Command discussed traveling with his enlisted leader team last month to observe the Colombian Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force non-commissioned officer and petty officer academies and identify their current capabilities and areas in which they may need assistance. He said he hopes that the Colombian military will continue to work through the PISAJ program and with the state partnership program to further attend training and have additional mobile training teams to provide additional education.
“These types of bilateral senior enlisted leader engagements strengthen the bilateral defense relationship and establish a way forward between senior enlisted leaders in support of the Colombian’s ongoing effort to further professionalize its force,” said Jones. “Thus becoming the gold standard for professional military forces across Latin America, especially in the senior enlisted leader level.”
Walker revealed his vision of what the future of the PISAJ program can hold for other partner nation militaries.
“I see the PISAJ program growing because a lot of our other partner nations are seeing the progress of the Colombian military and more want a similar program for their country,” said Walker. “Hopefully we can help develop a program for the whole Western Hemisphere but it will take time to see how we can work it to meet the needs of each country. They are all at different stages in their NCO development and need different level of courses. The ultimate goal is to work myself out of job and maybe ARSOUTH can reach that.”
Walker briefed that one of the objectives for the next iteration of PISAJ will discuss the progress of the Colombian Sergeant Major Academy and their transformation based off of the courses from the previous PISAJ iterations.
“Like our Sergeant Major Academy, we did not get there in just a few weeks,” Walker said. “It took us years to get us to where we are today. ARSOUTH in conjunction with the NCO Leadership of Excellence/USASMA, gave them some tools and the Colombian military made some progress with their objectives and course map but they still have some work to do before they can show us their progress.”
Walker and Cuellar concluded by announcing the next iteration of PISAJ will focus on the U.S. Army’s Operations Sgt. Maj. and will be held in spring of next year.

• Date Taken: 06.28.2021
• Date Posted: 06.28.2021 17:20
• Story ID: 399927
• Location: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US