Photo By Sgt. Ryan Scribner | U.S. Army Maj. Stephen Raschke, support operations, or SPO, officer for the 369th...... read more read more
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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait -- When Sgt. Israel Mahadeo, then assigned to the 7th Transportation Corps lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia as an active duty Soldier he worked in the same command as Command Sgt. Maj. Stephen P. Raschke Sr., who was stationed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Hampton, Virginia with his wife and children.
That sergeant living in Virginia Beach, Virginia has since been promoted four times and is now Sgt. Maj. Israel Mahadeo and Command Sgt. Maj. Stephen P. Raschke Sr. has retired and has been inducted into the Transportation Corps Hall of Fame.
But, his son, Maj. Stephen P. Raschke Jr., carries on his family’s military legacy. And now Mahadeo, a support operations sergeant major, and Raschke Jr., a support operations officer, serve together in the 369th Sustainment Brigade Support Operations, or SPO, at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.
Support operations is responsible for commodity management and distribution management throughout an area of responsibility, said Raschke Jr. The goal of this section is to ensure that every Soldier on ground has what they need to maintain combat operations.
Water for showers is one example of basic life support that the SPO provides Soldiers. Fuel for vehicles is another example of life support.
The SPO provides operational readiness and tactical readiness in less tangible ways as well.
The SPO provides assistance to support human resources throughout the theatre through their subordinate Human Resources Operations Branch and they provide internal and external contracting solutions through an Operational Contract Support cell.
Further, they are involved in supply chain optimization through their management of Supply Support Activity, or SSA, facilities. SSA operations include the requisition, receipt, storage, issue, distribution, redistribution and retrograde of supplies; essentially, activity that serves as the linkage between wholesale and end users, quite often service members.
“At the end of the day, we have customers inside of the theater,” Raschke Jr. said. “They have some internal sustainment capabilities, but they also have some external requirements that they can't fulfill—our job is to fulfill those requirements.”
In less than a year, Mahadeo and Raschke Jr. have built an 86-Soldier section.
Mahadeo said transparency between the two eased the way and Raschke Jr. said balancing tasks and perspectives made the job easier. Both of them spoke of the importance of the work the Soldiers in the SPO do to help make the section effective. And both spoke about the importance of their Soldiers.
“We are a team of teams,” Raschke Jr. said. “We're a SPO inside of a brigade and inside of the brigade, we have battalions and companies all the way down to the individual Soldier. So cooperation among the team of teams needs to be at the utmost because while it is true, mission first, Soldier always—let’s complete the mission—but we need to do so in a way where we are not taking advantage of our Soldiers.”
For Mahadeo, respect towards Soldiers as they work towards completing a mission is connected to work standards that all ranks and all leaders in the Army must uphold.
“I hold myself to a high standard, so I tell my Soldiers that, ‘If I'm the one that's messing up then you guys need to let me know,’” Mahadeo said. “So I expect Soldiers to be the same when it comes to standards.”
Raschke Jr. noted the difference between his personal standard and the Army standard.
Leaders have personal high standards they abide by and they want their Soldiers to develop the same high standards, but the Army made clear standards—the ways to fix a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle as one example—that when upheld will accomplish the mission, he said.
As the leaders of the SPO, both Mahadeo and Raschke Jr. agree that mission completion has a deep connection to what helps a Soldier move forward.
Moving forward for both leaders is not simply about accomplishing the task at hand.
Mentorship. Training. Education. All are experiences that can develop a Soldier.
Leaders should guide their Soldiers down a path that is right for them and that leads to development, said Mahadeo.
The impact of a leader doing what is best for the members of their team is personal for Mahadeo as well.
When he was 17-years-old, shortly after arriving to the U.S. from Trinidad, he worked at three Burger Kings and a duck farm in Delaware. One day, an Army recruiter walked into the restaurant and Mahadeo’s boss told him to have a conversation about career opportunities with that customer.
In a short amount of time, Mahadeo arrived at Fort Leonard Wood for Day Zero of Basic Combat Training.
Now, 30 years into a career in the Army, he is in a position where he can build up people in a team. And part of that comes with his ability to understand people’s individual culture, their character and what an individual person brings to the table.
The 369th Sustainment Brigade is a Harlem, New York Army National Guard unit, currently forward deployed in Kuwait. It’s made up of Soldiers from a plethora of different backgrounds. Mahadeo and Raschke Jr. alone have upbringings that are quite different. Raschke Jr. came from a military family. Mahadeo was the first in his family to join the military.
It’s not the fact that the two both sang (or rapped) on a karaoke night—Raschke Jr. chose an Eminem song and Mahadeo selected the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—and it’s not the fact that they both share a fondness for the sport cricket that ensures that both leaders are in sync. The two leaders of the SPO are in sync because both of them believe all 369th SB SPO Soldiers are part of the team.
“We pass the knowledge we have at the senior level down to the most junior level,” Mahadeo said.
In the Army, senior leaders strengthen the stewardship of the profession through their decisions and actions that reinforce mutual trust and cohesion in units.
“We have focused and taken the opportunity inside the SPO for this deployment to recommend that military education is first and foremost what Soldiers need to do,” Raschke Jr. said. “Part of our counseling helps ensure Soldiers complete their DLC courses.”
Raschke Jr. said that there is an art to the counseling.
“I think that a counseling should happen not only for good and for bad but also should happen daily,” he said. “There's a level of feedback needed—you need to: (1) learn something from your Soldiers every day, and (2) you need to try to develop them every day.”
Mahadeo said, “We tell our Soldiers to take advantage of the time they have while deployed to further themselves.”
Leaders are the key to fostering positive culture by providing supportive command climates that value member involvement and learning.
Soldier development and growth is integral to the SPO, said Raschke Jr.
“At the end of the day, our Soldiers are the most valuable resources we have,” Raschke Jr. said.
| Date Taken: | 12.14.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 12.17.2022 02:55 |
| Story ID: | 435154 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN , KW |
| Hometown: | NEW YORK, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 227 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Get To Know The Leaders Of The SPO, by SGT Ryan Scribner, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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