Students with the Battle Staff Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Course held their end-of-course Combined Arms Rehearsal (CAR) on April 1 at the academy with Fort McCoy Deputy Garrison Commander Lt. Col. Chad Holder serving in support of the training event.
The future enlisted leaders of the Army Reserve, National Guard, and active-component units who were in the course combined their experience from the course to hold the rehearsal, Fort McCoy NCO Academy officials said — the institutional training venue that manages the course.
The CAR is the culminating event for the course, officials said. It synchronizes what the students have been doing for 22 days at Fort McCoy. One of the main points of having the CAR is to synchronize each battalion, so that way then the brigade can understand exactly what’s going on. It also gives the picture to the other battalions on what’s going on across the entire battle space.
Holder served as a simulated brigade commander receiving the briefing during the CAR.
Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Caires, course director for the Battle Staff NCO Course, described the course training.
“Here at Fort McCoy NCOA, our Battle Staff Course consists of 159 academic hours,” Caires said. “One-hundred-eleven of those hours are just military decision-making processes on its own. Our course here has key topics such as mission command, command and control, Army operations, multi-domain operations, and large-scale combat operations.”
The Fort McCoy NCO Academy’s course description further details what students learn.
“The course provides technical training that is relevant to missions, duties, and responsibilities of an assigned battle staff NCO at the battalion and above echelons,” the description states. “NCOs attending the course will be assessed on their ability to write, depict graphics, facilitate a brief, and contribute to the military decision-making process.”
The Army’s NCO Leadership Center of Excellence, available at https://www.ncoworldwide.army.mil, further defines what Soldiers learn while attending the course.
“The Battle Staff NCO Course is 175 total hours, covers 30 lessons with 10 overarching topics throughout the foundations, mission command, military decision-making process, and combined arms rehearsal modules,” a course pamphlet at the website states. “The course provides training that is relevant to missions, duties, and responsibilities assigned to staff NCOs working in
battalion and higher positions, both on the battlefield and in garrison environments.”
Caires said the course has Soldiers from all Army components being trained in the course. And the course supports NCOs in the ranks from staff sergeant to master sergeant.
One of the students from Class 004-26, Sgt. 1st Class Ashley White with 10th Battalion, Army Reserve Careers Group, said she did extra preparation for attending the course.
“I jumped on (the internet) and bought myself a battle staff book,” White said. “I read through the whole thing. I heard it was a pretty challenging course. I have a drill sergeant unit that’s under my footprint, so I used some of my drill sergeants and their experience to help me with map overlays and reading maps.”
Another student in Class 004-26, Staff Sgt. Sydney Parks with the 844th Engineer Battalion, added, “For myself, I went through the welcome letter, read through some of that, and then being in a combat engineering unit, I have a lot of people that have gone through courses like this, so gaining information from them was a big help.”
White’s advice for any future students attending the course might prove helpful.
“I would honestly just say get with your peers, make sure you’re networking, ask everyone who might be in an operational and tactical MOS to help you if you are in support MOS and be prepared to talk doctrine,” White said.
Parks added, “Talking to your peers is a huge aspect of this and learning from those around you to include within the course and then, of course, making Field Manual 5-0 your best friend is going to be a good aspect.”
The Fort McCoy NCO Academy holds several sessions of the Battle Staff NCO Course throughout each fiscal year at Fort McCoy.
The Fort McCoy NCO Academy’s mission is to “train and develop adaptive, agile, disciplined, fit, and professional leaders who are ready to ‘Lead the Way’ in any environment.” The academy’s vision is to be “the Army’s premier NCO Academy with the best people experiencing the finest quality of life in the military.”
Learn more about the academy by visiting https://www.usar.army.mil/Commands/US-Army-Reserve-Command-USARC/Fort-McCoy-Main/Fort-McCoy/BSC.
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.”
The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin. The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.” Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: |
04.13.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
04.13.2026 18:10 |
| Story ID: |
562621 |
| Location: |
FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
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