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KABUL, Afghanistan - Senior enlisted leaders in Afghanistan are developing a program to allow enlisted combat military occupational specialty reclassification for troops who have a natural talent in that job.
“It’s about managing talent,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin Hill, senior enlisted leader, International Security Assistance Force/U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. “You can’t find a unit on the battlefield that doesn’t have a troop doing something other than what the institutional training of the Army trained them to do.”
Units often deploy without key personnel or “inherit” extra positions upon arriving in Afghanistan that they don’t normally fill back in the States.
Young troops like U.S. Army Spc. Brandon Chateau, food service specialist, 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion from Fort Huachuca, Ariz., volunteer for a deployment and are then asked to fill the gaps.
“I volunteered for this deployment and came with an open mind; I knew the unit could place me anywhere they needed me, and more than likely I wouldn’t be cooking,” said Chateau.
For the first couple months of his year-long deployment, Chateau was tasked to help in the armament room, then for a while he helped in the command group as part of the unit leadership’s personal security detail.
“Driving was cool, but I wanted to learn,” Chateau said. When he shared his desires with Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Riley, senior enlisted leader, 86th ESB, Riley tasked him to help with network operations as an information technology specialist in the Regional Network Control Center.
After six months of working in network operations, Riley said Chateau outperforms more than half of the information technology specialists in his unit, most of whom had formal training back in the states before deployment.
“I want to surround myself with professionals, people who work hard to get to where they are at – I feel like those people are my peers,” said Chateau.
Hill, who is the senior enlisted individual over all troops in Afghanistan, said the program can help troops find their ‘nitch’ in the Army.
“Soldiers join the Army looking for their ‘nitch’ – that job where they have a natural talent and desire for the required work,” he said. “As leaders, when we see that we have to do the right thing and cultivate those talents.”
“Units in combat right now have a MOS shortage; we have guys doing it and they have demonstrated that they can do it successful to standard while being shot at,” said Hill.
Hill also desires to use the program to help units manage deployments better.
“This will be a management tool to help force the hands of some of the managers who are supposed to get the right people in the formations. Units have been asking for troops to fill their shortages. Now the units are getting ready to deploy and they are still short. So leaders can say ‘I’ll just make my own’,” said Hill.
“This [program] can happen in a month; it really can.” Hill continued. “All it takes is changing a couple rules. I’d like to see this program implemented yesterday.”
For the criteria of which soldiers would qualify for the program, Hill encouraged leaders to look at the MOS prerequisites and the soldier’s technical scores.
“Then get with the most senior enlisted NCO and officer in that CMF [career management field] and board the soldier,” explained Hill. “They can validate if the soldier can do it or not; some of it is hands-on that the soldier can demonstrate right there. The soldier has already been doing it for six or seven months in combat.”
“Back at home station we can do without for a while,” said Hill. “Here, we can’t.”
“We could fill one MOS shortage needed for our mission,” said Riley. “But more importantly, it would allow individuals like Chateau the opportunity to be rewarded for stepping up and filling a critical need by permanently awarding him the MOS that he has excelled at for the last eight months.”
“I would hate to have learned all this and then go back to garrison and continue to be a cook and never use [these skills] again,” said Chateau. “I would definitely love to cross train into 25B [signal specialist].”
| Date Taken: | 03.04.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 03.04.2011 04:52 |
| Story ID: | 66462 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 130 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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