"In praise of the noncoms"


Noncommissioned officers are the heart and sould of the U.S. military, the repository of it's culture and traditions
Robert D. Kaplan writes a commentary in the L.A. times about noncoms, the ones who get things done in the U.S. military.

But the truth is that the sergeant of today (or chief petty officer in the Navy) is generally a technical expert and corporate-style manager who may speak several exotic languages. One Special Forces master sergeant with whom I recently traveled in Algeria, who grew up on a family farm in New Hampshire, had handled military and humanitarian emergencies in 73 countries in the course of a 17-year Army career.

Never before in military history have noncommissioned officers — who deal at the lowest tactical level, where operational success or failure is determined — been so critical. This is because of the changing nature of conflict.

As the age of mass-infantry warfare closes — and the battlefield disperses and empties out over vast deserts, jungles and poor, sprawling cities — armies increasingly operate unconventionally in small, autonomous units, at the level of the platoon and below, where sergeants reign supreme.

Great column. Officers who do not listen to their noncoms usually fall flat on their face.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - October 24, 2005 at 04:53 AM  Tag


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