When Sgt. Maj. Genc Metaj was a young boy growing up in Lipjan, Kosovo, in the 1980s, he knew the struggles his beloved country was going through, but never did he think he would end up as the seniormost noncommissioned officer of the emerging Kosovo Security Force. Nor would he have ever thought that he would find himself in the United States attending the most prestigious noncommissioned officer education institution -- the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Born in the capital city of Pristina, the son of an engineer, Metaj said that he went to school up through the eighth grade normally, but by the early 1990s he found himself traveling to a distant village in order to complete high school. The reason he said, "It was during the time of the declared indifference [between Kosovo and Yugoslavia] and the Serbs had come in and closed down all of our schools and businesses and said we were not allowed to go to our school. So I had to walk eight miles every day to another village to go to high school."
He would complete his education and by the time he turned 19, Metaj said he felt a need and an obligation to join the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic-Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Soon after the Kosovo War ended in 1999, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps and under the guidance of NATO and the Ashtisaari Plan, the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement (CSP), the Kosovo Security Force was established in March 2008. By 2010 the KSF was in the position to appoint its first sergeant major, or senior enlisted leader.
"It was an open application so I put my application in and got selected," Metaj said.
For the last year, he has been a member of Sergeants Major Course Class 63, where along with the other 40 international students representing 32 countries, is studying leadership principles, the conduct of unified land operations, and the application of joint, interagency and multi-national organizations to synchronize all elements of power to achieve a given objective.
"The experience here has been very good," Metaj said. "It is different from what I thought it would be, but I have learned much that I will take back to my country and hope to implement."
Metaj said that the KSF is modeling their NCO corps after the U.S. Army's model and said that with the help of the U.S. Army they have established an Academy of the NCO and are also partnered with the Iowa National Guard who is providing training to the KSF as they move to a more professional military.
"Of course we are a much smaller force and we do not have everything the U.S. Army has, but as Fleet Master Chief Roy Maddocks Jr., senior enlisted leader for the U.S. European Command said, 'It is important to establish standards,' and I have learned much about standards and procedures through the U.S. Army," Metaj said.
Asked what he will miss the most when he leaves to go back to his homeland, he said, "The friendships; the interaction with my peers and learning from each other. This has been the best part of the Academy" he said. "It is good to know that when I leave I will have this group of people to talk to, ask questions of, and get help from. Who knows, maybe someday we will serve together in another area."
With graduation coming upon him soon, Metaj said that besides missing his newfound friends, he will miss having a Texas steak, but he is looking forward to having his favorite meal Flija, a tart made of pancake layers which are added one-by-one every two to three minutes, with his wife and two boys aged 7 and 2.
"I like the steaks here. They are very good," he said. "But you make me hungry when you ask what I miss food-wise from home."
Although Metaj has been busy with his studies at USASMA, he has found time to continue his education by attending night classes at the University of Texas at El Paso. Already holding an accounting degree and having a background in law, he was able to earn his Masters Degree in Leadership, something that will come in very handy as he looks forward to setting the standards for the KSF NCO corps to uphold.
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