GRAFENWOEHR, Germany - For four West Point cadets, completing their Cadet Troop Leadership Training here has afforded them opportunities to see and learn from the best-of-the-best in the Army medical community.
The cadets here have been working side-by-side and observing Soldiers of both the officer and the enlisted corps during the 2011 U.S. Army Europe Expert Field Medical Badge Standardization and Testing on the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Aug. 1-13.
“We are basically getting development from enlisted Soldiers, senior NCOs, majors and all the way up to Lt. Colonels,” said Cadet Jessica Williams. “So our experience is a little bit different than others who are doing the same thing.”
In fact, the officers in charge of the cadets have made intentional efforts to provide them with as much variety in experience as possible.
“We actually had multiple senior leaders come and sit down with them,” said 1st Lt. Carey D. Amos, commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 421st Multifunctional Medical Battalion. “They had more of a dialogue between them, kind of an open forum. They could ask any question they wanted of the senior leaders and get feedback from them.”
Seeing both sides of the military can benefit the cadets and prepare them for what they will encounter as active duty officers after graduation.
“When you go through an officer candidate school, ROTC or West Point, if you don’t have prior military experience some folks have what is perhaps an unrealistic expectation of what you will do as an officer and what you won’t do as an officer,” said Maj. James H. Hayes, executive officer of the 421st Multifunctional Medical Battalion. “Out here they get the opportunity to see how closely officers and NCOs work together.”
“I hoped to get training and to see the difference between a doctor in the Army and a medical service corps officer in the Army,” said Williams. “I have definitely gotten that. The battalion commander is a doctor and all of his field grade officers below him are medical service corps so I have gotten the full aspect of the medical service corps and the medical corps.”
Not only did the cadets observe and learn from leadership, they took their experience to the next level by actively engaging the kind of Soldiers that they will one day be in charge of.
“I’ve seen and observed that the cadets have taken the opportunity to sit and talk with our junior enlisted Soldiers within the sections that they are going to and working with,” said Hayes. “Everybody in the Army comes in with a story and as an officer, you should understand that. As future officers of the United States Army they took this opportunity to visit and ask those questions and ask their opinions. They’re learning by asking Soldiers now, when they’re not in charge.”
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