From left, Sgt. 1st Class Tomy Havens, NCO Academy; Staff Sgt. Jessica Scott, 1st Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment; and Sgt. 1st Class Alethea Ellegor, Army Master Resilience School, participate in the Battle Staff NCO Course. Conducted by the Serge...
FORT JACKSON, S.C. (April 2, 2015) -- An elite training program conducted by the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas recently wrapped a 31-day session here.
Conducted quarterly, the Battle Staff NCO Course is designed to provide Soldiers with the skills to serve as members of the battle staff and perform daily operations of command posts. Soldiers at Fort Jackson participated in the program through distance learning initiatives, interacting with instructors -- and other students -- in a classroom at the post's Education Center.
"Next to special forces (training), this is the most academically challenging NCO school in the Army," said Sgt. 1st Class Kimberly Fairbanks, of Moncrief Army Community Hospital, an instructional aide helping to manage the March session.
While 16 Soldiers from Fort Jackson were taking part in the course, which wrapped Tuesday, Soldiers from eight other installations also participated through distance learning networks.
"This course gives (Soldiers) the knowledge to articulate information to battalion commanders and brigade commanders on a strategic level," said Sgt. 1st Class Sean Mitchell, an instructional aide for the Soldier Support Institute.
The first days of the class focused on the basics of war fighting, he said, but evolved by the end to include instruction on a software system that allows commanders to simulate battlefield management.
The distance learning application allowed some Soldiers to attend the course who otherwise might have missed out, he said.
"I've been waiting for years to get into this course," said 1st Sgt. Andrew Davis, 2nd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, one of the Soldiers who participated in the Battle Staff NCO Course. "Distance learning has made it a lot easier for me to attend, especially being a first sergeant assigned to a unit. Being able to break away for four weeks to get this course done to further my career has helped immensely."
"Instead of paying all these Soldiers (for temporary duty) and pulling them away from Fort Jackson, they can do this locally with no excessive costs to their operations or the Army," Fairbanks said. "And they're getting trained for jobs in the future that are very competitive."
The next Battle Staff NCO Course is scheduled to start June 3.
Social Sharing