Ochs: Jackson best assignment of my career

For Post Command Sgt. Maj. Erick Ochs his tenure as the senior enlisted leader of the installation will end Aug. 15 when he hands over his duties to Command Sgt. Maj. William Shoaf.

Ochs sat down and spoke briefly about his time at Fort Jackson.

“It is bittersweet,” he said as the ceremony looms just over a week away. “I’ve definitely and totally enjoyed my time here. I love our mission. I love what we do as Team Jackson. I hate to see it end, but I also know it’s how the Army works. I’m becoming that old guy that’s ingrained in the system, and we need new ideas and new perspectives here as we continue to improve.”

Ochs, who entered the Army in 1998 as an infantryman, said the assignment has been at the top of his career accomplishments.

“It is definitely the best assignment of my career,” he said. “This truly has been the best job I’ve ever had in my career, and it’s mainly because of the people, and absolutely because of the mission. What we are doing here making American Soldiers has a strategic impact on our country. We are setting the culture for the Army here at Fort Jackson, where 60% start from. We have nothing but an open slate to help shape the future of our force. And to me, it’s such a grave mission.”

He said a vision one of his sons training at Fort Jackson lends a fresh perspective to the mission of making American Soldiers.

“I just see my son standing out there and realizing the connection of how important what we do here is,” he said. “And the importance of the care, dignity and respect we show because each and every one of those trainees is a son or daughter of somebody like me, and we have to treat them as such.”

He would remember the “the extraordinary professionals and exemplary warfighters” the most after his time at Jackson ends.

“It all comes down to people,” said Ochs, who has multiple combat deployments under his belt. “That’s why I’ve stayed in uniform for 28 years. It is not because of the job, not because of the pay, it’s the people we get to work with every day.”

As he prepares to leave his position, he said he wants people to know that he cared for them.

“I said day one in my incoming change of responsibility speech, that my sole focus was going to be on taking care of the cadre and their families,” Ochs said. “I’ve tried to shape every decision and every action I’ve done since then ... to benefit our people.

He credits his wife and the post commanders he worked as keys to his success.

“My wife, well she supported me much through my entire career,” he said adding that he “absolutely had to give credit to my wife” for being there during the long hours and lots of travel involved with being the post’s top enlisted Soldier.

Maj. Gen. Daryl O. Hood and Maj. Gen. Jason Kelly both provided him a “great strategic vision, but personally empowered me to do my job, providing recommendations, getting out there seeing what’s going on, bringing feedback, providing suggestions. They always had an open door, an open ear and supported me and my recommendations to them.”

He added the Midlands community also made his time at Jackson memorable.

“The community around here is like no other I have seen,” he said. There is “such a tie to our community outside the gate and the entire state of South Carolina. It’s the true involvement with our community, the true care they have for what we’re doing. It’s been truly a mutually beneficial experience.”

He ended by calling on those serving on Fort Jackson not to forget how important mission is to the greater mission of the Army.

“What we do here sets the conditions for the rest of the Army,” he said. “Without the dedicated drill sergeants creating our Soldiers every day, we would not have Soldiers to provide to the operational force.”

The change of responsibility ceremony will take place at 9 a.m., Aug. 15 on Victory Field.