Fort Sill staged a week-long training course for retention NCOs (noncommissioned officers) April 21-25, 2014, at Snow Hall.
The course gave retention NCOs, and those becoming retention NCOs, a snapshot of what their job entails, and also what the career counselors really do, according to Master Sgt. Chad Sharritt, post retention officer for Headquarters Detachment, Fires Center of Excellence.
"This class covers the basic scopes of the Army retention program that goes on a daily basis. Now, the content that the instructors are giving the NCOs here is the same information career counselors learn in the nine-week course we go through at Fort Jackson, S.C. So these instructors have come from Jackson, have taken that nine-week course and condensed it down into a week-long class," Sharritt said. "These NCOs are going to be slammed with information during this week, but it is information they can take back to their units and use as they work to retain Soldiers. A lot of it is also information the retention NCOs can use throughout their Army career."
A retention NCO is a Soldier assigned re-enlistment duties at the company or battalion level on a full- or part-time basis. They are a vital link in the Army's retention program and work closely with career counselors, who are the subject matter experts on all career-related issues Soldiers face.
"A retention NCO is a go-between between the company or even a battalion. They know enough about the retention program, but it is not their job. That's the job of a career counselor like myself, who write the contracts with the Soldiers," Sharritt added.
A career counselor is the commander's principle asset responsible for advising Soldiers on their careers and the various options offered by an Army career, whether in the regular Army or the Reserves.
Sharritt sees the roles of retention NCOs, and career counselors as vital to maintaining the Army's ready forces.
"For the past several fiscal year cycles there have been a lot of changes in the retention program, sometimes almost daily. That's why I'm here as a career counselor. It is important for the retention NCOs to be as knowledgeable as they can, so they can initially handle questions Soldiers have on the unit or battalion level. If they are approached by a Soldier with a question they don't fully understand or don't know where to find the information, that's where the actual service and career counselor steps in and helps them out," he said.
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Metty agrees with Sharritt about the importance of the retention NCO training. He is the career counselor for Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 428th Field Artillery Brigade.
"With everything changing with regard to the end-strengths of the Army, knowledge is power. The more knowledge we give to our Soldiers, the more opportunity they have to make an educated decision about whether the military is something they would like to continue doing, or not," Metty said. "In this course they also learn about the MOS reclassifications. One change that will affect us here at Fort Sill is, we have a lot of 13-Tangos (field artillery surveyor/meteorological crewmembers.) That MOS is going away, so the retention NCOs will be able to talk to the 13Ts, determine their eligibility for other MOSs and try to even out the Army's end strengths in some of the critically short MOSs."
One of the NCOs attending the week-long class was Sgt. 1st Class Abraham Lewis, B Battery, 1-31st Battalion, 434th FA Brigade.
"I belong to a Basic Combat Training unit on the training side of post. I'm currently a company representative but I am on my way out of the company. I chose to do this because my next step will be first sergeant, and I wanted to learn as much as I could so that I would have the knowledge and I could inform my Soldiers about what they need to know about reenlistment," Lewis said.
"I think most Soldiers realized that, right now the Army is the best place for them because of the economy that is out there. So they are fighting to get their positions to stay in the Army, and with the drawdown happening, they know how important it is to hop on that bandwagon real quick before their window closes."
"This training is a very good program. Even if you don't become a retention NCO, it is still good to know the options out there and be able to inform those around you," said Lewis.
Sgt. Gwendolyn Cousin is retention NCO for the 15th Transportation Company. She sees the training she received from the class as invaluable for the Soldiers in her company.
"For me the training helps a lot. Even though we are stationed on post and we are part of 75th Fires Brigade, we do not re-enlist at Fort Sill. The career counselors for my Soldiers are actually at Fort Riley, , so I'm almost playing the career counselor role, because no one is here to help me," Cousin said. "I can go over to the 75th Fires Brigade and they will help me out, but they can't pull a Soldier's file up in the system. I do all the transactions with Soldiers and email them to Fort Riley.
"So going through this training is helping clarify a lot of things, things that I haven't been doing wrong but I haven't been doing exactly right either," she said.
Cousin has been active duty for seven years and was in the National Guard for two years prior to that. She was deployed to Iraq once and Fort Sill is her third duty station. Her husband, Staff Sgt. Anthony Cousin, is also in the Army. To her, serving in the Army is right place to be.
"I've been a retention NCO since October 2013. Right now we have 166 Soldiers but we have 40 more coming in. So we will soon have a company of over 200. I thought I had a lot of Soldiers last year, but when the fiscal year starts in October, I'm going to have a whole lot of Soldiers who will need to reenlist. This is additional duty for me, because I am also the company's training room NCO. So as I become more proficient in the retention lane, it will leave more time open to do the training," Cousin said.
"The retention NCO is an important position because you get to talk with the Soldiers, see how their family life is, find out if they have financial issues and also see how the Army can help them. In my position in such a large company, I don't always have a chance to sit down across a desk with every one of them, but I can go out where they work, in the motor pool or other duty stations and just talk to them about their situation."
Metty agrees with Cousin that it is important to have retention NCOs for the battery and battalion-level units, especially where there aren't career counselors inside those units.
"Having the retention NCOs here getting this training is essential, because they are out there with the Soldiers the majority of the time and are able to talk to them while they are doing their daily duties. They can give the Soldiers all this retention information, so they don't have to take time out from their normal work," Metty said.
"Some career counselors are able to get down to the battalion level where the Soldiers are, but there are so many things that the career counselors are doing that it's often difficult for them to see personnel on that level. That's where the retention NCOs can fill that gap and give the Soldiers the information they need to make good decisions about their military careers."
For more information on retention, call Master Sgt. Chad Sharritt, post retention officer at 580-442-4707. The career counselors list is also published each week in the Cannoneer.
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