BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (June 6, 2014) -- It was fitting that on the anniversary of D-Day, that Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), paid tribute to the Noncommissioned Officer Corps with the time-honored tradition of welcoming in 22 new sergeants during the NCO induction ceremony at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, June 6, 2014.
For more than a decade of combat, the U.S. has focused more and more on unit readiness and have started to lose the tradition and the pride that it came with, said U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jerry Charles, HHBN's senior enlisted leader, to the group of newly promoted sergeants at the ceremony.
As a part of its intent, the ceremony was designed to celebrate newly promoted sergeants into the ranks of the professional noncommissioned officer corps and emphasizes and builds on the pride shared amongst its members. The inductees and attendees paid homage to the fallen and those who came before them during past campaigns and conflicts.
The Combined Joint Task Force-10 and 10th Mtn. Div. senior enlisted leader U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Lewis spoke to the new NCOs about his own personal experience with Army leadership as a young infantryman. Recounting both good and bad examples he was shown early on in his career.
His speech resonated a lot to U.S. Army Spc. Kyra Studevan, a tech support specialist with HHBN's Division Signal Company.
"When he spoke about the old Army and the new Army, he spoke about how leadership has changed," said Studevan from Philadelphia.
Studevan and six other junior enlisted Soldiers were part of a segment of the ceremony called "The Soldier's Request." For her part, Studevan stood up and recited a passage that asked her NCOs to train her "for the elements" so that she could in turn "learn to fight and win in the cold, the wet and the desert."
It was Studevan's first ceremony of that kind, and through it, she said she gained a stronger sense of pride in the corps and has further motivated her to want to join the NCO ranks.
"I was proud and moved by the ceremony," she said.
The Soldier's requests meant a lot to U.S. Army Sgt. Brian Smith, a medic assigned to Operations Company, HHBN, 10th Mtn. Div., of Omaha, Neb., who said the biggest part of why he wanted to be an NCO was to simply, "make a difference" -- something he really felt he couldn't achieve in his life prior to joining the Army.
"As an NCO, your decisions affect other people and not just you alone," Smith said.
Smith, who pinned on sergeant in April, said he's never seen an induction ceremony before he was asked to participate, and although he had to stay up beyond his shift to participate, he was glad he did.
"It is our rite of passage," he said. "It was good that we have that type of tradition."
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