FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- Career counselors and a retention noncommissioned officer competed for career counselor and retention counselor of the year during a board on Sept. 9 at the division retention office.
Soldiers from 101st Airborne Division competed to be the active and reserve component career counselor of the year for the 101st Airborne Division and they faced off against the tenant units for Fort Campbell career counselor of the year.
Staff Sgt. Mario Rodriguez became 101st Abn. Div. active component career counselor of the year and Sgt. 1st Class Keith McCosham became the reserve component career counselor of the year. Those Soldiers will compete in the XVIII Airborne Corps career counselor of the year board in either late November or early December. Winners of that board will compete to be the Forces Command career counselor of the year.
Staff Sgt. Luisa Krogh, assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment won Fort Campbell career counselor of the year and she will also compete in a different set of boards with the special operations community for career counselor of the year in that branch. Staff Sgt. Dustin Willoughby, assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 21st Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Abn. Div. became retention NCO of the year.
Sergeant Maj. Jonathan Blue, command career counselor for the 101st Abn. Div., and Sgt. Maj. Lloyd Bowers, an active duty member of the National Guard and reserve component retention Sergeant Major, were two members of the five-member board who posed questions to the competitors to determine their knowledge of both the Army in general as well as competence in their field.
"We're looking for confidence, subject matter expertise, knowledge, ability to think critically and creatively depending on the circumstances or the questions that are going to be posed to them during the board process," Blue said. "I'm hoping that they are able to put themselves in a stressful situation, and we have many Soldiers who have been in a number of different stressful situations, but this is a different type of stress. Hopefully [it] will help them become more well-rounded, more knowledgeable and be able to pass down their experiences to their subordinates as they continue to climb the ranks."
All of the Soldiers, board members and sponsors wore the Army Service Uniform, and competitors spent extra time ensuring the dress uniforms, including all of the ribbons and awards looked professional and were within regulations. Board members would speak to the sponsor about the competitor, without the Soldier in the room, then the Soldier would enter and report to the board. Then after a visual inspection of the competitors' uniforms, the board would start the questioning.
"We're testing some of their knowledge," Bowers said. "Specifically, I'll be making inquiries of their general understanding of the reserve components. Things like who's eligible, can Soldiers go from active duty into the reserves, very general topics of that nature."
Some of the questions covered basics like reciting portions of the Soldier's Creed or reciting portions of The Creed of the Noncommissioned Officer and the Warrior Ethos. Some competitors recited portions of the Career Counselor Creed. Soldiers also had to recognize, name and explain certain Army programs. More specific questions included what Army regulation covers the retention program and which chapter of regulation would you reference to determine if a Soldier was able to affiliate with the reserve component? As well as can a Soldier approved for separation under the medical evaluation board transfer his or her education benefits? Finally the Soldiers had to answer open-ended scenario questions describing hypothetical situations a Career Counselor or Retention NCO may face.
Willoughby, when asked to describe himself to the board said he wanted to be an advocate for the Army and ensure he retained the best Soldiers. He prepared by studying a great deal beforehand.
"It was very informative," Willoughby said. "I learned a lot about myself, being able to perform under stressful conditions, as well as my knowledge that I didn't think I had over the retention program."
He added that he entered the board as ready as he could be and "preparing for something reflects on your performance."
On a daily basis the career counselors have the vital job of maintaining the Army's readiness to fight and win the nation's wars by ensuring the Army keeps its best and brightest peoples.
"The career counselor is vital to Army readiness," Blue said. "Without career counselors retaining quality Soldiers, without the assistance of the command teams determining who is a quality Soldier and who we need to retain we will in a sense not be able to [have] quality Soldiers to fight the battles later on down the road."
Both Blue and Bowers said the job of a career counselors can be difficult due to the financial realities facing the Army.
"There are a lot of challenges within the Army, especially with the sequestration that came on a couple of years ago," Blue said "Army downsizing is a challenge and the familiarization with the retention of the retention program and the way ahead for our leaders tends to be a challenge because leadership is subjective … [The] challenges are ensuring our leaders are informed and that our Soldiers and career counselors are kept up to speed with policy and policy continues to evolve."
One way to manage some of those challenges is with Soldiers serving in the National Guard and Army Reserves and career counselors are able to help active duty Soldiers transition to the reserve components when those Soldiers near the end of their active duty service commitment.
"Especially in times when we're seeing our end strength, our overall numbers because of budgetary requirements, sequestration, things like that [decrease] it's important for the Army for your deployment readiness to have those reserve force enables right there," Bowers said. "So some of those positions that may have been traditionally filled by the active component and full time Soldiers because of downsizing requirements, really predicates that we have that reserve force ready to mobilize and deploy with the active component."
Bowers said he greatly enjoyed his time serving one weekend a month and two weeks a year earlier in his career and for many people it is a great way to continue their service. Currently the 101st Abn. Div. is part of a pilot program called the multi-component unit, where National Guard units from Utah and Wisconsin and Army Reserve Soldiers are integrated into the division including deploying with the division to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
Although based on the caliber of the competitors, Bowers think the Soldiers representing the 101st will do well in future boards and will represent the division with distinction.
"I'm glad to be back here with the 101st and hopefully we can choose the best candidates to go forward," Bowers said. "I know our active duty candidate made it to the Forces Command board last year and our Reserve component was the runner up at the XVIII Airborne Corps last year. So we had some really good representation last year and I anticipate it will be the same this year too."
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