YAVORIV, Ukraine--Military education is crucial for any Soldier during their career but may be difficult to achieve during a deployment. Fortunately for the Soldiers assigned to 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, the Noncommissioned Officer Academy from 7th Army Training Command provided a solution.
The mobile training team began instructing Basic Leader Course at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, Oct. 17.
This is the first course of study for enlisted Soldiers in the U.S. Army Noncommissioned Officer Education System. It is designed to give each Soldier the basic knowledge and skills necessary to become successful leaders. The course teaches Soldiers the basics of leadership, training management, map reading, land navigation and drill and ceremony.
"It's important for us to be here because we're here training future leaders," said Sgt. 1st Class Felix Cano, senior small group leader assigned to 7th ATC. "Were going to be gone someday and we have to train them to be able to make those tough decisions."
In effect since January 2016, Army directive 2015-31 requires that Soldiers first graduate the appropriate level Noncommissioned Officer Education System course before pinning on the next rank. Even during a deployment, these Soldiers are afforded the opportunity to complete an NCOES course and continue to progress in their career.
"Some of these soldiers here are only waiting on BLC to get promoted," said Staff Sgt. Michael Johnson, a small group leader assigned to 7th ATC. "Instead of the Soldiers waiting, the academy sent us here to give them this course so it'll shorten their time to wait to get promoted."
The culminating event of the 22-day course is a situational training exercise (STX) to test each Soldier's tactical leadership in planning and executing a simulated mission in forested terrain.
"Opposing forces will be present during the exercise and each student will be evaluated on their skills to lead their Soldiers in a simulated combat exercise," said Cano.
Johnson has been an instructor for almost two years and said that being an instructor can be challenging but is worth the long days at the end of the course.
He added, "At the end of the day, watching these Soldiers graduate, is very rewarding to know that I have had a hand in helping these Soldiers train to become NCO's."
The Soldiers assigned to 6-8 CAV are currently on a 6-month deployment in support of Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine. The mission of JMTG‐U is to increase the training capacity and capability within the Ukrainian Army by working with multinational partners to help build a sustainable combat training center for Ukrainian Soldiers.
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