IG ensures standards on Fort Stewart

By Spc. Elizabeth WhiteFebruary 16, 2017

IG ensures standards on Fort Stewart
Master Sgt. Willie O. Gordon Jr., the NCOIC for the Assistance and Inspection side of the Inspector General's office on Ft. Stewart, helps Staff Sgt. Ward, a Public Affairs broadcaster assigned to the 50th Public Affairs Detachment here, with assista... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The Inspector General's office on Fort Stewart ensures the units are ready for deployment by providing support to Soldiers, families, and command teams. While Soldiers can come to the IG for any questions, the inspectors also do much more for the post. They inspect units to ensure regulation standards are met, assist command teams with maintaining these standards through training, and ensure units are ready to deploy.

Soldiers utilizing the IG often make the mistake of not going through their chain of command first. Master Sgt. Willie O. Gordon Jr., the NCOIC for the Assistance and Inspection side of the IG, says that "99% of the intake they get through Assistance and Inspection can be handled at the company level." Soldiers who have any issues should go through their chain of command to "give their company commander a chance to fix their issues," says Gordon.

Most Soldiers who come into the Inspector General's office on Ft. Stewart ask questions on regulations or their chain of command. While the "typical view of IG is that they're the boogeyman organizations," said Gordon, IG is available to answer any questions Soldiers, first sergeants, and company commanders have about regulations.

The core duty of IG is to be the eyes and ears of the commanding general. The inspectors will go out to units to observe training, such as physical-readiness training, to ensure that units follow regulations.

"This morning we were out watching the 385th Military Police's reconditioning physical training," said Gordon. "We tell the division sergeant major and the commanding general what we see. It's what they need to know."

The inspectors give an outside perspective, so they are able to see shortcuts in the standards that commands might have missed. The inspectors make sure that Soldiers uphold the Marne Standard and can report deficiencies to sergeant majors.

They stay away from personal feelings and so are able to correct inaccuracies when they see it, or as Gordon says: "We call balls and strikes, black is black and white is white."

As a third party, they can assist the commanding general by telling him the good, the bad, and the ugly going on in units under his command, and they are also able to assist said units by explaining the standards so that they might correct them.

The IG office consists of 17 staff members who a part of the process of inspecting units, reporting to the CG, and helping Soldiers, leaders, and command teams with any issues they present. "I know that if a Soldier, leader or command team comes in they have nothing to worry about," says Gordon. "They are extremely competent and professional. They have the solution people are looking for."