JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. – Matthew Majeski was a 17-year-old kid looking for adventure when he decided to join the Army in 1993. He had never been out of New York state, and he wanted to do and see something different. He never imagined he would one day become command sergeant major for Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
“I couldn’t even see myself at this age, for one,” Majeski said. “I didn't think I'd make it a career back then – not before basic. There's rules and regulations on everything to do and not do. If you follow those, it's pretty easy. Yeah, you do hard stuff, but there's a structure to it, and I think I needed that structure for my own growth and discipline. I definitely did not grow up or join thinking I want to be a garrison command sergeant major. I didn’t know what that was, to be honest.”
Majeski said a lot of his early Army career was spent preparing for conflicts that never came. Then 9/11 happened, and the story changed.
“We’d always been focused on the away game,” he said. “9/11 changed the priorities a lot, and shortly thereafter, conflict was a reality with Afghanistan. In hindsight, when I first got to Fort Bragg as a private in the 82nd Airborne Division, there were tons of combat patches running around, and I was like, ‘That's what I want.’ I didn’t know any better. Fast forward to the end where you're seeing a few different rotations and you’re like, ‘Yeah. That’s not something to be wanted. That's something you just do if you are in that position.’”
Different has its rewards
Majeski, who has a background in logistics, said being the command sergeant major for the joint base is the first job he has had that didn’t align with his military training and is something he will never forget.
“This is the first job I've ever worked with a ton of government civilians and civilians in general,” he said. “There's so much good you can see and do. You see a lot of not-so-good stuff, too, but then you can work to fix that, and I think that’s really very rewarding. It's not what I expected. I don't know what I expected.”
Beyond interacting with civilians in a professional capacity and being part of changes that will improve the quality of life for Soldiers and Marines living on JBM-HH, Majeski said it’s rewarding just being part of the joint base and experiencing what it offers.
“I come to work every day, and I can see the Washington Monument and look out over Arlington National Cemetery,” he said. “The amount of history here – the fact that military aviation was born here, the first military aviation fatality happened here, the courthouse reenactment – is amazing and fascinating.”
As he looks toward retirement, Majeski said he will also leave with fond memories of events like Twilight Tattoo, hearing the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” practice regularly and seeing children excited to see Santa every holiday season.
Leading through the pandemic
Majeski took responsibility in March of 2020, just as COVID-19 was taking hold around the world, so he said his experience as command sergeant major has been different than that of other command sergeants major.
“I went to a sustainment course down in San Antonio for a couple weeks and heard rumblings of something going on in Korea. Then we came back here, and it was pretty much masks and COVID. For everyone that was a new experience,” Majeski said, noting that a garrison command sergeant major’s job involves community engagement and a lot of face-to-face interaction with the public. Because of COVID, less of that was happening.
Keeping the lines of communication open during the pandemic was important to Majeski, and leading with empathy and compassion for the unique situations that others were experiencing was key to his ability to put “People First” during a time of uncertainty.
He said the platforms used to help keep lines of communication open during the pandemic, like MS Teams and email, helped, adding that it was months before he met face-to-face with the directors on the joint base.
Despite COVID, Majeski said he is proud of the projects he was part of during his time at JBM-HH, from the beginning of the barracks renovations to the renovation of the dining facility.
“The swing space arriving is a big win, because that means when those are ready, the Marines can move out (of their barracks) and move into the swing space,” Majeski said. “Then their barracks can be renovated. It shows progress rather than 120 Marines trying to find an apartment somewhere. I'm curious to see the DFAC finished. I will probably come back just see that. Walking by, I see they’re making some good improvements on it. That would be a huge improvement to the lives of service members here.”
Future is in the air
Majeski, who grew up loving film and special effects and studied, of all things, cosmetology as a vocational-technical class in high school, said his plans after retirement are up in the air, but he doesn’t think special effects or cosmetology will factor into the future.
“Logistics is my background, but I'm looking for more like program management or a program analyst because that's kind of what you do as a command sergeant major,” Majeski said. “You just fix things and adjust things and tweak things to make stuff work a little better. I enjoy that.”
As far as where he sees himself and his family living, Majeski said although he and his family love the area, he doesn’t see them staying in National Capital Region. His wife and daughter love beach life, so they would most likely pick someplace close to the water.
Parting words
When he thinks about tasks he is leaving unfinished at the end of this tenure at JBM-HH, Majeski said mentoring Soldiers, helping them figure out their path, sharing his experience and hearing the experiences of others are things he has always enjoyed and wishes he had more time to do.
As he gets ready to pass the torch to the next command sergeant major, Majeski wants Soldiers to know it is okay to ask for help, and sometimes just talking about a problem with someone they trust will give them more clarity and help them come up with solutions. Trust is a big part of the success of the Army, he said.
“I had a really good leader who said when Soldiers stop bringing you their problems, it’s because they think you don’t care about their problems,” Majeski said. “I think that's true, because it requires trust for someone to tell you, ‘These are my problems,’ and trust that you will keep that confidence, and it’s not going to be water cooler conversation down the line. It's a foundational block for the military: trust. Mentoring and sharing is part of our culture. The power of the Army is its people, so if you're trusting the person on your left or right, and they're trusting you, it's amazing the stuff that you can accomplish.”
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