ABERDEEN, N.C. – Cadre and students in Army special operations forces Senior Leader Course at the Master Sgt. David K. Thuma Noncommissioned Officer Academy, the Special Operations Center of Excellence, participated in a home-building effort with Habitat for Humanity in Aberdeen, North Carolina, Aug. 16.
The ARSOF Senior Leader Course offers education, instruction, and experiences in leadership development, technical training, and professional military education to prepare noncommissioned officers to serve in selected leadership and staff positions.
“The NCOA has a community outreach requirement for every ARSOF Senior Leader Course class,” said 1st Sgt. Austin Herring, the Special Forces Senior Leader Course branch chief. “This class is teaming up with Habitat for Humanity to show senior leaders that they are not just leaders in the Army but leaders in their community, as well.”
Many of the carpentry skills used to build homes are directly linked to either skills within a military occupational specialty, such as a Special Forces engineer sergeant or skills valuable to all ARSOF Soldiers deployed to an austere operating environment.
“I can think of many deployments where I needed to build living quarters or other small construction projects while serving on an operational detachment,” Herring said.
These projects not only improve living conditions for the operational detachment but projects that improve the quality of life for the local populations in which they live and work.
The SLC students volunteered with a local Habitat for Humanity as a community outreach activity for the course as a lasting positive impact, aiding in their overall service as a Soldier and as a life skill for when they return to civilian life.
Keith Matz, construction manager for Sandhills Habitat for Humanity, was appreciative of the class and cadre volunteers.
“These volunteers [framed] up a house,” Matz said. “By the end of the day, we should be putting sheeting on the walls and possibly installing trusses.”
Matz added that he appreciated the group for working on the home.
“We can't do most of the stuff we do without the volunteers … we get from the military,” he said.
Command Sgt. Maj. Ron Flick, commandant of the Noncommissioned Officer Academy said that they “started the ARSOF Senior Leader Course community outreach program just over a year ago.”
“The purpose is to form a connection between Army Special Operations and the local community,” he said.
Through leader development and education, the Senior Leader Course demonstrates how Soldiers can return to their home-station units and use the power of volunteering to strengthen relationships between their organizations and the local communities.
“Our students return to their organization with a memorandum that captures their volunteer hours,” Flick said. “The memorandum reflects their volunteer hours and will count towards volunteer hours needed to achieve the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.”
Herring added that “at the NCOA, we build leaders. Although the focus is building strong leaders for the Army, we can also be leaders in our community. Doing community outreach projects shows the community that we are more than just Soldiers working on Fort Liberty and abroad.”
For more information about the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, visit www.swcs.mil.
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