MAKING NCOs (Part III)
It wasn’t until the latter half of the 1800s that the @USArmy would clearly define the duties and responsibilities of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs). Without a “job description” it is difficult to know what to train and equally difficult to measure effectiveness.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a Prussian General who helped the Continental Army establish and maintain order and discipline, as well as supply and training methods, compiled a manual of arms and tested this approach during the 1770s.
There were 5-6 pages dedicated to “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States” in this manual written in 1778. Over a century later, in 1909, a dedicated NCO Manual was written, and it had grown to 417 pages.
The chapter for First Sergeant was 15 pages long; the chapter for Sergeant Major was 54 pages long. americanrevolutioninstitute.org/masterpieces-i…
“These chapters included forms to fill out and maintain, a description of duties, what should and should not be done, customs of service, and things of special interest.”
There were 2 ½ pages on discipline, stressing “the role of punishment in achieving discipline” with an effort to “reform the offender” and thereby prevent problems.
“Repeatedly in this section and others, it stressed that the treatment of [junior personnel] should be uniform, just, and in no way humiliating.”
Of all roles NCOs fill, the role of the “guardian of standards” is the one least affected by changes throughout society and the Army.
“When NCOs teach discipline today, they pass along to their soldiers the same idea… taught at Valley Forge: that for everything a soldier does there is only one acceptable standard.”
“As the guardian of standards, the noncommissioned officer must ensure that every soldier in his or her charge meets that single standard of excellence.”
“Noncommissioned officers must discipline others by first disciplining themselves. They know what standards of conduct are acceptable, and they hold themselves to those standards.”
“NCOs must discipline themselves to present a positive example at all times. They must keep themselves prepared in the tactics and techniques of their fields.”
“If NCOs present a negative example, for whatever reason, they encourage their subordinates to violate accepted standards of conduct. Serious discipline problems will soon develop.”
Modern NCOs have many more options than in the past with regard to upholding standards and disciplining violations. Approaches to directive and nondirective counseling, for example, can help soldiers self-correct before it becomes necessary to involve more formal approaches.
There are cases where individual discipline is good but collective discipline, as a whole unit, is poor.

“The unit remains nothing more than a group of individuals… If collective discipline develops, however, the unit takes on a character all its own.”
Units with collective discipline benefit from collective pride. No one has to ask how something should be done – everyone knows.

“The unit accomplishes its tasks and missions efficiently. The unit seems to drive itself, so that officers and NCOs are hardly visible.”
We'll talk more about NCOs on Saturday 🙂

If you're just tuning in or you've missed any of the previous threads, you can find them all saved on this account under ⚡️Moments or with this direct link twitter.com/i/events/13642…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Combined Arms Center

Combined Arms Center Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @usacac

5 Jun
MAKING NCOs (Part 2)
NCOs are the essential link between Army commanders and the men and women serving within their units.
In order to perform this duty successfully, NCOs must be able to simultaneously provide several key functions – for starters, they must be a capable and effective small unit leader, regardless of whether that unit is combat arms or working administrative duties at a corps HQ.
Read 39 tweets
1 Jun
MAKING NCOs
We’ve talked about Officer Education, but what about the backbone of the @USArmy – the Non-Commissioned Officer or NCO.
Traditionally, NCOs received their training on the job. This was considered the best means of preparing NCOs to be effective NCOs.
Read 16 tweets
29 May
LESLEY J. McNAIR (Part 2)
In 1933, as a Lieutenant Colonel for the second time, Lesley McNair took command of 2nd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Bragg, which changed shortly thereafter to 2nd Battalion 83rd Field Artillery Regiment. He would command the Regiment for about a year.
He would later serve as a commander with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), where he planned, directed, and supervised a wide array of CCC activities that also provided him the benefit of experience in that wide array of activities including mobilization.
Read 24 tweets
25 May
LESLEY J. McNAIR (Part 1)
This week we would like to talk a bit about Lesley McNair, who served as the Army Ground Forces commander from 1942, but before that he was the Army GHQ Chief of Staff and helped shape the @USArmy in ways that we still see today.
There is an excellent book about McNair by @MCalhoun47 and if this week’s threads inspire anyone to learn more about this important @USArmy figure, check it out! @us_sams
Read 30 tweets
22 May
OFFICER EDUCATION (Part 4)
There is much more to this topic than we can cover in just two threads per week while still leaving time to cover all the other topics we’ll get to, but how about one more thread about Officer Education in the @USArmy during the Interwar Period?
As many people know, the Army is a lot more than just Infantry, Armor, and Artillery. And Army missions involve a lot more than just closing with and destroying the enemy. The things that officers learn in school help make sure the Army functions as a whole organization.
Read 25 tweets
18 May
OFFICER EDUCATION (Part 3)
As we’ve mentioned, all parts of the @USArmy suffered from limited funding throughout the Interwar Years, and a significant factor contributing to that was the general isolationist sentiment throughout the country.
Some officers criticized the lack of available resources (including soldiers), while others made efforts to help maximize use of the resources they had.
Read 32 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(