NCO's ROCK!!

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In an la times commentary, Robert D. Kaplan treats us to a great tributary reminder of who it is that makes the military operate.

[[ They are a poorly paid, blue-collar corps, many of them just high school graduates. Two-thirds of all Marines are noncommissioned and in their first four-year enlistment. Nearly 90% of Army Special Forces soldiers, or Green Berets, are sergeants of one grade or another.

...the truth is that the sergeant of today (or chief petty officer in the Navy) is generally a technical expert and corporate-style manager who may speak several exotic languages. One Special Forces master sergeant with whom I recently traveled in Algeria, who grew up on a family farm in New Hampshire, had handled military and humanitarian emergencies in 73 countries in the course of a 17-year Army career.

Never before in military history have noncommissioned officers — who deal at the lowest tactical level, where operational success or failure is determined — been so critical. This is because of the changing nature of conflict.

As the age of mass-infantry warfare closes — and the battlefield disperses and empties out over vast deserts, jungles and poor, sprawling cities — armies increasingly operate unconventionally in small, autonomous units, at the level of the platoon and below, where sergeants reign supreme. ]]

As a retired Non-Commissioned Officer, I will add that there is a big difference between Officers and NCO's. I was frequently invited to join the Officer ranks, and always replied the same way: "Why would I want to sacrifice my opportunity to lead in order to command?" As Mr. Kaplan puts it: "Commissioned officers give orders; NCOs get things done."

Damn straight.

In Praise Of Non-Comms

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