Platoon Sergeant

prepare our Soldiers to deploy when the nation calls. One part of our preparation relates to ensuring Soldiers are qualified on their assigned weapons. During one planning event I was in a meeting with my supervisor, or First Sergeant, and my peers, or fellow Staff Sergeants, were planning our annual weapons…

Tempelhof, he retired from the air force on September 30, 1974, with over 8000 flying hours. First in addition to other Air Force decoration has been awarded the legion of Merit Cheney award. In 1998 he was awarded the americanism award, Air Force Sergeants Association, in 1998 he was also awarded the Freedom award from the city of Provo. The distinguished Humanitarian award from institute of German American Relations in 1999. On the way home to Texas he flew two place p-51 Mustang a lifelong…

some point in everyone’s life, someone or something stands out to them in a way that nothing else does. It could be an individual or an event that stands out to them in a positive or even a negative way. For me however, it was a person named Master Sergeant James Sherrod. I encountered MSgt Sherrod at work and he impacted me in a way that would shape my whole future and military career. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was a blessing in my life, especially when I didn’t want to believe it.…

No organization is perfect whether it’s the military or a civilian organization. Perfection is what we strive for. There will always deficiencies that one always complains about and say that if they were in charge they will do it differently. Sometimes though that’s just not possible but at times it may be. I myself am currently working as the Executive Officer of a Maintenance Company and these are a few of the issues that I have seen and noticed at my position that I would recommend changing…

With the evolving role of the aviation warrant officer, future development and mentorship is required for success beginning at the company level. As intermediate level technical and tactical experts, Warrant Officers perform the primary duties of technical leader, trainer, operator, manager, maintainer, sustainer, and advisor utilizing staff procedures to provide information to the appropriate level of command. Warrant Officers must discontinue any thoughts of inflexibility to perform outside…

Unified land operation is the Army operating concept which is executed through decisive actions and guided by mission command. The Army’s framework for exercising mission command is operations process (plan, prepare, execute, and assess). Embedded by the philosophy and principles of mission command, the commander, supported by his staff, drives the operation process to execute conceptual planning or detailed planning necessary for him to understand, visualize, describe, direct, lead, and…

Trust is the groundwork for any successful team. Just as the commander will learn to trust me, I in return will have to trust my commander. As a Command Sergeant Major (CSM) or Staff Sergeant Major (SGM), I realize that my Soldiers will not trust me right away, and I must gain their mutual trust through my daily interactions. Setting good examples and living the Army Values will assist in building mutual trust. My commander…

The purpose of this reflection paper is to illustrate how I will use the principles of mission command in my future positions after graduating from the Sergeants Major Course. Army Doctrine Reference Publication 6-0 defines mission command as the “exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations”. Commander’s use the principles…

Sergeant Major Tom Crane is a soldier that polices other soldiers; he works in the Special Investigations Branch as a detective. He is a hard hitting, persistent, hard man, and brash; overall, he is not very nice to anyone, even those on his side of the law. On his cases, he is assisted by his staff Billy and Kim. The series is an English thriller and police procedural; there are also short stories that are part of the series. It is also self-published by Wendy Cartmell, the author of the…

Creation and documentation of leadership philosophy is not something one often thinks about without being asked. Prior to starting an endeavor like this, one should first try to fully understand the definition of leadership philosophy. Jon Mertz (2014) defines leadership philosophy as “a theory or attitude held by a person or organization that acts as a guiding principle for behavior.” (What is philosophy section). Leadership philosophy should be a single, concise statement, and it should…