Getting Back to Basics: Building the Army Reserve NCO Corps From the Bottom Up

With this commander s intent to guide them, the noncommissioned officer NCO leaders of the 841st Engineer Battalion launched into the Iron Castle Junior Leader Education and Development IC JLEAD program in September 2010 at its headquarters in Miami, Florida. While still the beta version, this was the culminating event of an effort that had been more than a year in the making. Transition to Operational Army Reserve From observation of unit training and operations, the brigade commander had, shortly after assuming command, identified an apparent gap in the Army s junior NCO education system and began working with his command sergeant major CSM on the concept for a corrective program within the 926th Engineer Brigade. This shortfall was in the basic NCO leadership skills, tools, and understanding of the history, traditions, and authorities of the NCO Corps. While there was no single cause for this lack of NCO capabilities in the brigade, the command team believed it had developed over time for a variety of reasons high individual operational tempo OPTEMPO, in-theater promotion policies, delayed Noncommissioned Officer Educational System NCOES attendance, and the necessary focus on warfighting skills at the expense of a more balanced education that were all part of the requirement to become an operational rather than strategic Army Reserve.