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From Battle to Staff

  • Published
  • By Maj. Antonia Greene-Edwards
  • 174th Infantry Brigade Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Today's Army possesses a unique breed of battle-tested Noncommissioned Officers whom have proven themselves able and equipped to handle a multitude of challenging situations.

The leaders of the 174th Infantry Brigade and its sister unit, 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, are no exception.

For a decade plus, the Army's NCO corps has operated in fast-paced, high-stress environments, gaining experience and expertise on the battlefield. Many have excelled in squad, platoon and company-level positions from team leader to mission commander.

The Army Battle Staff Noncommissioned Officer Course capitalizes on those experiences and puts each NCO's skills to the test, grooming him or her for battalion and brigade-level duties and responsibilities.

"It's a lot like a crash officer basic course, and in a perfect world, all NCOs would attend this course prior to staff assignments; but sometimes that's just not the case," said Sgt. 1st Class Panki Miah, 174th Infantry Brigade Equal Opportunity Officer. "Given our current operating environment, most of us here have already held higher-level staff positions."

But 'Baptism by fire' isn't necessarily a bad thing, agreed Sgt. 1st Class Derrek Detherow, Observer/Controller Trainer with 1st battalion, 314th Infantry Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade.

"This course formalizes the OJT (on-the-job) training many have already acquired and helps them organize those tools to be more effective," agreed Detherow, a BSNCOC graduate and current BSNCOC Assistant Instructor. "Who does what, why they do it, how they each help the commander come to a decision is all laid out in a formal format."

In a nut shell, BSNCOC uses the small group instruction approach to focus on planning future operations and managing current operations at battalion and brigade-level.

"If you jump to those positions without having Battle Staff, there are a lot of things going on utilizing the Military Decision Making Process that you may not fully understand but when you come to Battle Staff it brings it all together from a doctrinal perspective," said Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Edwards, OC/T with 3rd Battalion, 312th Regiment, 174th Infantry Brigade.

Still knowing how the different staff sections operate and what each contributes to the unit, everyone here brings relevant mission-related TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures) into our classroom, explained Edwards, also a former BSNCOC graduate now serving as an assistant instructor.

Education paired with experience provides the best platform for training, everyone agreed. And after the month-long distance learning course concludes March 31, there is much work to be done.

Under Operation Bold Shift, the post-mobilization mission is winding down at JB MDL and both First Army Division East entities here are merging. Thus there is ample staff planning practical exercises for the 174th and 72nd Battle Staff graduates - both in-house and as OC/T's.

"For us as OC/T's, especially with the increased RFP (Rotational Force Pool) partnerships, observing and evaluating units using tools like MDMP (Military Decision Making Process) is a big part of what we do," explained Edwards. "I participated in Operation Red Dragon at Fort McCoy last summer and because of what I learned in Battle Staff I was well-prepared."

The way ahead for First Army Division East is transitioning alongside the Army Forces Generation cycle. Partnering with the Army Reserve and National Guard conducting operational-level missions and exercises rather than the Mobilization Force Generation Installation individual task and lanes training mission, Operation Bold Shift refocuses efforts on mission-command training opportunities.

"At my last exercise at Fort Knox, the focus was OPORD (Operations Order) production," shared Detherow. "Having been prepared at this course, I was ready to listen in and offer feedback on key elements and instead of reading out of a book, explain why and know how each item relates to another."

Battle Staff gives OC/T's a good grasp of how any staff functions. With increased XCTC (eXportable Combat Training Capability) and CSTX (Combat Support Training Exercise) operations on the First Army Division East training calendar, Battle Staff trained-NCOs are in high demand.