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Was is all about working hard and hanging with the Army for as long as possible, or was it a true compassion for the Army and soldiers under your direction and guidance? I'd like to hear the success stories and some insight on why you believe you made the list.
CSM
SGM
NCO Academy
Leadership
Mentorship
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 34
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Hard work, luck, having a chip on my shoulder... a mish mosh of it all. I had no illusions when I was a young "paratrooper extraordinaire", but I found I had a knack for my job during Desert Shield/Storm. Once I became an NCO, I took virtually every unwanted job. Low expectations met with high speed low drag results. I found personal success breeds organizational success. Own everything within your sphere of responsibility/influence to include the failures that will come. You miss every shot you don't take. The experience I gained from the crap jobs provided me the knowledge to handle the varied tasks as I went up the ranks. I never compared myself to my peers, but rather those two grades higher. (I humbly own my ego) It pays to be a winner. Through all of that, though, I never really expected to be a 1SG let alone CSM. I was just doing what I could within my spheres to the best of my ability -- mission//soldiers --Did I drink the koolaid? Maybe, but it was natural - Read Malcolm Gladwell's BLINK. Never stop learning and adding tools to your kit. The skills will keep on benefiting you even after you exit the military. Finally, have fun, know your boots are going to get muddy when you embrace the suck; when it stopped being fun, I knew it was time to go.
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CSM Chuck Stafford
BTW, never minded the grass, was mildly perturbed at hands in pocket, but God help you if you had a combat patch and didn't know any history of the Division you went to war with --
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CSM (Join to see)
CSM Chuck Stafford - Great reply to the post. I agree with the grass and hands in pockets, we all have our thing, but many seniors waste a lot of mental calories in that area. I have to say though....cigarette butts really get me assed up.
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1SG Dennis Hicks
SGM, come on now you know that knife doesn't have a proper guard on it and when the intended target turns you could cut yourself therefor causing additional death by power point presentations on backstabbing correctly. I got picked up as a CSM(D) in 2005, so the board must have been doing Meth to pick me, fortunately I was able to fend off the game of musical chair assignments and bow out gracefully, well sort of :). The Army really is very lucky that they didn't promote me I would have thrown off the Grass walking hands in pockets reflective belt quotas for decades :). The Lobotomies at the SMA graduation should run off regular NCO's :)
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SGM Erik Marquez
I was deployed so did the non-resident course when I went to go do my three weeks in El Paso they had an early call one day I was still kind of asleep one of the school NCOs said everybody get in line it’s hot toddy day
I was like what? I’m not drinking that this early in the morning
So I snuck out till lunchtime
Turns out I wasn’t fully awake yet what he actually said is get in line today’s lobotomy day...
Could be why they passed me up on that nominative CSM position
I was like what? I’m not drinking that this early in the morning
So I snuck out till lunchtime
Turns out I wasn’t fully awake yet what he actually said is get in line today’s lobotomy day...
Could be why they passed me up on that nominative CSM position
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1SG Dennis Hicks
SGM Erik Marquez - SGM, did the non resident course as well ,I was in Iraq had roughly 75% of Phase one done when my hard drive which had all my work on went up in smoke after a dust storm. I then had to contend with flying home for the resident portion so I requested a drop as I could never reconstruct my work to including my country and bio paper in that short of a time and do my job. That really PO'd my BDE and CACOM CSM's. Between that and finding out that between the game of musical chairs that some CSM's play, reappointment rights etc the final straw was serving as an acting CSM in my battalion when the BN CSM (Same SMA class as me) had to bail due to serious family issues. I sat and worked my ass off attempting to seek help from above and to my left and right but was left hanging. I kept asking why can't I just fill the position that was empty at my BN. I got the song , dance and dinner party for 13 months till they found 2 CSM's that bailed/retired withing a month of each other then accepted a 3rd from CA when we are based in NJ. I smile took yet another 1SG gig and said no more.
The real wake up was at the CSM 1 week course at Leavenworth, between my classy responses to the husband and wife command teams during the discussion of date night and me p-ing off a CSM from The big Red One about his UN-authorized Color FWTS-SSI, he really got mad at me :) I decided for the good of the Army that I would never fit in. Sort of like a loud Wet fart during a funeral service I tend to rub everyone in command the wrong way :).
The real wake up was at the CSM 1 week course at Leavenworth, between my classy responses to the husband and wife command teams during the discussion of date night and me p-ing off a CSM from The big Red One about his UN-authorized Color FWTS-SSI, he really got mad at me :) I decided for the good of the Army that I would never fit in. Sort of like a loud Wet fart during a funeral service I tend to rub everyone in command the wrong way :).
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