Should NCO's play a larger role in Soldiers lives?

Of course they should! Knowing your Soldiers is always a good thing. You will better understand how they might react to situations down range as well as know if there is something going on that might require assistance from someone like drinking and driving. You still want to allow that Soldier to have space to do things but maintain a professional over-watch. I think if you do that, we would see a reduction in a lot more than DUIs.

yes, to a certain extent. there are some things that are family business, not NCO business.personally, I did not want my wife or any of my family in contact with my unit except for emergencies. my wife did not want to be a part of the FRG and I was completely fine with that. A lot of NCO's need to realize that even though a soldier is a soldier 24/7/365 that his or her family are not. I had multiple occasions where I was ordered to bring my wife to FRG functions and I refused. unless a soldier is doing something that negatively effects unit cohesion, after hours is after hours. A genuine concern is a good thing, and if your soldiers are willing or trusting enough to be open with you, that is great, but digging into someones perfectly legal, non military business is not necessary

Since this is such an obvious answer in going to share an experience. When I was a young airman, deployments consisted or working, eating, lifting and playing cards together. We played more euchre and spaded in a 6 month period than a person should in a lifetime. My last deployment consisted of all the same things except the cards. Airmen would head to their bunk, throw on headphones and watch movies by themselves. Didn't matter how many events we planned and leadership, there was zero interest. Same is happening at home station. NCO s and airmen sit side by side on their phones in their own individual lives. Until NCOs put their phones down and demand the same of their troops the trend of out of touch NCOs will continue and in a few years they will be out of touch SNCOs.