Are we teaching the basic knowledge to our soldiers?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 11:06:53 -0500

Basic classes like know how to read the ERB or How to navigate and use AKO. Those are little things where we can engage with Soldiers and teach them as soon as the enter in the Army. We don't have to way for them to be E4 or above to start teaching them.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 3 at 2013 8:41 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:41:16 -0500

I know I got a serious wake up call when I was going to the board about how messed up my erb was and I had no idea. So I take time personally to go over the erb with each of my soldiers.

Response by SGT Aja Johnson made Dec 3 at 2013 8:54 PM

SGT Aja Johnson — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:54:34 -0500

That response to SGT Webster was meant to be a comment. Oops lol

Response by SFC Rocky Gannon made Dec 3 at 2013 8:57 PM

SFC Rocky Gannon — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:57:11 -0500

SGT Larry A,

The answer is simply NO!! Not even about the ERB are we teaching young soldiers to be soldiers? No, NCO's are failing to teach basic soldier skills like land nav, weapon qualification (only On the range) no dime and washer on a training day to make them better, what about what to do if your weapon malfunctions, test them tomorrow see how many fail that BASIC soldier task, NCO's are promoted so fast now and we can't even get them to go to school and learn, So how can they teach or say something to a soldier that they are not willing to do,

Ok Soap box put up!

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 3 at 2013 9:21 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 21:21:16 -0500

One of the things I have implemented in the last year is utilizing 4 hours in the morning on Thursday for sergeants time training to reinforce basic soldier skills and mos competency. In the 4 hours after lunch I perform NCO professional development for my team leaders and senior E4s. I work on core competences and instruct them on tools they can use to effectively train and lead soldiers. The results have been positive and increased success as SOM and Promotion boards.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 4 at 2013 8:26 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 20:26:04 -0500

Excellent question SGT AbrilRivera and no we are not for the most part, well I know no one ever taught me. I happened to be looking through something in eMilpo and that's how I found out about at the ins/outs of the ERB. There are so many areas to be trained on with regards to Leadership classes, that I wonder would this be better left for a low density STT time, a 1SGs class, or what? I think our Soldiers would be grateful for the class no doubt.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 25 at 2014 1:05 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 01:05:45 -0500

Many times you can only do your best to fix such a problem by teaching all you can whenever given an opportunity. I issue questions to Soldiers at work that haven't been doing anything productive for more than 30 minutes and give them until COB to provide the answer. The questions will range from Army pubs, recent news, basic info about other branches, exercise, and MOS proficiency. Soon after I started, there weren't too many Soldiers just sitting around the office anymore.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 25 at 2014 1:28 AM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 01:28:52 -0500

I agree that we need to teach young Soldiers things like this as well as direct them and introduce them to the Army Correspondence Course Program (ACCP) through Army Skillport and ATRRS. I encourage all my Soldier to engage in these things as well as keeping there ERB updated and monitoring there LES monthly by once a week hip pocket training with this. It's something I check every month to ensure they are tracking and self-developing themselves for the future. Yes, training is important, however those white spaces on the training calendar can be used for things like this in addition to learning how to properly fill out military forms i.e. DA 31's. It's a great hip pocket training tactic NCOs can use for their Soldiers for development.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 1 at 2014 11:32 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 11:32:24 -0500

I would recommend that each NCO provide each of their soldiers a copy of the following publications

ADRP 1 The Army Profession located here: http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/adrp1.pdf

and ADP 1 The Army located here: http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/adp1.pdf

Most soldiers go through the Army without knowing any history or without the understanding of why things are the way they are done. These publications will educate them.

And then it becoems your job to re-enforce the standards.

Response by CPO Private RallyPoint Member made May 1 at 2015 8:20 PM

CPO Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 01 May 2015 20:20:16 -0400

This may be a late response but I was going to post a question concerning the same subject. I am seeing more and more Sailors from the E-5 and below level not knowing what some of our most basic, turn to for anything related to our Navy, websites. For instance, our NPC website is geared towards a one stop shop for basically anything and everything a Sailor might need for personal and professional goals but they've never visited the site. I think I will leave that at that and see if this post gets any hits but for me I am in total concurrence with you.