During my time on AD, our CSM conducted BN NCOPD faithfully every quarter. Why is there not a program for NG?

2014-04-21T15:51:24-04:00

I've been conducting NCOPD with my joes at the company level, but I haven't seen anything BN-wide.

Response by SFC Robert Trodahl made Apr 21 at 2014 3:56 PM

2014-04-21T15:56:27-04:00

Limited time due to a small window to conduct mandatory training.....maybe?

Response by Maj Chris Nelson made Apr 21 at 2014 4:54 PM

2014-04-21T16:54:18-04:00

There are a couple possible issues at play here:

1. Limited time. NG/Reserves must accomplish the same required training that the Active Duty does, but they have to do it in "one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year"....

2. (and just as large of a problem). What you are describing is acutally what I call a Personality Driven Program....it means that it is the PERSON or GROUP of People and the collective personalities that make the program a success. I don't want to think about the number of times I have seen a unit pass a major inspection simply because of the people and personalities that are at work....if the inspectors actually got passed the person/personality and looked at the actual PROGRAM, they would have failed...only because the program itself was not set up to be self sustaining without the right personality running it.

Response by SFC Christopher Walker, MAOM, DSL made Apr 21 at 2014 6:44 PM

2014-04-21T18:44:38-04:00

You are a Noncommissioned Officer. You start the program. You don't need a CSM to run it. Start it at your company level then work your way up. I've done it plenty of times.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 21 at 2014 8:40 PM

2014-04-21T20:40:12-04:00

Having been the fulltime S3 for a USAR Training BN my take on this is, it boils down to 2 things:

1. As everyone else has said limited time table to get everything done. But a training schedule can accommodate it if you put on there.

2. LAZY PEOPLE. Yup I said it. I can't tell you what a pain it was for me to get people to be prepared to give a class even when I gave them the class 90-120 days in advance. Some folks just don't want to do the extra work outside of normal BA weekends. My particular reply to that was "You are getting paid for 4 active duty days and only working 2. You can give me 4-6 hrs during the month to prepare this class". Didn't always work but I had a CSM that was more than happy to light fires when my being nice didn't work :)