Green Berets, civil affairs and psychological operations staff sergeants saw their time-in-grade requirement increase from 24 to 36 months. Now, staff sergeants not in a special operations career field must serve 48 months time-in-grade before they can promote, an increase of 12 months. That change is effective beginning with the fiscal 2021 OML evaluation boards. The Army is also trying to improve the quality of soldiers’ day-to-day lives and improve the quality of future senior NCOs by making staff sergeants wait an additional year before promoting to sergeant first class. “The program…is being codified and developed by right now.”Ĭlark also pointed to recently-implemented mandatory questions for unit promotion boards that include “situational leadership” questions designed to evaluate a potential NCO’s ability to “help us get after some of the counterproductive behaviors that are plaguing our ranks such as and suicide.” Soon, hopeful NCOs will have to demonstrate proficiency in “their warrior tasks and individual battle drills” before being selected by unit boards for Basic Leader Course and eventual promotion, Clark said. He also noted that the new policy allows corporals to receive increased “leader development time” and receive formal feedback and performance ratings via the Army’s NCO evaluation reporting system.Ĭlark described the corporal initiative as just the most recent step in implementing a new junior leader development program. “Now that we’ve given them the tools of an NCO, they can begin to perform those duties,” Clark said. Dillan Bryant during the Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital Army Birthday Ceremony at the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, Louisiana, on June 14, 2021. Alexander Poutou, Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital, removes specialist rank and replaces it with corporal chevrons for Cpl. “The Corporal initiative is designed to create a positive, visible welcome to the NCO Corps for Soldiers that have proved themselves ready,” said Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston in a tweet celebrating the new NCOs.Ĭommand Sgt. He emphasized the importance of linking a new NCO’s training status with the “visible difference” of wearing corporal’s stripes, though they still receive the same pay as their specialist counterparts. This means that they have been recommended by a unit board for promotion and have completed the month-long Basic Leader Course.īefore the change, lateral appointments to corporal were permitted for specialists selected for promotion to sergeant regardless of whether they’d completed BLC, but only if they were serving in a position that required an NCO.Ĭlark said the old policy presented “some risk,” because “we’d have promoted who are not trained, taking leadership positions.” The shift begins at the lowest rung of the NCO ladder, with an Army directive signed in May ordering the active-duty Army and Army Reserve to appoint as corporals all specialists who are fully promotable to sergeant. One thing is certain: Clark and the Army want to build more experienced NCOs from the ground up.Ĭlark says the changes are meant to better prepare junior NCOs for the increased responsibilities they’ll someday have as platoon sergeants and beyond once they become senior NCOs later in their career. Clark says the Army has completed its final training backlogs from the old promotion system, but it’s too early to tell whether promotion rates will rebound in the face of strong retention and contracting end strength.
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