A Toast for the Sergeants

Sorting through the "to be blogged about" pile, I've discarded many items whose timeliness has passed. One did catch my eye. It is customary this time of year to offer toasts and remembrances and no doubt many a glass will be raised for our soldiers and veterans. A passage from an article in the Dec. 11 Wall Street Journal really struck me, probably because my father spent most of his 20 years in the army as a sergeant (primarily drill and platoon) and one sibling served as a supply sergeant before going to college and emerging as an officer (much to my father's great pride and chagrin). As we celebrate the victories and mourn the losses of 2006, let us remember the sergeants.

“Escalating Tab: Despite Its $168 Billion Budget, The Army Faces a Cash Crunch, by Greg Jaffe, WSJ Dec. 11, continuation on p. A4

One of the most pressing personnel problems is the lack of sergeants, the enlisted leaders who do most of the day-to-day supervising of the rank-and-file soldiers.

At Fort Hood, Texas, the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, which returned from Iraq in March, has about 75% of the soldiers it needs to fill its ranks, but only about half of its sergeants. The 5,000-soldier unit likely will go back to Iraq in the fall of next year, and leaders in the regiment say they will get more sergeants before they deploy, but not as many as they would like.

“The sergeant is the one that the soldiers take after,” says First Sgt. James Adcock, who oversees about 30 of the unit’s soldiers. He can make or break how effective the privates are.”