CSM forum.

In my last article I outlined in great detail the Quality Assurance Operating System (QAOS) and the Leader's Survey Program. The bottom line up front is: The surveys provide our Military Intelligence Corps the means to ensure that we train our soldiers to meet the needs in your formations and that Military Intelligence (MI) soldiers are trained to standard. I want to thank you, the MI leadership, for taking this Green Tab issue and making our MI Corps stronger and preparing our MI Warriors for success in the Objective Force.

Again, I ask our great MI leadership for assistance in building a stronger MI Corps in the Objective Force. Another Green Tab issue is that we need the leadership to look into the "STAR MOSs" in our great Corps. In the past, I have sent out several emails concerning MI STAR MOSs to the Command Sergeants Major and Sergeants Major in the MI Corps asking them to board our soldiers for promotion to Sergeant and Staff Sergeant. My comments regarding MI STAR MOSs are direct and to the point; we are not taking care of soldiers. We need to work on our STAR MOSs and leadership development for our Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Corps to be successful in the Army and the Objective Force. I ask each of you to coach, teach, develop, and mentor our MI soldiers to be your NCO replacement. This process starts as soon as the soldier signs into your formation from initial entry training (IET). Promote those great MI warriors when they enter the zone and deserve to be recommended for the next grade. We are responsible for growin g our NCO Corps.

I ask you, the MI leadership, to look in the mirror. Remember the NCO or Officer who took you under his or her wing, took a chance on you, and recommended that you go before the promotion board. Remember too that after you went to the promotion board, this process of coaching, teaching, developing, and mentoring continued. Someone took a chance on Specialist 5 Lawrence J. Haubrich. Someone coached, taught, developed, and mentored him! That someone, who took a chance on Specialist 5 Haubrich, mentored him to become your MI Corps CSM. I ask you, the MI leadership, to take that same chance. Groom those great MI warriors to become that NCO--the NCO that will take a chance on the future soldiers of the MI Corps.

During the last six months I was very fortunate to visit the 5th of the 104th Reserve MI Total Army School System (TASS) Battalion from Fort Huachuca, AZ, at Camp Parks Reserve Training area, Dublin, CA. There I observed our MI soldiers conducting a mobile training team (MTT) and training to standard those reclassified soldiers in MOSs 97B and 97E. While at Camp Parks I also visited the Western Army Reserve Intelligence Support Center (WARISC), the 250th MI BN (TE), located in San Rafael, CA, and the 223d MI BN (Linguist) located in San Francisco, CA. I want to thank their leaders for showing me around their units, briefing me on their mission and upcoming deployments, and, most importantly, for providing me with the opportunity to talk with those great MI warriors assigned to their units. I also attended the XIV Annual Army Technical Control and Analysis Element (ATCAE) Conference 2002 at the National Security Agency (NSA). There I had the opportunity to talk with soldiers assigned to the ATCAE and meet with several soldiers assigned to the 704th MI Brigade who work in various sections in NSA. NSA provides yet another example of our MI soldiers doing great things in the joint environment, "Worldwide Support to the Warfighter."

Thank you all for what you do for our MI Corps and our Army. As always, let us take care of each other and our families. You train hard, you die hard; you train easy, you die easy. Peace needs protection!