Fort Sill NCO Academy Supports Uzbek Army. (Letter to the Editor).

In three international exchange visits in 2001, the Fort Sill NCO Academy, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, supported the Uzbek Army's development of a professional NCO Corps by helping them establish an NCO educational system (NCOES). Personnel from the Fort Sill NCO Academy traveled to Uzbekistan in February and early May with Uzbek Army personnel visiting Fort Sill in late May.

Uzbekistan used to be part of the Soviet Union, called the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, and still has Russian as its national language. The country, just north of Afghanistan, gained its independence in 1991.

The first visit occurred after the Uzbek Army requested US Army assistance in developing its NCOs via the US Central Command (CENTCOM), headquartered at MacDill AFB, Florida. The team consisted of the (former) Commandant of the Fort Sill NCO Academy Command, Sergeant Major (CSM) Joseph W. Stanley; the Advanced NCO Course (ANCOC) School Chief (now Assistant Commandant), First Sergeant John M. Dorsey; and (former) Chief of Training for the NCO Academy, Sergeant First Class Matthew E. Benner. A sergeant major from CENTCOM also accompanied the team.

The team briefed the Uzbek Army on the different levels of US Army NCOES and the organization and staff needed to conduct and administer the training at the Fort Sill NCO Academy. The visit included discussions about the duties and responsibilities of the US Army NCO; Uzbek Army officers perform many of the duties a US NCO performs. The team briefed the Uzbek personnel on the concepts of NCOs training and supervising soldiers in addition to staffing and running NCOES.

The Uzbek Army was especially interested in Fort Sill NCO Academy operational aspects, management and administration. The Uzbekistanis were briefed on everything from barracks arrangements to firing ranges to admin offices and classrooms--from first wake-up to graduation. Because women are becoming an integral part of the Uzbekistani Army, they paid particular attend to how women soldiers fit into and function within US units and in the training environment.

During one visit to Uzbekistan, the US Army team toured the building for the Uzbek NCO School. Although still under construction, the building's classrooms are being designed for an instructor-student ratio of 1 to 14, allowing for small group instruction.

The Uzbekistanis' May visit to Fort Sill allowed them to tour the NCO Academy training facilities. The Fort Sill NCO Academy briefed them on how to develop lesson plans, programs of instructions (POIs) and instructor duties plus outlined staff administrative requirements in more detail.

All briefings and presentations were by US NCOs--a fact that made the Uzbekistanis wary initially. But the US team reinforced the concept that NCOs conduct the daily business of the Army, a concept the Uzbek Army appeared willing to adopt.

The international exchanges accomplished two things for the Uzbek Army personnel: they began to see an expanded role for their NCOs and, therefore, saw the requirement for upgrading their NCO training to fulfill those roles.

NCOs' conducting such exchanges is just another example of NCOs taking care of business in this ever-changing world.

SFC Matthew E. Benner, Chief of Training NCO Academy, Fort Sill, OK