 like you can probably just go because we want people to like we want y'all to talk we want you to have a conversation nothing's off limits nothing's out of bounds if you disagree with something somebody says hey you know I think I have a different perspective on that okay so that's kind of the intent here just a conversation like if you're not planning on saying anything like that's probably the wrong answer so just be open to whatever the conversation wherever it steers you and I just be willing to participate because that's the whole purpose of this kind of form okay right right 30 seconds I'm sitting right at the spot where all the legs come so I'll kick them the whole time all right good morning from the warfighter symposium a USA's annual event here just outside of Fort Liberty North Carolina this is the home of the airborne and special operations today we're talking with some of the soldiers I hear from Fort Liberty about the impact 75 years after executive order 9980 and 9981 which of course ended segregation of the military and the federal workforce so joining us today is the 16th sergeant major of the Army SMA Michael Greenstone so thank you very much yesterday SMA you had the opportunity to speak at the Pentagon at the department's commemoration for this same event what were kind of some of those key things that you wanted people to take away from your remarks thanks thanks for hosting this too by the way and thanks for the panel members for being here with me today and I'd like just to say I'm probably the only one that was born when the executive order was signed okay that was kind of funny so probably somebody's like man you're 75 years old actually I'm not okay so yeah it's been a long time since we signed that but you know what we talked about yesterday was the importance of the effects of that you know 75 years later like any policy you sign it immediately you think out everything's gonna be right with the world and that's not true so it just takes time year after year for us getting better and that's kind of what I talked about was here's what happened a long time ago talked to about a guy named James Queen and all his personalities you know he was a ranger paratrooper he did a lot of great things he later became a school teacher and oh by the way he just happened to be black so in other words a lot of us you know we want to be judged by our actions you know what we did in life and not by the color of our skin and desegregation you know 75 years ago gave us that opportunity to do all that and then I told a little bit about my story you know as the Sarma's the Army and some of the things that I've been criticized for that we're not yet there yet and believe it or not criticized for my race you know as recently as you know 30 days ago it wasn't specifically you know my race it was that I'd actually just have to talk I talked about it and says I wasn't focused in on the right things which was interesting is that they took a video that had made for three years ago and then you know paused it and when I said you know here's my race I said that and they paused my video this is okay and the comment was so what like who cares that's interesting and then they played a little bit more about what I said and then pause it again and then you know I said I struggle with racial identity you know my entire career my mom was white my dad's black and the next comment after that was that well that's your problem so these things still happen you know I said well what about all your warfighting I said well their stories there's more articles on me from warfighting than there are about that one minute but they just choose to pick what they want and all those things about me are important not just one piece and that's kind of what I said yesterday and but the whole lineup was fantastic you know brown out there the Debsiq Teff, the Honorable Assistant Arrows, lots of speakers are really fantastic so there's a lot of stuff to talk about and I really appreciate it so I'll kind of stop there and say I'm really looking forward to this yesterday. I think this of all the places in the army we could go what better place than Fort Liberty home of the 82nd Airborne Division which before that executive order was even signed had desegregated units when the the 555th Parachute Infantry the famed triple nickels were brought into the 3rd Battalion 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment in 1947 so it's really great to be here we've got some great soldiers on the panel with you so we'll start at the end and just have each of you briefly introduce yourself and we'll get the conversation started. Yes sir I'm a PV2 Joshua Shipman I'm a cavalry scout with 373 CAV and I was born and raised in Mountain View, Arkansas. Hello my name is Sergeant Haydee Calona Tejera I'm a 68, 68 Alpha Biomedical Equipment Specialist I'm with the 51st Medical Logistics Company and I was originally born here in Fort Liberty. Good morning everybody I'm Staff Sergeant Shane Pataselma Sitt I'm from 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command 3DSC for short and I was born and raised in Malothian, Virginia. Good morning everybody I'm Janina Simmons I'm currently the 1st Sergeant for the best brigade in the Army 108th HHB I'm super excited to be here and share some insights for everyone I am a 14 tango that's a air defense patriot. Good morning I'm Specialist Ayala I'm a 19 Delta which is CAV Scout 573 I'm born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. Alright first Sergeant for the first brigade and the best brigade in the Army we're gonna start with you Leaders lead so in full disclosure 1st Sergeant Simmons has been a mentee of the SMA for quite some time now so I think you probably have some really good perspective you all probably had similar conversations in the past but I'd love for you to just kind of talk about what it means for you when you kind of think about the history of the Army the last 75 years and talk about you know what it means to realize that the leadership opportunities you've had actually haven't been available to people who look like you and just what that's meant. Right so you know if you if you take a step back it's it's humbling to think that I 75 years ago I wouldn't even be here a 1st Sergeant so I'm you know triple threat black woman gay so automatically when I walk in a room I should feel inferior based on where we're at today but you know the history aspect it's just so humbling and blessed and I and I take it personal and when I say that I mean let's talk about Ranger because that's like the heavy hitter before I went to school terrified didn't want to do it but that doesn't negate the fact that somebody had to open that door I'm pretty sure 75 years ago nobody was thinking about female Rangers it's impossible they can't carry the weight they can't go the distance they're mentally not that tough somebody and I don't know who it is and I'm just thankful somebody opened that door or maybe it was multiple people so with that door being open I take pride in that I have to not only open the door walk through the door I have to pave the way for somebody else and that's why you know we don't go to ranger school to wear a cloth and walk around no cool it's way more than that and at the time I had no idea that I was the first African-American woman to graduate because there was so few of us who went through in 2019 I think I was like number 30 so I say all of that to say is now we are coming to a place where within the army we can make it about age gender race you know we can make about all of that but I want to impression on the it's about your work ethic it is about personal courage to just toe the line do you have what it takes to just show up and do something that you nobody think nobody thought I could do it so toe the line and put in the work when everybody said you know what yeah you want to do ranger it sounds cool but you're not going to do it you're way too skinny you do this is what verbatim you don't lift the legs you're not strong enough the rucksack is gonna weigh 80 pounds you can't do that I was like you know what I'll do y'all one better and my goal through my work ethic I trained myself I didn't have a personal trainer I had Google I googled everything I can't make it up sorry major I googled I don't know how we did it before I don't know how you did either because I googled everything I googled the RPFT but I mean anything I just use Google I worked out and I just and I just wanted to achieve that because now I can tell my soldiers how to do it not necessarily ranger but they look at me because leaders lead you lead from the front you have to you have to establish yourself as a leader and then those soldiers be like well hey first time how did you do that how did you do that now I just opened that door to help them prior to this I engage in a just awesome conversation with specialist Ayala as females we are we're not privileged to have a lot of female leaders because we're now just shattering the ceilings up there like there there's probably some but there there's no female sir major ranger does does it have to be a female sir major ranger to be my mentor no but those are type of people that we would like to start looking up to the scouts and everything they're not there yet so it needs to be us so I need to be that whatever that is for somebody she's going to be that sir major because she's gonna stay and listen right for somebody else so we are doing what they did 75 years ago and then when I'm long retired and I got my little crutch and I can't run anymore that's gonna be her and then it's gonna be somebody else so we are still continuing to just pay we haven't had a female SMA yet it's coming I don't know when I don't know who it's gonna be female CSA we haven't had those yet so it's 2023 and we continue to just strive for excellence and I do think the army and back to what the SMA said we see these little changes and people think you know climate change or everything it comes overnight it doesn't because what we're doing right now might be just great in 2065 who knows but it's the little micro movement that will create a bigger movement for the future and every soldier like they have so much power because it's not about female male female we all have so much power just through our personal stories because me the same mom is white dad is black I mean we could go on and on about you know childhood and upbringing etc etc we all have that and that's what makes us unique and able to maneuver within the within the force but that's kind of my two cents I take pride I a lot of people ask me where my motivation comes from I'm not motivated I'm disciplined and that does come from history and I feel privileged to just sit here and share my story because somebody paved the way for me I will I'll kind of jump in just one very quick thing is for everybody you have to mentor people that don't look like you is what I would recommend everybody is sometimes you're not gonna find that person that fits exactly you and I'll give you one example there's only one service your army at one time so it doesn't matter who it is it's it might not look exactly what you're looking for but I think as a leader my my recommendation is pick somebody that might not actually look or be exactly your gender your race and build that expertise and it's not about the race the gender it's about is that a leader that can help you and that's why I reached out to her it's like she's enlisted she's a ranger she's not infantry so I think along the way she's gonna need some help along the way I was gonna need some help cuz I was a 13 Bravo Ranger and Ranger qualified so so don't get caught up on that it doesn't fit that mole and I think a lot of times that's where we get troubles like it's got to be this mole it doesn't have to be a mole is this a person that can help you and don't just say it has to look like you cuz guess what it might not look like you it's okay but special as I like you first on someone says that you guys got a few minutes to talk before here so I'll ask you what kind of qualities would you look for in a mentor or a leader my quality is that I like to see in a leader our discipline accountability is my big one holding soldiers accountable holding your peers accountable that's huge because if you can account for them and they can account for themselves you can trust them down range so that's big the end of the table our PV tube sorry I'm missing your name for them on but same question to you what kind of qualities are you looking for so what I'm looking for whenever I first got here it was kind of I mean it's my first unit so I was new obviously didn't really know like what was gonna happen just coming out of OSIT so really someone who would just be there to help me like walk me through everything and instead of just like telling me what to do just actually go out there with me and like lead by example probably that'd be my number one sorry it kind of sounds like regardless of your both of your backgrounds and your experiences very similar qualities that you look for and I think estimate that's something that's really important as we kind of think about leadership or mentorship in general so I guess I would ask you kind of what are some of those things that you've learned along the way that you know if you want to be a good leader or you know have a good mentor relationship you know what are those responsibilities of that leader kind of going down yeah I think it takes two ways sometimes you might not find that right there you know right there from your end I'd like to say it's right there your squad leader is gonna be that perfect role model for you sometimes I say it depends I have to reach out so you might have to look and you'll find it in strange ways or so from a soldier perspective does the person above me have the qualities that I'm looking for in myself that the answer is no then maybe you got to go somewhere else you'll find it we have everything in the army and then from the leadership I gotta go like I already said you know don't go with something that looks like tastes like something like you and that's what we like sometimes you know oh it's got to be a 13 Bravo and only a 13 but you'll find leadership in in the strangest of places but sometimes there's a little I I do say there's a little bit of a trust too so you've got a trust that the folks around you are giving you the right information I think what would be hard is as a new soldier you don't know you know you like I think they're telling me right I don't know so but eventually I think you figure out and I'd like to say it's all gonna be perfect but it's not there's gonna be you know some that are good and then some that are great and it's gonna be hard to tell the great ones you'll see it you'll think that is that's it but when you when you see it for the first time I think you need to seek out those in greatness they're usually really busy though so and sometimes if they're extremely disciplined that comes with consequences too because I was extremely disciplined that's probably the best advice and recommendations steps on pad I'd like to kind of ask you you know recently the army changed our slogan to be all you can be so as you kind of think about that as a soldier as a staff sergeant as a leader you know what does that mean to you how does that kind of how do you internalize that and kind of you know I'm not asking you like how did that change your actions but just you know what has been kind of your thoughts on that slogan and maybe how it drives what you do every day sure so with a new model be all you can be what I envision it is is for your actual self or individual self to always self motivate yourself to always do better to always maintain what the standard is maybe go beyond it always strive for excellence I will go ahead and just for the group here here in a minute we'll start to open up for questions so start to kind of think about you know whatever you'd like to say and if you have something kind of cue me and we'll bring you up but just to kind of continue down this path understanding you know the responsibility that that we have as leaders estimate what is something that you would kind of tell that young staff sergeant maybe a brand-new staff sergeant that you would like the one thing you really want them to focus on with their squad there's not one there's a long list of things I would tell a young staff sergeant to focus on a squad you know probably just starts with and you've heard me say this a few times but for everyone else is you have to be an expert absolute expert in your field as a staff sergeant nobody should know your job better than you do no one not not the platoon sergeant not the soldiers not the sergeant nobody and I would say as a as a staff sergeant I thought as a 13 bravo I was the absolute expert in everything there was about being a 13 bravo I would have challenged anybody in the army on on my job and and I did on multiple times sometimes it caused me to do some push-ups I was fine with that and I'll give you the example I was a a staff sergeant we're gonna do an emplacement and you know if you know anything about guns you got to come in it's very detailed oriented you only get six minutes to in place the alcher at the time or you fail the standard and then there were standards for everything so they put out the column meter which is an aiming reference so you got a gun to this way you got something on the ground that kind of tells you which way to shoot and they put it out I said we're gonna do it again start over we're gonna march order to do it again the tuned sergeant said why'd you do that because he put it out wrong and he goes well what was wrong about it said well column meter has to be between 24 2800 mils says the TM oh where's you say that I was right in the team you could read it if you like oh that's for everybody here leave off that last part all after was a bunch push ups my attitude but you know I was right by the way so I that's what I mean I mean I knew the doctrine inside out I knew my job and that would have challenged anybody it's like you don't know my job better me I mean you come down and yell at me but no one was harder on emplacing that how it's here than I was I was gonna meet the standards every time so number one is a leader no matter what your job is just be the absolute expert there's a lot of times now you're well the private coming out of OSU knows a lot yeah a lot I mean a little I mean like you know how would there's no way of private in this planet would know as much as me about my job coming out of basic training that just that didn't even register my mind so number one being absolute expert number two is it comes to that discipline is be and I was ruthless on discipline and standards in the organization physical fitness and discipline where like that just kind of started and I'm forced that not only on myself but on my soldiers so but let me say it started with me I would be the first one there if I asked my soldiers to do something I'd already done it or I probably do it with them it wouldn't matter we were sweeping the motor pool if I had time I would sweep the motor pool with them but being an absolute expert in your field being extremely disciplined starts with yourself I never want to be a hip grit and then enforcing that on my soldiers and then last what I would say to a young staff sergeant is take care of your people and that none of that means I was really nice I wasn't very friendly sometimes but trust me I would look out for him I was ruthless on all that discipline I just told you that but equally as hard on taking care of my soldiers I'll give you another bad example of a bad leadership but I was I was a staff I was actually a sergeant but in a staff sergeant position and I had my soldiers you know when you do formations like all my soldiers are on my left and then yeah first gun crews second third and I was fourth and the third section chief turned around and said something my soldiers today I want to see your shaving profile he said that to one of my soldiers um I said no you know I did I was like I'm a staff sergeant I don't care who you are so things not again probably about that last part but I told him I said you probably need to turn around so uh he's like I'm a staff sergeant okay that's our that soldiers not gonna do anything you just told me to see he's in my gun crew I you know in other words he didn't trust that I'd already checked and then I was taking care of my soldiers he thought he could it did not work out so a few words were said things are was called they were like yeah Princeton's crazy he's Ranger qualified leave him alone and then went back their way so and he never saw that profile so to this day and if he's listening I apologize I was a little hateful um but that's the three things I would give you advice is that as tough as I was on my soldiers they knew that no matter what I would like said this was the same guy that was ruthless on what they would do but I think that's probably what saved me most of the time is they think they really knew I cared so those three things expert at your job maintain discipline with yourself and your soldiers and then take care Sergeant Cardona just sitting up here on this panel and listening to that kind of what is your kind of what's going through your head what's your reaction to just hearing kind of those kind of words of wisdom like how do you kind of take that internalize it and then put that into well since I I just recently picked up sergeant but those are some of the qualities that I I want to embody once I do start having my own squad and being a team leader and being able to take care of my soldiers and get to know them on a personal level to understand what it is they need on their professional level as well as their personal level and so those those really resonated with me in wanting to improve myself as a team as we talk about building these cohesive teams you know how does something like the word inclusion or diversity kind of impact our ability to do that and kind of help us like really set the the foundation you know for what that means that first time since I'll start with you and us may I'd love to hear your thoughts yeah so I think that starts with you got to have you have to get to know your soldiers and I'm talking beyond the hey how are you doing and you just keep it moving it could you know tracking counseling sessions etc but just that the daily engagement because you know you'll have inclusion you'll have black white this that so get to know your soldiers where do they come from Puerto Rico Africa Germany what have you and once you get to know them one you'll know what makes them tick you know how they operate or why they do or do not operate in such a way and then it's it's like the great thing about the army is that it's just an awesome melting pot and that's what makes us so unique we're not all from privilege we're not all from we all don't come from nothing everybody is different and as a leader it is your job to have everybody meet in the middle because to sometimes those personalities can clash based on history or wherever they come from so the inclusion I think that what makes us just just a powerful and as a leader you know I've been doing it for a while for the younger soldiers it to me it makes it fun I love walking up to a soldier especially in your brand you need you know I told y'all recently I've I've been in the on the job for 60 days now I'm at a point where 85% I'm knowing my soldiers but I'm still getting to know I mean it's just awesome to say oh I didn't know you were from such and such and then it just creates that dialogue hey first of where you from we're oh I'm born and raised in Germany and then that just whoa we have more in common than I thought so it's a icebreaker for sure it can create trust build cohesive teams that's just like the scratching of the surface and then one thing leads into another going into everything the SMA said now you can establish all of that so um you're not gonna like this are over near but um it's this is gonna be a meringue right back to you um I think initially diversity is a number and inclusion means I actually listen to people so I could have a room full of people but if I'm not actually paying attention or I don't value your thoughts doesn't mean anything right I mean yeah it's great we got you at the table but we don't want you to talk so so sorry we've had these conversations you and I so I mean how do you feel about that do you feel included in my squad of course dangerous question he goes no I hate you sir well I'm since we're going there I'll pull the curtain back a little bit something that people don't know the inner workings of the sergeant major of the army's office there's really only about five of us in the office but of those five you know in the past couple years we've had single parents we have a gr soldiers we have infantry we have combat engineer you know the public affairs and all of us kind of come from a little bit different backgrounds you know we had one woman who you know she did not have a close relationship with her parents and one day she comes in and she had said that her uncle passed away and I think a natural thing would be like well you know yeah that's sad but like it's your uncle but if you didn't know her and know about her background then you wouldn't know that her uncle was really like her dad and so you know that takes on a completely different weight and so I'll say from my experience is being a part of that a part of the office it's it's been great to model but like you said we have a room full of people and yes it is a very diverse audience but we want to be inclusive so I'll ask somebody from the audience your experience has been and if you've seen something that a deflect there I think I did a great job I thought you were gonna say you know you really do feel included in my office you got a voice but it's okay you ruined it thanks I mean I'm moderating the live stream so I have a big voice right now I get the microphone so I'll ask somebody from the audience if somebody wants to come on and stand up I'll hand you this microphone from my hand and I'm gonna stall until somebody stands up and then I'm gonna point at somebody so right here your specialist your airborne wings are shiny going and come on up because you decided to sit up front isn't that how that works it does so I'd love for you to just kind of talk about what your experience in your squad has been like kind of how you were welcomed in like how you kind of got to know your team and and if that was a good experience or you know maybe something that you learned good or bad from that Introduce yourself, what do you do? Yeah, sorry, hello, um, oops, sorry I'm specialist Rihanna I'm from 373 Bravo Troop 1st Brigade when I first got here I believe I was pretty much well included into the Troop itself first team leader who is actually not in the Army anymore was Sergeant Grosso yeah Sergeant Grosso welcomed me in gave me a little bit of disciplinary training but as such I'm sure everybody everybody will relate but he welcomed me in with all open arms obviously I was pretty much raised Army standard by a specialist Seymour who is now currently a team leader on to be a sergeant really good guy and I think one thing that I can reflect on was when we had a team life fire he conducted the squad so good that our commander captain Christian Sloan was looking at both me and the rest of my squad and said how did you get them trained so well how is their cohesion so well that it looks like the same person is moving on both sides as you bound up through team life fires and the way a specialist Seymour at the time answered was well I don't really spend a lot of time with them training as I should but they are so cohesive outside of a professional business like we all live in the barracks and you can always just go knock on someone's door and get to know them just as it is in work where how first our Simmons brought up it's more of than a hey all the way how are you doing it's more of a oh hey you know where are you from and where were you born raised where what base did you build off of pretty much so I think that's pretty much how we broke the ice and my squad ended up being one of the best squads that our first sergeant and both our captain had seen in a very long time and yeah that's pretty much it's on yeah thank you um Steph's arm Pat as you kind of hear that story about the impacts that cohesion can have on readiness and lethality what's kind of been your experience and how are you doing that with what the soldiers around you I think first arm Simmons and specialist John definitely put up a good point so being a leader in this yo isn't just about leading your soldiers being able to have the attention authenticity of conversing with them the actual caring for that soldier not just a hey how are you like I mentioned previously it's not emotional intelligence of actually speaking with that soldier and things are going hard with them understand and it be able to adapt of what's going on with them not just on the surface level on the inside so having that empathy and other characteristics of emotional intelligence I believe mission quality leader as you SMA you're about to wrap up 36 years of service I'm sure you've spent your entire career just you know getting to know your soldiers and having a lot of fun and being just a real nice caring understanding leader always always what's the other side of that coin though kind of how do you balance that with the fact that this is the United States Army we exist to fight and win the nation's wars to protect America and you know sometimes that's dirty business so how do you balance the two yeah like anything is always grounded in a story right so I remember this I had I was a very young staff sergeant very young so I think it might have been 23 maybe as a staff sergeant and another soldier specialist and I we both were dating Germans at the time we're both in Germany so we would often go out knew my first name and one day he was up top in the barracks and I was down I was in I think I'm almost certain I was in uniform and he used my first name and it was not a pleasant moment and so and what I told him you know very forcefully was that hey you know that's good you know when we're doing this we're going out dates to be awkward for you to call me you know staff sergeants that's weird you know that's not happening but when this uniform does on I have a job to do and you got a job and and you you cross the line you broke a trust and this is kind of you know I was curious at it so you broke a trust and you know are you willing to put that friendship on the line because at work I may have to tell you do something that you don't like that's just my job and you got to respect that and believe or not he apologized and completely understood what I was saying so you can you can have fun you can enjoy yourself and and I'm not saying you know when you see me you know anywhere around I never introduced myself as the Sergeant has your trust me this it's we most I'm not even in uniform I don't I mean you know official title or something but when you meet me I always just say hi this is who I am it's not the Sergeant 99% of time but then people go okay we got a server so but you got to respect that we can all get together have fun and then and I'm not saying there's a line here or a line there is that you got to get to know each other and it's okay to go out and have a good time with each other but you know when you got a job to do you might be told to do something that could get you killed you know if you're in combat and I'm the first sergeant and we go hey I need you to go through that door and now that's not the time to go and you know I don't like that Tony okay I'm like okay I appreciate that so so and on the other side as the leader you can't be thinking about this is somebody I know I know their families so I've had that in combat I knew people's families I knew their kids but we also had a very dangerous job to do and he required a lot of discipline he still had to do it and they had to respect that that's those are lawful orders and that we're gonna have to execute something really dangerous but knowing that on a personal level never stopped me from doing my job and it never stopped them from doing their job but actually made it better they trusted that whatever we had said that we'd done it for the right movement right time there's no time to argue we have to execute this right now and they trusted me and I trusted them and I think they did that because we knew each other I went to every family's house when I was a first sergeant if they came into my unit I would say okay I never really ask I'm just gonna be honest with you it's like hey welcome to the unit my wife and I are gonna stop by so I guess there was a question in there but it's more rhetorical and we're gonna welcome you to the unit we bring some flowers and we just say hi welcome to area so I mean I personally knew people as kids when we deployed I mean if something bad happened to my soldiers and it did I knew that we had to go through that door and I knew fool fully what that meant and if something bad happens to my soldiers I knew that I'd have to call that family that already knew so there was a lot of trust there but I think if you took that out imagine a world where you went to that combat that you didn't feel that the first sergeant that showed up your house didn't know your family and you didn't trust that they you know they knew you enough do you still want to even go in that door I just couldn't imagine that as a small unit leader and that's kind of what that meant to me is that that level of trust that there is a line and they're blurry and it's not gonna be perfect we want I think sometimes the army won't want perfect little lines you're an NCO your soldier you sit over there we sit over here your officer you're over there and we're over here and and after 36 years in all reality the lines are all over the place another blurry they're mixed they're often I mean you think the officers only have education and enlisted don't and that's not true we got masters degree we got PhDs that are listed so it's all these lines that we want to create aren't real we got to make sense of it it's not gonna be perfect we need to know our people there's got to be trust higher to lower and then we got to execute and the bottom line is sometimes this is what we do you know we're required to fight and win the nation's and I think we're much better at that if we just know our people yes so private shipment you know not everybody that comes in the army maybe has had that experience of you know meeting people different from them or you know depending on where you come from you said you're from Arkansas I'd love to hear your experience joining the army and maybe something that surprised you about just the people that you met yes so I enlisted went through OSA and arrived here all at 17 years old so I mean that was also kind of a surprise to me just being the only 17-year-old that was in my troop probably the whole squadron so that kind of throw me off guard but it was just coming here there was I mean they'd always crack jokes about just still being like not even being an adult yet but it was never like a problem of like just falling like falling in to the like puzzle I guess like so like my roommate for instance a specialist Riley he was a team leader at the time so he always like just helped me just like square all my stuff away at the time so it was never a problem of just like finding people or like a problem with having like trouble to ask questions it was they always like pretty much pushed me to do that so they I'm just like specialist Rhonda said it was just with open arms whenever as soon as I got here okay I got it I gotta ask what surprised you about your first unit but what didn't surprise you about your first unit I love asking this course I do it all the time but I gotta know one thing that didn't surprise me was all the way through OSA and airborne school my drill sergeant told me like going to 82nd it's a it's a big thing like you they pretty much told me like you're gonna be above like the rest of the army is what they told me so like just seeing how people carry themselves that day I guess you could say that here I can say that here but it didn't surprise me how people carry themselves here and everybody's just confident with everything they do and that was one thing that just didn't surprise me but again just being the like I never met another 17 year old outside of OSA that just threw me off like I didn't know it's gonna be so obsolete to just join that young okay would you say there would you say there was a lot of a lot of diversity where you come from did you feel like when you came into the army that you're like okay like yeah this is kind of what I expected there not really too much diversity but like it's never like a problem with like accepting people so like whenever I got here I had a like obviously going to OSA it's people from everywhere so that was it wasn't really a new thing but it was really cool just meeting like people from Cuba one of my best friends going through OSA and he came here with me as from Cuba so he like I help him introduce him to our culture and he like tries his best to introduce me to there so it's just I like the just everybody coming from everywhere I like learning new things about everybody pretty much I will do Sergeant Cardona you know I just did it kind of fell under the trap of you know using words like diversity as a buzzword but would you say that is a major focus here do you think that the people who kind of come from all these places they get assigned to these units that they're actually focused on those kinds of issues are more about the the work in the mission that you have what's been your experience personally in my experience it's not necessarily diversity would be more inclusion understanding that each individual does come from a different background and each individual has a different skill set different thought process and understanding that those thought processes those thought processes make us stronger right different points of views and and again kind of what like what Sergeant Major the Army said it's it's okay to be able to listen right but you also have to comprehend what they're saying really understand the meaning or what it is they want and what they want to achieve and I think the Army has done a really great job in including individuals although however nothing is perfect no organization is perfect there's always going to be more improvement in the in the progress of inclusion so as long as the Army continues forward with wanting to include individuals and wanting to actually adhere and comprehend what they're saying then we'll see the future what do you may like to push back or provide another perspective I'd like you to ask the 19 Delta the same question I would love to ask the 19 Delta question do you think that the that you know we hear these buzzwords like diversity and inclusion do you think those are actually areas of focus or do you think that those are things that just kind of happen and really the focus is more on that mission no I definitely agree to what sergeant was saying I do feel that they have been doing a great job as far as like the big Army and our unit alone of including people I don't it's hard to say that it's diverse because I don't feel like a lot of people are left out I personally felt included and I still do especially being one of the few females in my unit it's very rare and I there's with being like one female in my platoon I did feel very welcomed and very appreciated I still do so I think the question not that I'm the moderator but I am the sergeant Army and I want to rephrase it so what's it what's your main focus when you wake up when you go to work what is it my main focus is to inspire my soldiers around me and be great at what our job I want to be the best at what we do which is okay yeah that's what I'm saying I think the first sergeant the same question when you wake up every day what is your you know number one focus is it man I just want to be more inclusive today or is it this is my mission I was gonna caveat so I made the answers are great I see where they're getting at but from a senior leader perspective and I and I have these conversations with the plethora of people peers of seniors and subordinates at the end of the day it is mission focus we shouldn't just wake up and like all right let's talk about inclusion how about we talk about the mission like how about we talk about x y and z and and there is a time in place and like she said I'm the army is gearing towards you know x y and z but the mission is a focus just the day focus alright we have PT etc on a on a small scale of things so my mission SMA is more focus driven if something happens in that realm that needs to be addressed because we will always have issues as a military a hundred percent it needs to be addressed you know we do things like mentorship groups and female mentorship groups etc etc to address these things you know you can go as far as eo and sharp in the programs but ultimately you know I am a firm believer if you come to work and you just want to hustle and grind at your job like you said SMA just be the SME I think that'll just shatter a lot of problems that we have as a military show up forget about your female forget about your this and your that just try to be the best scout 14 tango you know feel that like just try to be the best you can be at that realm and I think that'll shatter a lot of issues I take you go back to the scout what are your thoughts you're shaking your head I agree I agree you know it's okay to disagree I do it all the time I do too no being great is what I focus on I I think people do it in a different way and I think a lot of people don't see that like not everyone is going to be great at the same thing and sharing that experience and expertise and what you're great at with everyone around you then that's how you make everyone be the best they can be what's your what's your number one focus when you wake up in the morning honestly my number one focus is make sure you know I'm at the right place right uniform right but like a true zone really smooth speaking I think a big huge topic especially in the unit I would get is a systemic man systemic unit so I'm always about enhancing the unit sereneness either being mission a bit school test level 10 plan F range etc etc so I think unit I'm sorry the army as a whole especially when it comes to a supporting job supporting OS they kind of lack the lethality of qualifying with your designated carbine carving I'm sorry if 249 saw 240 stuff like that I think what it has to do as well is going over the basic PMIs the instructions how to actually utilize that weapon system and perform and qualify so my background it was I was an infantry for 10 years and what I can do to enhance the quality of my unit itself is to be able to exercise that skills and experience to better future or better enhance the unit's future as mad love for you to talk about maybe some of the things the army has done in the last couple of years that really gets after what sarin Pat's talking about yeah we've worked on lethality since I've been this army's army probably since I've been in the army for 36 years you know I just want to be very clear we try to make ourselves more lethal more ready every day and that's the number one mission the number one mission army is fighting when the nation's wars already said that but specifically the last four years I really thought that we we didn't get expertise in our basic soldier task and that was everybody and that's why I was really harping on every soldier has an opportunity to go out and do the expert soldier badge we had that for every unit we had it for our medical units at the expert field medical badge but I said I wanted to enhance the abilities of every MLS to know their basic skills ties so we created the expert soldier badge that was official I think right there in a USA in 2019 so we we got that established that you could do that and my hope was that each organization in the army has a time and doesn't matter your MLS if you go back and pull back those skills that you need the skills being you know do I understand how to apply its hurricane do I know how to reduce load fire and clear a 240 Bravo do I know how to employ the weapons because here's what I found in combat in five years of combat that those skills everybody needs it I need you to know your job you need to be an expert logistician in an expert 42 alpha you need to be an expert 14 tango but you also have to not forget that you're an expert soldier and I by having an expert soldier badge I want everybody to motivate everyone in the army to not forget about those skills because that's something you can't make up I got really bad news for you if you're in a combat logistics patrol resupplying an organization in Baghdad you had to drive those trucks from Kuwait all the way up to Baghdad you get shot at that's not the time to figure out how to fire the 240 man most people was a lot such as infantry folks do the enemy doesn't know they don't care I'm pretty sure in your uniform it says us army and they want to kill you and if you don't shoot back they're more than happy than killing so that's the focus of the expert soldier badge was to incentivize everybody in the army to don't forget about those basic skills know your job but that's still your job your basic job is as a soldier so we created expert soldier badge we actually combine them on now it's a E3B so you can do it all together we're bringing back a little bit of land that we're making land nav with a map at a compass we're also going to go back to the field in our basic leader course we've gotten a new rifle and most people haven't seen that yet so that's a really cool rifle you get a chance to shoot it I mean it's really nice 500 meter shot and my eyes aren't as good as they used to be and I hit the target pretty easily so we focus not in not just on the skills that you do in your unit expert soldier badge what can we change in PME and we're backing it up with systems that's why I talked about all three of those weapon school and what you can do at your unit to make yourself a more lethal soldier it builds a cohesive team imagine you know first sergeant she's down there and you do your expert soldier badge with your unit and they're all you know like wow we did that's not our normal day job is make sure you're really good at your air defender job but imagine you could do those other things the comments we got back on expert badge when we ran the first time was a soldier said I've been deployed if I would have done this before I deployed I would have felt a lot better when I came off the plane and that's what convinced me we had so we focused in on those three areas training PME and what we're doing in individual units on lethality for four years yeah and seeing those those tests combined together you know now units don't have the excuse of well I have to pick right expert infantry or expert soldier or expert field medic badge what's your vision for the future of the NCO course specifically when it relates to establishing that expertise early on in their career my vision is five years from now when you set this panel and every soldier up here will have an expert badge and every sergeant major if you want to be a sergeant major United States Army you'll have an expert I mean how do you demonstrate remember I said number one thing I'd give all advice for staff sergeants was know your job you know job number one is be a good soldier so that's how you could test that so I think it my vision years from now is that everybody had that opportunity and then we're gonna promote those that actually get that badge so if you're down as a young soldier you should strive to get that you have multiple opportunities you know if you don't get it the first time don't worry about it go back and then go again and go again and that's why we're really tried to make it easier but the vision right now for just in that one specific area is you'll look across in this panel they'll have an expert badge and these young soldiers like I want to be like that person right there so it'd be the same thing Ranger tab and expert soldier badge I think that will be more common it should be more common in the next five or six years that's my vision right so we'll see you all in 2028 with your expert badges as we wrap up you know we talked about you know very briefly in the beginning the reason you know we're kind of having this discussion commemorating that 75th anniversary of the executive order I want to go back where we started talking about the triple nickel the 555th and when General Gavin brought them into the 82nd one of the NCOs Walter Morris was a member of that first test platoon I recalled that white soldiers and black soldiers moved into the same barracks and that was historic and there was not one incident of racism at the time and I think that that really kind of goes to what we're saying about this idea of cohesion and lethality and that when everyone you know comes together and focuses on their mission you know a lot of that other stuff kind of breaks down as private shaman said you know he didn't he didn't have a Cuban friend before he joined the army and you know now he's kind of been introduced to that culture and being able to share and have those experiences so what I think is really unique about this 75th anniversary is that when President Truman signed that executive order the 82nd really didn't see a change because they had already had some of the desegregation in place already and I think that's a tribute to the professionalism of the US soldier just that you know when we align ourselves with a mission something like this you know doesn't have a big effect that we can trust each other and that we you know we all come together to accomplish that mission which is to fight when the nation's worse so as we wrap up as a man I'd love to give you the last word well but first anybody else on the panel have anything that's kind of been burning in your heart that you you want to say okay that we're going to challenge the private has to say something before I close there's one thing that you would like to see us fix about the army what would be that one thing please don't say beards because it's not gonna happen so I take that one off so go next honestly my experience our major has been it's been really good since I've been here I've been welcomed without any problems I've been really like walked through pretty much everything I need to do like in the one field problem we had we had platoon six there was never like them getting like too mad I mean they'd get upset if I didn't if I mess up but they kind of understood it was um it was my first field problem here at the unit so they kind of just like talk me through and help me through and then the next time we saw that like in a in a reactive contact or something it was it was just done smoother the second time so obviously everything that I've encountered so far has been good and smooth so I wouldn't really recommend any changes okay there you go no changes to the army I just kind of close with you know especially with what we're talking about with 75 years and I'll all in and with what I actually started with and you heard it multiple times nobody up here wants to be judged by what we look like we want to be judged by our actions and our accomplishments and when it when people try to put us in that position we push back to include me you know at some point three years ago a lot of people said it's our major you know what about this are you the first this or first that I was like none of that matters to me what matters to me is I want to be the best version of me that I can't be I want to be known you know did the 60 decimate exactly everything you did possible that's what I want to be just nothing else my m.o.s. where I came from where I grow up not by how weird my hair looks sometimes do I get a little darker in the sun so or any of that that's I just want to be the best version of me that I can be and that's what we all need to look at your you automatically have prejudices when you see people you automatically just I think everybody in the world does you need to acknowledge that and go okay I acknowledge that but then judge them are their actions what they need to be look past your own judgment or prejudice and say is the actions of this person great or not and I think when you push through that as every individual in the world and judge people by their actions will be okay it's great as we need to be and that's the words of encouragement I give you all we have great people in here that are extremely focused on what they do and their mission and they're gonna get you all will continue to do that but you you got to get through your own binders maybe even acknowledge that you have some swings in your gap but then at the end of that you look across and say is this person and I've done this several times I hit you know put them like in two categories are they helpful or they're not helpful you know it's like they're not helpful I just go whoop it's okay you're not helpful I appreciate it go stand in the corner look at chalkboard everyone else they're helpful let's get let's talk to these folks so in other words judge people on their actions and hold them accountable if they're not meeting their expectations doesn't matter there fix it hey that's not right you know and don't be afraid to do that doesn't matter you know store everything well this you know when we're putting women in entry this one's older goes hey you know only women can protect women in my head I was like that's insane that didn't make any sense so we got to push back that we got to be great and that's what I know that you're gonna do so I appreciate it thank you some might say we have to be all that you can be we'll close on that thank you so much thank you John thanks to our panelists and thanks for joining us live on divids on social media and on the force com frontline podcast