Wisconsin Soldiers advance careers while supporting peacekeeping mission in Kosovo

Spc. Joshua Barnett

Multi-National Battle Group East Public Affairs

Half-way through their year-long deployment, roughly 80 Soldiers - including 26 from the Wisconsin National Guard - have taken a major step in the advancement of their enlisted careers. The soldiers have taken time from their normal deployment duties to complete the Warrior Leader Course (WLC).

WLC is the first step in the Army's Noncommissioned Officer Education System (NCOES), providing basic leadership training that allows Soldiers the opportunity to acquire the leader skills, knowledge and experience needed to lead small units, and serves as the foundation for the advanced NCOES courses. Essentially, the course's purpose is to teach soldiers how to be NCOs.

"WLC teaches all the core competencies of how to be a leader, and what the Army needs for leaders," said Staff Sgt. Sean Scales, an instructor with the Army Reserve's 7th Warrior Training Brigade based in Grafenwohr, Germany. "It teaches not only classroom and garrison leadership, but tactical leadership."

The course is built around an intense field training environment that involves hands-on, performance-oriented training. The 26 Wisconsin Soldiers to participate hail from three Wisconsin units: the 64th Troop Command, 157th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade and the 32nd Military Police Company. Almost all of the 200 Wisconsin Army National Guard Soldiers are assigned to Multi-National Battle Group East, a component of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission known as KFOR.

"A lot of people haven't done this stuff since basic training, and its basic soldiering that every soldier needs to know," said Spc. Mitch Hanson of DeForest, Wis., a horizontal construction engineer assigned to Headquarters & Headquarters Company , 157th MEB.

"WLC is great, coming in as a specialist it's going to be a great opportunity to get promoted to E-5, and coming into E-5 I'll be confident," he added. "That's what they teach you is confidence, so you become a good leader."

The course is taught at Camp Bondsteel by soldiers from the Army Reserve's 7th WTB. Two cycles of the course have been offered so far during this deployment, and leadership hopes to add a third this summer.

By bringing the cadre to Camp Bondsteel, and training National Guard soldiers who are already on active duty, the Army is able to save a significant amount of money and free up slots for other soldiers, Scales said.

"Really, it all boils down to money and availability," he said. "With the National Guard and Army Reservists already on orders here, it's a lot easier for the state and for the federal government to send a mobile training team to them, instead of having to mobilize a whole bunch of soldiers at the same time to send them to school; now they can bring the school to them."

According to Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Jarvis, a maintenance supervisor serving as the 157th training NCO, each class held here saves an estimated $98,000 in pay and allowances for the soldiers over activating them for training.

The overall cost savings are even greater now due to the newly-constructed Warrior Leader Complex computer lab, built to accommodate the WLC students as well as other training courses offered at Camp Bondsteel.

Before, a contract had to be arranged with a commercial satellite internet company to provide a distance learning environment for courses such as WLC and the officer-level Intermediate Level Education course. Now, however, they can tap into military's existing network on post to provide internet access to 17 workstations in the computer lab.

That translates into 10's of thousands of dollars in savings to the Army, potentially allowing for more courses to be made available at Camp Bondsteel.

Running the course in theatre does come with challenges, but Jarvis said that hard work and preparation before the WLC cadre arrived made for a smooth implementation.

"With all the planning and preparation that we did, from the preparation of the buildings where the soldiers live to the preparation of equipment; it really paved the way for a seamless transition for me handing the training complex over to the WLC instructors," he said. "I think it led to a great, successful course."

Perhaps even more importantly than the cost savings, offering the course to deployed soldiers allows them to return home and combine their deployment experience with their WLC training to become effective leaders.

"The opportunity to come here and do it while I don't have to take time away from my family, just get here and get it done, is a great deal to me," said Hanson "I'll come back and be on top of these boards back at my unit."