Posted on Jan 25, 2018
CSM Eric Olsen
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I have my suspicions but can someone provide any kind of doctrinal reference? I am gratefully working with partnered countries in the Atlantic Resolve footprint and each country uses different terms for their senior NCOs.
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Responses: 6
SFC Michael Hasbun
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SEL: Senior Enlisted Personnel in a Leadership Position
SEA: Senior Enlisted Personnel in an advisory, non leadership Position.

I don't know that doctrinally it really gets more complicated that that...
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CSM Eric Olsen
CSM Eric Olsen
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Words have meaning, especially in the military, and there are some official titles with one of each of the words in our profession. Another thing about our great military is that nearly every word that the untrained eye would consider a buzzword is actual doctrinal (i.e. BLUF). Ill check FMSweb. I am sure there is doctrine that specifies the answer to my question and yes I was already guessing what you posted.
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SFC Derek Peterson
SFC Derek Peterson
4 y
The 'leadership' vs 'non-leadership' analogy appears logical, but I would also like to see some doctrine support. As an Army SFC I worked in a position where I was the senior enlisted person. I was referred to by both titles, depending on the service and position/rank of the person. The actual position was in civilian clothes at an off-post site and uniformed on post/base. When attending meetings with others in similar positions on post/base, I was the only non-SGM (E-9) in attendance. I asked the group (almost a dozen) at the meetings ref the difference in titles and received varying responses. The consensus at the meeting was that, for me (my situation), the titles were interchangeable. Smiles all around as if to indicate 'it doesn't really matter'. Again, it would be interesting to find doctrine in writing for support/background.
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MSG Intermediate Care Technician
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I'm not finding anything doctrinal, and what I am finding is that the names are basically synonymous with each other, but then what I am finding isn't from actual military related sites. The best place I even found an answer was Wikipedia, but we all know how "accurate" that site can be.
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SFC Vernon McNabb
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The way I see it, CSM Eric Olsen, is that the SEL is also an advisor to his/her counterpart (i.e. 1SG to Company Commander, BN CSM to BN Commander, etc). An SEA would be more in line with the relationship between an Ops NCO (MSG) to the S-3 (MAJ) at the BN level. The Ops NCO would also advise the CSM in the BN. The line between SEL and SEA is somewhat gray, but this is how I would delineate between them. As far as there being something doctrinal, I am unaware.
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