Are you currently serving as an Active Duty 1SG or have in the past?

When I had my Diamond, we had a very tight group of 1SGs in my BN.  This was critical for many reasons.  One of those was the fact that we could go out to breakfast, or sit together in one of our offices, and talk about things.  We could bounce ideas off of one another and even vent about issues.  It was both beneficial and therapeutic. 

Some of the challenges that I had were balancing the Company missions along with the various courses and personalities.  My Company consisted of almost 600 folks that included all BN Staff, four Courses worth of NCOs and WOs (cadre) and a large DAC and Contractor instructor population.  I also had a MOS producing school in my Company where the students ranged in rank from SPC(P) to LTC.  It was a very diverse Company.  The challenging part was getting a pulse on each of the entities and developing ways to maximize their strengths and mitigating their weaknesses.  I also learned a great deal about the nuances that arise between Military and Civilian instructor pools...both real and imagined. 

I leaned on my fellow 1SGs, a few peers from across our BDE and regularly talked to CSMs and SGMs that have mentored me along the way.  1SG time was the best time of my career.  It is definitely not a "one person show" and I am thankful for those that helped me along the way. 

That would have been a nice page for me a few years back, during OIF III, I served as in a 1SG position while a E6, and then again as an E7 just before I retired. The biggest challenge other than the norms for most in that particular leadership position was the maltreatment and disregard I received from other 1SGs in the BN/BDE because I was only an E6, I was told an E6 couldn't be frocked, but I still did the job with great praise, and got a 1/1 on my NCOER and had promote now and send to ANCOC immediately out of it. The other time as an E7 was frocked so there were no issues, but still a learning curve on both occasions.

I would actually be interested to view the page, but probably wouldn't be accepted being retired and only an E7 when I walked out the door, as I would like to check it out and possibly recommend it to many of my E8/9 friends that could benefit from and contribute to as well.

Thanks for sharing, I have done my best even in retirement to continue to mentor and share here on RP as well.  Good luck.