Can you describe the best junior enlisted who worked for you?

I arrived to my unit in Germany in 2005 and was greeted by a 92A SPC Rodgers. Immediately I knew something was different with him because of the way he spoke to me. His maturity level exceeded every other E-4 and below that I’ve ever encountered and it rivaled many of the best NCO’s and Officers that I’ve worked with too. Got to talking to him and found out that he had a BA in business from the University of Florida while he also played football and he was working on his Master’s degree. After about 45 days of watching his performance and interaction with the unit and Battalion, I knew that I had to get him into the OCS program. The process was fairly easy. I was already a candidate for the Warrant Officer Course and left before I could find out if he was selected. So fast forward to 2009, I’m walking into a deployment RIP/TOA brief in Kuwait and I hear someone say, “Chief” it was now 1LT Rodgers. We shook hands and caught up really quick before the brief started and he thanked me for my help and told me that becoming an officer was one of the best decisions on his life. He made CPT in 2010 and he is doing really well.

MAJ Ken Landgren I had a similar experience with one of my E-4 cooks in the 89th SB. She had joined the military to try a new experience and had her 4-year degree in healthcare administration. I was going through the chow line one day and just speaking with all the cooks to see how things were going. The Mess Sergeant introduced the entire team and I spent some talking with them all. I was so encouraged by her level of education and military bearing. Long story short I went to bat for her to get a direct commission into the AMEDD Career Field. Before I knew it she was getting commissioned and we were pinning bars on the new officer. She immediately stepped up to the plate and for almost a year she took over the duties of the Brigade Surgeon for the entire Brigade. Then she became a great Junior Officer.

I can tell you over the 37 years that I spent in the military there were a great number of "super enlisted soldiers" that worked for me! I moved a lot of them into OCS and into direct commissions or off the NCOES ahead of their peers!

MAJ Ken Landgren this is something that I would love to read here more often. Thank you for posting this discussion Sir!