Officers: How do you feel about NCOs? What would you define an NCOs mission to be, and how do you feel about the promotion rates?

I could be wrong, probably am, but it was always my understanding that the role of the commissioned officer was to designate the mission, make decisions, and take responsibility. It was the role of the NCO to delegate mission assignments to subordinates based on intimate knowledge of each persons' strengths and weaknesses, supervise their performance, and "fill the gaps". These roles were obviously interrelated and complementary.

Yes, commissioned officers should heed the advice of their subordinate leaders, but the decision is still theirs to make and responsibility to take regardless of their experience or lack thereof. A commissioned officer who doesn't understand where "the buck stops" isn't worth anything. Sadly, there was an abundance of commissioned officers who were only too willing to pass the buck leading me to doubt my response to this question.

But, commissioned officers can't follow the advice of NCOs blindly, especially when NCOs are wrong or two equally placed NCOs (for example, two squad leaders) differ in their advice.

Then there is the problem we had in Vietnam with a paucity of experienced NCOs. I was handed a set of sergeant stripes to hand out to the most "likely" candidate among the E3s and E4s. There wasn't an E6 or E7 anywhere in sight. To compensate, the Army created the NCO academy and those graduates were about as qualified as graduates of OCS.

NCOs have been the backbone of everything I have done. They are always there to support me and assist me in completing my mission. They are knowledgeable and always willing to give suggestions and ideas where needed or asked for and are not insulted if we go another way.

If not for NCOs, Officers would fall apart.

As a former NCO, I would say to follow the advice given in the NCO creed. I always value the NCO creed to this day and say it proudly anytime I hear it. In part three regarding "Officers of my unit will have maximum time to accomplish their duties; they will not have to accomplish mine", I always thought most of the Officers were lost. What I truly realized in serving as an HHC XO in 2BCT, 82nd Airborne Division... is that any Officer ( and NCOs) can easily become overwhelmed. It's not that the Officer's were lost, ... as an NCO... I did not take into account in the amount of responsibility an Officer had and all of their additional duties (yes, meetings are vital to planning even though they take much of the time and it killed me as an NCO to sit in my OICs meetings because I was unable to execute missions... so the OICs need to do this part)

I tried to take on too many tasks as an XO in having pride as a former NCOIC and Asst Plt Sgt. At that level, I had no LT peers to assist me (because its not a typical company and there are no PLs). In networking with the section NCOIC of the each of the shops, they accomplished many of the things that needed to be done. It was painful at first because many of the systems I inherited were broken. What I ignored was much of the planning in accomplishing of those tasks. Lack of planning, but task accomplishment does not truly solve the problem. Trusting and involving all NCO as well as junior Soldiers is most important. As a result of the section NCOs accomplishing their duties, I was able to focus more on planning, maintenance, and other difficult tasks that had to be covered for an HHC, BCT (this took three months to transition over).

Basically what I am saying is that your job is vital to every Officer within your organization. That is only half the part. The main part is taking CARE of the Soldiers, inspiring, and growing them to become excellent NCOs. As a result, their leadership supports their OICs. In return, the OICs support their NCOs in earning their trust in: "I will earn their respect and confidence as well as that of my Soldiers". Basically, the NCO is the backbone that strengthens the Officer Corps and the development of the Soldiers that grow and support the missions of the Army as a whole. Hope I did not ramble to much, but the XO job during GRF really made me see all levels at play and how much the NCO creed serves as a guide for all regardless of rank. I share that knowledge to many of the junior Soldiers to help see the whole picture (because I wish I could have know this as a SPC back then)