On Leadership and Taking Care of Service Members

By SSG Lyndsey Prax

Recently I had the opportunity to travel with the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a photographer while he was visiting troops in Afghanistan. To be totally honest, I had never heard of Marine Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia before and when I was assigned the mission and asked to miss the 128th MPAD Thanksgiving Race Car Derby,  I was less than excited.

But after meeting him and his staff, I was extremely grateful for the opportunity because it put into perspective how important it is to be a leader and take care of each other. 

Sgt. Maj. Battaglia preaches and practices leadership to the fullest and while only a few out of the thousands of Soldiers in Afghanistan had the opportunity to sit in his town hall meetings and hear what he had to say, I had the opportunity to attend every one and listened to his speech four times. Each time he spoke he did it with sincerity and truly had our best interests at heart.  He discussed several issues that are on our minds, to include the transitioning of the force and help for separating veterans.

With the reduction of forces, we will become smaller and leaner, but Battaglia ensures we will maintain a level of readiness, posture and poise to answer any emergent requirement that the president may direct.

For those who are making the switch to civilian life, to include active members of the National Guard returning from deployment, Battaglia acknowledged that the change can be difficult and guarantees that we are not alone in these efforts.

“There are two types of separating service members, those who separate prior to reaching 20 years, which is the majority of our force, and those who make it to 20 years for retirement,” he said.  “It’s irrelevant to us whether a service member served four years or four decades. The message here is that they served and that’s important in and of itself. Someone who separated from the active, guard or reserve with an honorable discharge says a lot about one's character; they served in America’s military and no one can ever take that away.”

Earlier this year, the Departments of Defense and Labor jointly launched the Veterans Employment Center, www.ebenefits.va.gov. This site aims to link veterans with job opportunities in their career field.

Another tool introduced by Sgt. Maj. Battaglia is the Noncommisioned Officer and Petty Officer Backbone of the Armed Forces book.  This book was written by a team of enlisted leaders representing the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard with the participation and support of the National Defense University. The book is not a “how to” or instructional manual, but is focused on defining and characterizing the noncommissioned officer and petty officer.