Two basic responsibilities will always be uppermost in my mind — accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my Soldiers. The most important thing that NCOs provide to the Army and any unit is their leadership ability in helping the Army accomplish the mission while at the same time taking care of Soldiers. These two most basic responsibilities go hand-in-hand and are equally important although the mission must be accomplished. NCOs have a significant and daily impact upon the lives of soldiers as they interact in accomplishing the task at hand. NCOs provide a buffer between the officer command structure and the Soldiers themselves which allows both the Soldier and the officer of the unit to focus on accomplishing the mission. The reason that this responsibility is most important is because if Soldiers are not taken care of then the mission will suffer along with Army as a whole. An Army organization can still accomplish its mission by not taking care of their Soldiers, but it would only be a matter of time before the unit would break down and become combat ineffective.

Officers of my unit will have maximum time to accomplish their duties; they will not have to accomplish mine. NCOs provide support to the officer corps by doing their assigned and unassigned duties in a faithful and orderly manner that frees up the officer corps and Army commanders to focus on making sound decisions. If officers have to focus on Soldier issues or other mundane tasks that should be accomplished by the NCOs then officers cannot accomplish their duties in a timely, efficient, or sound manner and the unit will suffer. NCOs also provide a common sense sounding board for officers in the decision making process at all levels of Army command. I have witnessed on numerous occasions just how effective NCOs can be in an officer’s decision making process by asking very pointed, well-thought out, and logical questions that may have been accidentally overlooked. Most good NCOs will provide this type of feedback if asked and most good officers will heed that advice.

‘‘I will exercise initiative by taking appropriate action in the absence of orders.” No matter how good the officer leadership may be within an Army organization there are always implied tasks that must be accomplished and it is the NCO that ensures that these non-directed tasks get accomplished. It is the NCO Corps that provides the Army the continuity to continue functioning at a high level as the officer leadership transitions within a unit. Good order and discipline is maintained by the NCOs of a unit and not by how much punishment the commander may dole out. It is NCOs that set the example and are the standard bearers of professionalism for Army units. A unit can’t wait for the commander to make all of the decisions within an organization and our Army organizations are constructed in such a way that mandates that NCOs act when no given set of orders is available. This simple act of NCO sets our Army apart from many in the world.

The commander of a unit may be equated to the head of a beast that provides the brains and decisions for an Army organization but it is the NCO that provides the backbone upon which that beast’s head is perched. A beast’s head without a backbone for support is useless and a backbone with no head to lead it is also just as ineffective, but it the combination of the two allows the beast to fully function and this illustration helps explain what makes the NCO the ‘‘backbone of the Army.”