ARLINGTON, Va. – Earlier this year, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Dan Dailey introduced the Not in my Squad initiative, a program designed to combat sexual harassment and assault while highlighting the role the noncommissioned officer corps plays in leading, fostering and sustaining a climate of dignity and respect within their units.
For one Utah Army National Guard Soldier who took part in a NIMS workshop lead by Dailey in June, the message and the initiative hit home leading him to want to do more to build on the objectives of the workshop.
"When I attended the [sergeant major of the Army'] workshop in June I found it to be truly enlightening and hugely beneficial," said Army Staff Sgt. Aaron Bonzo, a training NCO with the Utah Army Guard's 118th Engineer Company (Sapper)."The ability to have groups of staff sergeants sit down and discuss issues followed by the leadership of the Army hearing our voice directly was a unique opportunity."
Bonzo said Dailey charged those in attendance with incorporating similar avenues for discussion within their home units.
With the rare opportunity to execute this and be able to forward more ideas and suggestions to the highest level, I simply couldn't imagine passing up the chance, said Bonzo.
After returning to his unit, Bonzo approached his chain of command and senior NCOs throughout the Utah Army Guard with the idea of running a similar workshop for squad leaders in Utah Army Guard units.
The result was a two-day workshop that focused on the squad leader's role in building and maintaining a positive unit climate, ways that climate can be fostered and methods for building dignity, respect and inclusion for all.
Bonzo facilitated the workshop, posing questions and encouraging discussions among the roughly 20 participants who came from nearly every major command of the Utah Army Guard. There were no formal classroom lessons, said Bonzo, but rather an outline of discussion on a variety of topics.
"My biggest surprise was how readily each squad leader in attendance jumped in and made themselves part of the discussion," said Bonzo. "No one sat out. It just reinforced to me that NCOs at this level are eager to be heard, have great ideas and are truly professionals."
For Bonzo, the workshop stood as a why to confront big items and issues head on.
"The end result in the short term is simply a sharing of ideas and best practices while putting the big issues out on the table rather than avoiding them," he said.
During the workshop, conversations about those issues at times became spirited.
"Discussions became very passionate, whether in agreement on solutions or not," said Bonzo, adding that the discussions themselves were the important part of the workshop.
"Everyone walked away saying that this was exactly what they felt the Army needed to be doing, specifically small group interaction and discussion with a flexible agenda that drives free discussion," he said. "I did not hear anyone with a negative comment about the concept or overall workshop."
That, said Bonzo, will hopefully lead to larger open discussion about those topics and a variety of ways forward that build upon fostering overall positive unit climates.
"This is a way of starting a 'grass roots' type effort to open dialogue and communication with the junior NCO corps," he said. "Going forward we will see some of these NCOs running workshops at the brigade and battalion levels to further open up this sharing of knowledge, experience, and concepts."
And that's all part of the larger meaning of the initiative, which seeks to build on the roles that sergeants and staff sergeants have played in their units through deployments and training over the past decade and a half or so.
The basic concept is that over the last 14-plus years the junior NCO, specifically the squad leader, has become an expert in combat operations and has often filled roles traditionally held by those much higher in the rank structure, said Bonzo. "We have proven our abilities and that we are able to handle split-second decisions with lives on the line."
And for most junior Soldiers, it is often the squad leader who is the face of leadership within their unit they interact with most and the squad leader who often has the most direct impact on their growth and development as a Soldier.
The overall goal, though, is to maintain the squad leader as the leader that a Soldier trusts to assist them in any situation, said Bonzo. "Empowering [those at] the squad leader level to make decisions, give assistance and overall make the unit a better place without having to constantly utilize higher levels of leadership."
And for Bonzo, the initiative has already had positive effects.
"I got to sit down with a group of my peers and have an open discussion about a variety of topics," he said. "I had the opportunity to gain insight and both share and receive ideas with squad leaders from a wide variety of [career fields] andorganizations that I am not always exposed to."
And that can only spread, said Bonzo.
"The concepts that came from [the workshop] are now spreading, and as summaries are sent back up we will have a broader base of concepts from an ever-increasing pool of exceptional young NCOs from across the Army," he said.