Outgoing Sergeant Major of the Army, Kenneth O. Preston, sent Army NCOs a special send-off message today as incoming SMA Raymond F. Chandler III was sworn in. Preston set a record as the longest serving SMA in the history of the office. At the retirement ceremony, Preston was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. The following is SMA Preston’s send-off message to NCOs:
First off, I want to thank each of you for what you do for our Soldiers, and our Army. Our NCO Corps continues to be the envy of every other country, and much of this is attributed to you, our NCOs. Tuesday, 1 Mar, was a bittersweet day, as I said good bye to the Army after 36 years. I am truly going to miss the Army, but it is time to move on to the next chapter of my life. I do know that the next chapter will include supporting the Army in some capacity.
My last seven years as the SMA in reflection feels like a year or two. The time has passed so quickly and much of Tuesday was a blur. I have spent the week saying my farewells, to Gen. Schoomaker and Gen. Casey, and to each of the Army staff I worked with over the years. I think I will miss talking to Soldiers and Families the most.
I was asked last week in an interview, what accomplishment in the Army I was most proud of during my tenure as the SMA. My answer was that all the accomplishments do not belong to me, but belong to each of you. We have been an Army at War, supporting a Nation at war in both Iraq and Afghanistan, we have liberated 50 million people; and have nearly completed the largest transformation of our Army since WWII. It is because of your hard work and dedication that we continue to transform and reorganize while supporting the Nation on two battlefronts. So, thank each of you for what you do.
Transforming our Army while at war with an all-volunteer force has to be our greatest accomplishment. In July, we celebrate 38 years of the All-Volunteer Force. All of the initiatives to make our Army better, to improve our equipment, uniforms, professional development, education and hundreds of other processes, all would not have been possible without transformation.
Growing the Army by almost 100,000 Soldiers; almost 90,000 in the Active Army alone, modularizing all of our units across all three components of the Army and rebalancing more than 150,000 Soldiers out of Cold War skills to those skills we need today and tomorrow in the missions we will be expected to execute in the future.
With a cyclic rotational model called Army Force Generation, all of our units across all three components have the predictability to systematically plan and prepare for future missions. Our success and the subsequent drawdown in Iraq is now getting us closer to the 1 to 2 ratio for the Active and 1 to 4 ratio for the Reserve Component that we need for stability for our Soldiers and Families.
Today, we can all be proud of the Army we have built together. A combat seasoned force that is the greatest combat force in the history of the world. Today as an institution we are beginning to focus on how we can maintain our combat edge, especially those organizations that may not be needed in theater during their lifecycle. For the trainers among us, this means Mission Essential Task Lists for possible Contingency Operations, knowing the small unit collective tasks and the corresponding individual tasks our Soldiers need to master, to have the necessary capabilities and adaptability to respond to uncertain and ambiguous environments.
For the future, in this era of persistent conflict where we survive as a Nation, we have to be an Army that is constantly looking for innovative ways to change and improve ourselves; adapting to a rapidly changing world, and we have to do it with little or no cost increases. To pull all this off, we must have adaptive leaders who have the communication and critical thinking skills to conceptionally visualize and think through second, third and even fourth order effects of a decision. While we talk about change and transformation of our forces; what we expect of our Soldiers and Leaders will not change.
As a NCO, I always considered myself a teacher. I ask that you continue to be a teacher and a mentor to your Soldiers. Remember, the knowledge that you gain is not solely yours to keep, but yours to take and pass on to the Soldiers in your organization. Use what you learn to teach your Soldiers, and make them better.
Today we can be proud of the fit, disciplined, cohesive teams that are led by skilled and versatile leaders, all focused on excellence and capable of rapid deployment and decisive victory. I am proud to have stood shoulder to shoulder with each of you and your Families and proud to say I am an American.
Army Strong!
