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A recent mentoring luncheon held Oct. 5 at the Ramstein Officers’ Club on Ramstein gave senior noncommissioned officers a chance to teach company grade officers about the structure of the enlisted corps and leadership.
“As senior NCOs, we are charged with mentoring and developing our company grade officers into leaders,” said Senior Master Sgt. Willie Frazier, 1st Communications Maintenance Squadron superintendent. “This luncheon helps us to do that.”
While senior NCOs are responsible for mentoring the junior officers, company grade officers are responsible for learning from them to develop themselves.
“Commissioned officers are charged with executing the mission effectively and efficiently and we cannot do it without (learning from) our enlisted force,” said Capt. Lori Wilhelm, 86th Military Personnel Flight commander.
During the luncheon, officers were free to choose any topics they felt were necessary, but the two main topics were enlisted performance reports and the enlisted force distribution panel.
“At my last base, I had to fight for my noncommissioned officer at the wing level for her to get a stratification and a promotion statement,” Wilhelm said. “I was nervous, because this NCO’s career and future were in my hands. Thanks to my senior NCO who helped prepare me and gave me talking points, when it got to me I was able to rattle off everything she had done the previous year.”
Because of Wilhelm’s senior NCO co-worker mentoring and preparing her for the meeting, her NCO ended up getting the “promote now” statement at the wing level.
“Had it not been for the guidance from a senior NCO I may not have known either,” Wilhelm said. That’s where the idea to have this mentoring luncheon stemmed from.”
With the first luncheon ending in a success, senior NCOs and company grade officers look forward to continuing the program and giving others a chance to learn.
“We want to maintain this as a value-added program,” said Master Sgt. Carlos Garcia, 86th Force Support Squadron career development superintendent. “The key is to keep it small and personable to maintain the open discussion for those in attendance.”
The next SNCO/CGO Mentor Luncheon is scheduled for November and is slated to seat 15 senior noncommissioned officers and 15 company grade officers.
