Airmen mentor Kyrgyz NCOs

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. James A. Rush
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) --  Airmen here had a chance to shape the development of the Kyrgyzstan’s noncommissioned officer corps when 20 local NCOs attended a daylong seminar here Oct. 24.

The visit by Kyrgyz NCOs followed a tour taken by 19 host-nation officers in August. The combined visits exposed all the active components of the Kyrgyz military to the U.S. system of enlisted leadership.

“I think this gives (Kyrgyz) officers and NCOs a stronger insight on what we’re about,” said Senior Master Sgt. Deno Mackin, project officer for the visits and operations superintendent for the 376th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. “It removes some of the fear of Americans by showing them ‘these are people just like us.’ We’ve opened their eyes to how the process can work, especially when they toured the work sections and (saw) NCOs in action.”

Kyrgyz military officials are developing an internal structure and looked to the United States for an example, Mackin said. Key elements include an objective-promotion system based on weighted factors, a career-long education plan aimed at developing NCO characteristics, and leadership opportunities on the job and through enlisted organizations.

“Right now, they have no solid foundation for how an NCO becomes an NCO,” Mackin said. “My feeling is that they’ll fine tune their current system with a lot of our ideas. Why reinvent the wheel when they have a strong (example) visiting their country already.”

The first visit concentrated on convincing Kyrgyz officers of NCO potential, Mackin said. After its success, the officers requested a second visit for the Kyrgyz NCOs who will lay the foundation for their services’ enlisted programs.

“They’ve already been through some NCO preparations; this is kind of like the icing on the cake,” Mackin said. “These guys will go on to train others to be NCOs. The ranking guy had five years in service, so it was important to cover how an airman becomes an NCO.”

The enlisted visitors had several questions pertaining to professional relationships with officers and members of the opposite sex. Getting people to follow orders was a frequent topic as well. Answers to both issues were shown during tours of the base dining facility, fire department, working-dog kennels and aircraft maintenance sections -- all areas operated with little or no daily officer oversight.

“It never ceases to amaze me how you can go anyplace, anywhere (on base) and everybody is so professional. We really showed why we have the strongest NCO corps in the world,” Mackin said.

Staff Sgt. Michael Nicklow of the 376th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron escorted the Kyrgyz NCOs during the tour and said he felt they were quite impressed by the potential they were shown.

“I was trying to watch them and see if their eyes didn’t light up, but at every stop, they did,” Nicklow said. “Not one time was there any boredom or the feeling of ‘are we done yet.’ Much of our discussion was about living conditions including the dining hall and living quarters (and) we discussed the chain of command.”

Nicklow said he is awed by the potential impact the visit might have on an allied nation’s military services.

“It just blows my mind to think what this really means. We are displaying to the Kyrgyz NCOs what we are all about,” he said. “The NCOs we talked to will talk to their supervisors, peers and subordinates about this, and the word will get out. They are not going to do everything we showed them or talked about, but we provided a useful knowledge base to build upon. I would love to see where they are in year or two.”