Airmen, Soldiers, Marines attend Corporal’s Course at Al Udeid

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Ciara Wymbs
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
AL UDEID AIR BASE, QATAR (AFNS) --  Airmen, Soldiers and Marines joined forces for a leadership course known to the United States Marine Corps as the Corporal's Course June 2 through 17 at Al Udeid Air Base.

A course normally provided to only Marine corporals to educate and cultivate their leadership skills, was made available for Airmen and Soldiers to gain lessons to grow as aspiring NCOs.

The course instructor's goal was to build the students for the future.

"When we have a group of new leaders they only have one mind set," said Sgt. Justin Daniels, a Corporal's Course instructor. "I wanted to present the students new challenges, new ways to do things and new thought processes while developing them for their future roles."

Senior Airman Luke Meister, a 379th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron contracting officer, said he looked at the class as a fortunate way to gain education while abroad.

"It is an insane opportunity," he said. "I have not met another person of my rank to be able to go to another service's PME, especially while deployed."

The course encompassed lessons from the Marine Corp Warfighting Publication 6-11, which features material on the Marine ethos, foundations and challenges of leadership.

Cpl. Charles Hall, a Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron electronic interceptor operator analyst in the course, wanted to gain as much knowledge as possible to be a standout leader.

"Going into the course I wanted to learn how to be an effective leader," Hall said. "I want to be able to convey information in a way where my subordinates will emulate what they are taught positively."

Not only did the course teach the E-4's about leadership skills, but it also showed them they have more in common with their sister services than they thought.

"I learned how to set the example and how to lead people," Hall said. "I also saw that we are not as different from other E-4's in other services as I thought we were."

As the course wrapped up, Daniels realized that as the instructor he had learned a lesson in adjusting his leadership style as well.

"This course actually helped me a lot," Daniels said. "Working with the different branches showed me the branches work differently from each other, and that having the many personalities and different ways of doing things helped my versatility as a leader."