MAGAZINE
FALL 2020 from the
CSEL
Partnerships need Friendships
Our goals were clear . We were to collaborate with the Georgian team and offer suggestions to maximize efforts and capitalize on group experiences to produce the best plan for the troops on the ground .
In NATO , partnerships need friendships . These friendships are earned through shared experiences and built on trust and a dedicated effort to learn from one another . The common thread , in my opinion , for the NATO Alliance and our Partners is a will to deter threats that seek to disrupt our free and democratic way of life in our respective homelands . We capitalize on the common bond that drives us to defend our people .
Prior to my current role as the NATO Land Forces Command Sergeant Major , I had the fortune to be part of a dedicated group of professional senior soldiers brought together by the Defence Enhanced Education Program ( DEEP ) to strengthen Noncommissioned Officer ( NCO ) capacity . Along the way we built friendships through our shared desire for professionalism and collaboration . The DEEP team was assembled with the intent to synchronize a broad spectrum of training and self-development programs within NATO .
In 2017 , we were invited to join the ongoing work that the Georgian Armed Forces ( GAF ) were doing to overhaul their Sergeant Major professional military education . The pooled strength of the DEEP team , combined with the extremely motivated and dedicated NCO Leadership from GAF , got together to analyze the plan Georgia designed for the future of the Non-Commissioned Members ( NCM ) of their Armed Forces . The competency-focused endeavor set out to maximize talents through the creation of more empowered soldiers , all with the idea it would ultimately result in increased interoperability within NATO and its partners . Our goals were clear . We were to collaborate with the Georgian team and offer suggestions to maximize efforts and capitalize on group experiences to produce the best plan for the troops on the ground – the ones who ultimately deter and defend threats against the Alliance and valued partners like Georgia .
We declared success when Georgia graduated their first Sergeant Major course in the Spring of 2019 . Their program remains a role model for future Partner nations to aspire to . The sharing of ideas and successes seed our relationship building . Although not originally a part of the formal DEEP team agenda , it has become one of the most valued outcomes of our time spent working together .
My days spent with the DEEP team offered me invaluable relationships and a network of like-minded friends . By the time this edition of Land Power is published , Lieutenant General Cloutier and I will have already traveled to Tbilisi , Georgia for staff talks with their new Chief of Defence ( CHOD ), Major General Giorgi Matiashvili , his Chief Sergeant Giorgi Gogochuri , and key members of their staff . These Georgia-NATO Land Forces staff talks were ambitious and focused on setting the foundation for a Georgia-NATO exercise scheduled for 2022 .
In my current role as an advocate for NATO partner and Alliance NCO ’ s in the Land Domain , I am looking forward to further strengthening existing relationships with warriors I already know . We ’ re off to a good start by building on existing friendships with my Georgian brothers and sisters in arms . Strengthening these bonds no doubt form the basis for an unshakeable deterrence against our common adversaries . LC
KEVIN J . MATHERS
LANDCOM Command Senior Enlisted Leader
06