Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 31

with and shadow U.S. NCOs.
Basically, this was an opportunity
for the Jordanian NCOs to observe to the best possible example
of U.S. Army NCOs conducting
their daily duties, interacting
with the soldiers and officers of
their units, and, most importantly, exercising small-unit NCO
leadership.
Deployment to Afghanistan.
The final step in the plan
called for all graduates of this
program to deploy with JAF
units to Afghanistan. Of 98
who graduated, 75 deployed to
Afghanistan for a six-month
tour and returned with combat
experience. The graduates who
did not deploy were assigned to
JAF Headquarters or to the JAF
Lessons Learned Center, both in
Amman, Jordan.

Overcoming Program
Challenges
Not surprisingly, there were
Sgt. 1st Class Sidney Curtis (right) Arabian Peninsula/Levant Branch NCO-in-charge, walks
challenges throughout the prowith Jordanian Maj. Ibraheem Al-Garalleh at the Noncommissioned Officer Academy, 21
cess of moving approximately one
September 2011. Curtis was one of four senior noncommissioned officers who traveled to
Jordan to discuss procedures and ideas for strengthening the Jordanian noncommissioned
hundred NCOs through training
officer corps.
whose English skills and exposure
to Western armies were limited.
Some of the key challenges experienced were that—
Building a Jordanian
The process took a long time—over two years.
Noncommissioned Officer Course
There were significant cultural differences to
After successfully training 98 NCOs in the United
overcome between Jordanian and American soldiers. States, the logical next step was to support the JAF
Jordanian NCOs were unab K܈[