Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 32

Photo courtesy of Sgt. Maj. Amanda Smith, U.S. Army

NCO Basic Course cadets begin classes each day with the JAF NCO creed, March 2013.

4. Train and educate the JAF’s commissioned officers on how to empower newly trained NCOs.
Identifying and training the cadre. The most
obvious candidates for becoming trainers at the new
Jordanian NCO leadership course were those from the
original pool of 98 graduates. Fortunately, the military
assistance program office in Jordan still had on staff the
U.S. sergeant major that had been instrumental in assessing the original 100 Jordanian candidates, preparing
them before their departure to the United States, and
advising them throughout their training cycle.
Subsequently, this sergeant major, along with
the senior staff of the JAF Training and Doctrine
Directorate, helped identify the top nine graduates of
the original U.S. training who also had obtained combat
experience in Afghanistan. These became the first instructor team of the new JAF NCO leadership course.
These nine Jordanian NCOs then returned to the
United States to shadow the instructor cadre of the
WLC at Fort Bliss for three weeks. Again, the intent
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of this shadowing was to expose the new Jordanian
cadre to U.S. NCOs already skilled as trainers. This
would give the Jordanians insight into developing
their own POI and bolster their confidence for becoming instructors.
Supporting development of the program of
instruction. Concurrently, Army officers of the
International Affairs Program Directorate of
the United States Army Training and Doctrine
Command worked with the Jordanian senior leadership and the Jordanian NCOs to develop a POI
tailored to the JAF. Starting with the U.S. Army’s
POI for the WLC as a model, classes were added,
subtracted, or changed to accommodate Jordanian
needs.
The final product resembled the U.S. model in
that the course was divided into three sections: a
week focused on leadership, a week focused on training, and two weeks focused on war-fighting skills.
During planning sessions with the nine-man cadre,
September-October 2014  MILITARY REVIEW