Sma Essay

My name is Specialist Johnston from Echo company 1-82. If I was Sergeant Major of the Army and had to the option to change three things about the military I would keep it relatively simple. These would be the way soldiers get promoted to non commissioned officers, the way single soldiers get charged for eating at the chow hall and height and weight standards for the APFT. The first and most important thing that I would change if I Sergeant Major of the Army would be the way soldiers get promoted. I don’t agree with the way each MOS has a certain amount of points that they have to make to become an NCO. Its unfair to the individual and his or her subordinates to not get promoted to an E-5 or E-6 because their MOS is over strength and a less qualified soldier makes points because in their MOS it takes less points to make cutoff. The way I would change this is take promotions down to the needs of the soldiers individual company. Instead of a soldier competing against everyone in their entire MOS they should be able to be promoted based on the needs of his or her unit. If there is an open slot for a specialist to be promoted and they meet all the qualifications such as a certain amount of correspondence courses, physical fitness scores and weapon scores to name a few then they should be able to be promoted. And then when its time for that soldier to PCS then the soldier gets sent to a unit who needs that certain rank and MOS. I believe this would make soldiers more competitive in advancing there careers and make it fair across the board while still meeting the needs of the army! My second change as SMA would be the way single soldiers get charged to eat at the chow hall. Sometimes the mission dictates when soldiers eat and they are not always able to get to the chow hall during meal hours. I believe there is a reasonable and economical way that single soldiers can be charged for their meals at the dining facility. One way we could change this is a card that