Quote Originally Posted by george7 View Post
Hoorah! Thanks for your service. You older guys help shape us younger guys into the soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors that we become... It took me becoming an NCO to see how important they are.
I am sure that I have indirectly impacted some soldier’s lives and careers, but I tend to do it without screaming or getting mad at them when they stumble and make mistakes.

Having been a lifelong runner I used to bring my platoon with me on morning runs and would tell them the course, it was up to them to stick with myself and the other members of the platoon, and when we returned I would wait for the stragglers and ask them if they were OK, were they improving, and will they be ready for the much longer weekly company run. Some hated me for those runs, but others thanked me for pushing them and helping them to improve their physical training test scores.

Since being here at Fort Riley I have stepped back and let the other NCOs mold the junior soldiers, but I think these young kids see me, this old man that runs up and down the formation with admiration or perhaps contempt, but it is funny that a guy twice their age can run further, not faster than many of these kids who will eventually be future NCOs.