NATO partners need to do a better job putting noncommissioned officers and junior officers in alliance leadership roles, Gen. Philip Breedlove, commander, U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander, told audience members during this week's Air Force Association annual conference.
Breedlove highlighted the "incredible NCO corps in the United States Air Force" and reminded leadership that the joint coalition environment cannot survive without their work.
"Inside of NATO, we have about seven or eight nations who have absolutely superior NCO corps, and they enable their NCOs to do great things," Breedlove said Monday. "And so what I have done in the last 14 to 16 months in NATO, is try to share that across all the nations because I believe if we get that kind of NCO leadership in every one of our NATO nations, our ability to do work comes up collectively."
Breedlove said he will devote the second half of his SACEUR role to doing the same for junior officers.
"We have nations where our junior officers are just underutilized," he said. "A lot of them are just hiding, and hoping they don't get killed or eliminated until they become a lieutenant colonel or colonel...this is a resource NATO can't waste."
It's time for NATO to raise the bar in these departments, and that these efforts are already starting to pay off for the senior enlisted. For example, Breedlove said he's worked with British and German NCOs who are now subject matter experts who deliver substance in the NATO mission. "In some nations, that would never be heard of," Breedlove said.
Breedlove also touched upon another model that NATO must capitalize in order to expand the European mission: Air National Guard units.
"These rotational state partnership programs build long-term relationships, long-term exercises, Breedlove said. "Officers grow up together, NCOs grow up together, and that long-term relationship is priceless as we deal with the nations in Europe."
