7th Army NCOA implements BLC 4.0
GRAFENWOEHR TRAINING AREA, Germany - The 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy (NCOA) has extended its curriculum to the new basic leaders course (BLC) 4.0. The course had been extended to 30 days and gives young noncommissioned officers 51 additional hours of training at the U.S. Army's first Noncommissioned Officer Academy.
From the warrior leader course to the primary leadership development course and now BLC 4.0, the 7th Army NCOA is always serving as one of the top NCOA’s in the Army and with the new curriculum they are able to make the young noncommissioned officer more lethal.
BLC 4.0 adds 51 hours from the previous 3.0. With 89 hours of leadership and communications, 13 hours from program management and readiness, 70 hours for training management and operations and finally 4.0 adds a 48 hour situational training exercise (STX) for a total of 220 hours of academics.
“I think putting this additional week in the course to actually focus on the tactical portion of being a leader and not just sitting in the classroom, but giving these NCO’s the tactical side.” said Command Sgt. Maj. Errol H. Brooks, 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy commandant. “BLC 4.0 keeps the classroom portion the same with a focus on public speaking which is good, but it also adds the STX where we’re putting the soldiers back in the field.”
The additional field time ensures that soldiers, airmen and foreign allies return to the basics and can lead a team or section when they get back to their home unit.
“We have more time to focus on these individual tasks through the methodology of crawl, walk, run and we’re able to evaluate them throughout this process and give the necessary feedback to a lot of them that don’t do these type of culminating situational training exercises as often as other service members,” said Sgt. 1st Class. Daniel Pureco, the 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy chief of training. “We are able to train and give more feedback to the students and validate their leadership attributes and competencies.”
The instructors of the NCOA have had to adapt to these changes and with the addition of a STX comes the planning for one.
“The concept was similar to the EIB (expert infantryman badge) lanes and then a STX lane,” said Sgt. 1st Class Robert J. Visscher, 7th Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy senior instructor. “They gave us a lot of freedom on how we implement those concepts. We would choose to do the crawl, walk, run type of testing and we test them on land navigation, individual team task similar to an EIB lane and then the STX practice that would lead into the full execution of the STX. For a whole week we try to make the environment as tactical as we can with patrol bases and squad attacks. I'm glad that we have the opportunity to change the cycle in a way that reflects what junior NCOs should be learning.”
The 7th Army NCOA will always continue to improve its learning criteria and the leadership of the NCOA all agree that this is a step in the right direction.
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