JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- The Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia, visited JBER, touring the installation and providing insight on the bigger military picture Feb. 1.
During his visit, Battaglia toured several Air Force, Army and Marine Corps facilities, including the 673d Medical Group's new Fisher House and Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, as well as U.S. Army Alaska's Arctic Warrior Combatives Academy and the Marines D Company, Anti-terrorism Battalion. As a Marine who entered the military in 1979, the SEAC said he wanted service members to focus on fundamentals and "Bridging the Basics."
"I went to a sergeant and said 'We have some problems in our military; we need to get back to the basics,'" he said. "The sergeant said 'whose basics... yours? I have no idea what your basics are.' There are basics of my generation and basics of this generation that should be merged. We both need to be part of the solution. Without what today's generation uses as basics, we probably would not be able to keep pace with our adversaries."
The Army is going back to some of its true basics; for example, a unit leader book that collected information about subordinate Soldiers for leadership use, used to be the practice. It wasn't used as effectively during the past few years, but it's a basic that can still be used today, he said. He told a story of a sergeant who indeed uses a leader book, but it's not in the form of a three-ring binder; it's an iPad.
"Back to the Basics is okay, but it's an incomplete concept," he said. "Bridging the Basics is holistic and complete."
Battaglia has served in numerous locations around the world throughout his career. His tours include Marine Barracks in London, England; Parris Island, S.C.; Lympstone, England; Quantico, Va.; and the District of Columbia. He has served on multiple deployments to locations such as Norway, Cuba and Southwest Asia. His combat deployments include service in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Persian Gulf War.
The sergeant major became SEAC Oct. 1, 2011 and is the second to serve in the position.
The SEAC is a military position within the Department of Defense and is designated the senior noncommissioned officer in the United States Armed Forces. The SEAC is appointed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to serve as an advisor to the Chairman and the Secretary of Defense on all matters involving joint and combined total force integration, utilization, health of the force, and joint development for enlisted personnel. The SEAC also serves as a spokesperson to leaders and organizations on applicable issues affecting the total enlisted force.
Additionally, the SEAC is in the NCO communication chain. During visits to joint operational areas, posts and bases, the SEAC identifies issues that holistically affect enlisted service members, retirees and Department of Defense families.
For more information on SEAC, please visit:
FACEBOOK.COM/SEAC.JCS
FACEBOK.COM/TOTALFORCEFITNESS
FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/SEAC_JCS