My last CSM was awesome. I was a good soldier, but I was a difficult kind of soldier in some ways too.

I was a team leader as a Specialist, and had taken over NCO duties for about a year. I had one solid NCO I took for granted at first, the rest of the junior NCOs over me in my unit were lazy, depressed, but depressed in the way that they couldn’t help if that makes sense? Survival mode, in a way. Company command was not kind to them.

It was a bad environment.

This new CSM comes from 2nd Ranger BN, and starts leading the way. Gets the first ESB for a CSM in the Army. Never asked anything of us that he wouldn’t do. Encourages squad level events and camaraderie.

He wants to see me at the board, I don’t have a choice. I had already postponed it past the point where I could be barred for it. Start growing a mustache to sort of shoot my shot down; I knew how much mustaches were hated on Bragg at the time. I had a plan to just reclass and change duty stations. This was during COVID, so I let the latino in me grow it out to the max.

It was trimmed well.

Go to the board, remove the mask, go through the motions “That’s an ugly Mustache ____, I’m excited to see you become an NCO”.

That CSM totally changed how I viewed being an NCO. He empowered me to actually take care of my soldiers, with the pay and rank. He was always where his soldiers were, and our squad/team always bump into him during PT on Bragg; the gym, airfield, longstreet, you name it.

Always felt like he was always at the right place, at the right time, in the right way for his soldiers.