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Preface
This Manual is dedicated to the men and women of the ASDF Noncommissioned Officer
Corps. Your soldiers depend on your guidance, training and leadership to win the battle with
Mother Nature. You are \u2013
\u201cThe Backbone of the ASDF\u201d
PURPOSE
This manual provides the ASDF\u2019s noncommissioned officers a guide for leading, supervising
and caring for soldiers. While not all-inclusive nor intended as a stand-alone document, the guide
offers NCOs a ready reference for most situations.
SCOPEThis NCO Guide describes NCO duties, responsibilities and authority and how they relate to
those of warrant and commissioned officers. It also discusses NCO leadership, counseling and
mentorship and the NCO role in training.
APPLICABILITY
This NCO Guide provides information critical to the success of today\u2019s noncommissioned
officers. This manual is for all NCOs of the ASDF, while especially important for new NCOs, this
book will be useful to junior officers as well. Every NCO will benefit from reading and
understanding this manual.
FOREWORD
For the Noncommissioned Officer Corps, Welcome to the ASDF NCO Guide! This guide
was written with you, the ASDF NCO in mind. The information in this guide, if learned and applied,
will help make you an outstanding NCO -- one who will be viewed as a pleasure to serve with, and
considered a great credit to your unit, the NCO Corps, and the Alabama State Defense Force.
INTRODUCTION
It is difficult to be a good noncommissioned officer. If it had been easy, they would have given it to the
officer corps.
SMA William A. Connelly
Why create and handbook for ASDF NCOs?
I feel that the job of the NCO is probably the most important job in Alabama State Defense
Force. The ASDF NCO is the one who is charged with dealing with the Troops in their units.
Therefore, they have an almost incalculable amount of influence on their Troops. Everything about
them, their appearance, their bearing, their command ability, and so on, directly affects the Troops
in their charge. This is doubly important when you realize that NCOs are also in charge of the new
Troops. There is an old saying, \u201cYou never get a second chance to make a first impression.\u201d If the
first impression new Troops receives, is a positive experience at the hands of a well-trained,
mature and competent NCO, they\u2019re far more likely to have a good opinion of the ASDF and, just
as importantly, a good role-model to emulate.
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