7/31/2019 June Profile: SFC Greggory Trenery

1/1 NCO JOURNAL 4

BY EXAMPLE

Sgt. 1st Class Greggory Trenery has returned

to the Army three times. Originally joining in 1986,

Trenery frst returned during Operation Desert Shield.

Most recently, he returned in 1998 to help provide or

his our children. Currently a platoon sergeant in

B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regi-

ment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Inantry Divi-

sion, at Schofeld Barracks, Hawaii, Trenery led his

platoon during its 2011 deployment to Iraq.

Why have you continued to serve as an NCO?

It keeps me with Soldiers. One o the things I like

about being an NCO is meeting new Soldiers and

going through experiences with them and helping

them in their choices and their careers and what they

wanted to do whether they stayed in the Army and

made it a career choice or whether the Army set them

up or success as a civilian.

What was a memorable time as a Soldier?

My frst time, I was stationed in Germany and back

then, we were still in the Cold War. I was in Germany

when the Berlin Wall came down. It was interesting to

see Europe during that time, and then going back now,

to see how Europe has changed. Its very open now, and

we train with all o the services over there.

As an NCO, what assignments have helped in your

professional development?

Being a recruiter taught me a lot o things. I learned

how to operate autonomously because most o what

you do is solo and on your own. You have to really be a

sel-starter. There are people who push you in the right

direction, but its really up to you challenging yoursel.

When I was a recruiter, I never tried to sell the Army; I

always thought the Army sold itsel. I told people they

could be as successul as they wanted to be in the

Army; they just had to seize the opportunity.How do you lead Soldiers?

As a platoon sergeant, Im just preparing tomorrows

leaders today trying to get them to ollow or realize

some o the things that I was taught when I was coming

up in the Army.

What advice do you have for other NCOs?

Plan to train and then conduct the training youve

planned. Teach those Soldiers out there who are going

to replace you. There are thousands o excuses to not

do something. We as NCOs have to fnd that one reason

to do it and encourage and challenge those Soldiers to

develop and improve themselves.

What impact do NCOs make on Soldiers?

As NCOs, were the trainers and evaluators o every

training event. There are established standards out

there, and i you were to go to watch a unit conduct

an Army Physical Fitness Test, at that unit youd see

numerous variations the way graders score an event.

We as NCOs are the ones who allow or the bending

or breaking o those rules or guidelines. Whatever the

reason, we as NCOs are the people who need to enorce

those standards. Every shortcoming we see is probably

something that we created or allowed to happen.

What advice do you have for other NCOs?

NCOs need to seek out those things that take them

out o their comort zone, because thats whats reallygoing to help them develop, thats whats going to chal-

lenge them, and thats really what we need to do and

ask o ourselves. I you always stay within your comort

zone, youre never going to really develop.

INTERVIEW BY JENNIFER MATTSON

Preparing whos nextAs a platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Greggory Treneryhelps ready those who will someday replace him

Sgt. 1st Class Greggory Trenery stands in front ofthe Virtual Army Experience truck when he served as

a recruiter in San Antonio. PHOTO COURTESY OF SGT. 1ST

CLASS GREGGORY TRENERY