How important are non-commissioned officers in the barracks? Some have served for more than 30 years and enjoy "full division level" treatment after retirement!
Gao Yuhua, who joined the army in 1990 and has served for more than 30 years, is currently a first-class sergeant major in the Strategic Support Force.
Because he has repeatedly taken the initiative to apply to stay in the army, he has served for 30 years according to the regulations, and he could have enjoyed the retirement benefits of the army, but he is still fighting on the front line, and the leaders of the unit where he belongs prefer to stay as a "baby bump".
As a model of outstanding soldiers in the whole army, Gao Yuhua, who was awarded the "most beautiful revolutionary soldier in the new era" by the Central Military Commission, did not live up to this honor.
Over the past 30 years, he has not only won 7 third-class merits, 1 second-class merit, but also 2 first prizes of the All-Army Non-commissioned Officer Outstanding Talent Award and "Pacesetter of the All-Army Patriotic Army".
More importantly, he has been rooted in the maintenance post for more than 30 years, and has been proficient in the operation and maintenance of more than 50 kinds of equipment, explored more than 30 kinds of rapid repair methods, written 400,000 words of notes, and participated in the compilation of more than 10 professional textbooks for the army.
Not only is he called a "mechanical doctor", but he has cumulatively trained more than 500 professional technical backbones for our army, and even formed the "Gao Yuhua effect" of learning from him as an example.
This case is enough to reflect the importance of non-commissioned officers in the army, as the "cornerstone" of key positions at the grassroots level of the army, non-commissioned officers generally appear as "squad leaders" in the barracks, and are the core "soul figures" in many military film and television dramas, such as the role of "squad leader" played by Zhang Yi in "Soldier Assault".
However, "non-professional non-commissioned officers" like him who lead the troops, although they are also the cornerstone of the construction of combat effectiveness in our army, may still face the fate of demobilization in the end.
In March 2022, before the non-commissioned officer name was changed to "Sergeant", this part of the non-commissioned officers had already reached the end of the fourth term of the mid-level non-commissioned officer, that is, the "Sergeant Major IV". If you want to become a senior non-commissioned officer, it is basically impossible to enter the "fifth period" to the highest "seventh period", that is, the third grade to the first sergeant major.
The non-commissioned officers who can really be promoted in the army are often professional non-commissioned officers who are excellent in professional technology, that is, they master a professional skill, such as the operation of missiles and radars, and the maintenance of mechanical equipment such as ships and armored vehicles.
But now "non-commissioned officer" has been changed to "sergeant", not just a change in name.
Sergeants from corporal to sergeant major are divided into three ranks and seven ranks, and behind the more unified name is the embodiment of a more complete promotion mechanism. There are also more sergeants who can be promoted to the rank of sergeant major at the highest level, becoming a "soldier king" who enjoys the treatment of "full division level".
Prior to this, such groups, although important in the army, were sparsely numerous.
Is a sergeant major first class really rare? How hard is it to promote senior non-commissioned officers? Professional technology alone is not enough, multiple assessments are the key!
In May 2020, Wang Zhongxin, a first-class sergeant major of the Rocket Force, who had delayed his retirement for four years, officially retired.
Before leaving the unit, the unit specially held a retirement ceremony for him.
Together with the unit leadership, he wears ranks for eight senior non-commissioned officers who are promoted at the same time.
Although his comrade-in-arms Zhang Jiguo, who received the rank of sergeant major of the first class of Wang Zhongxin, his title was still "Wang Squad Leader".
However, with Wang Zhongxin's dedication to serving in the army for more than 30 years, and as a rocket force test technician, he participated in 28 major military missions, more than 1,300 practical trainings, and led 217 rocket force monitoring and control trumpeters, and won many honorary titles such as second-class merit, third-class merit and "Bayi Medal". After his retirement, he enjoyed the "full division level" treatment as a sergeant major of the first class.
Among the senior non-commissioned officers, sergeant majors of the second and third grades enjoy the treatment equivalent to the regiment level and the main battalion level, which is also in line with their corresponding contributions. Even in a sense, senior non-commissioned officers are already "professional soldiers" similar to officers.
Although "senior non-commissioned officers" have been renamed "senior non-commissioned officers" and the word "official" has been removed, they are a group that is more difficult to retire than ordinary officers.
Of course, it is extremely difficult to become a senior non-commissioned officer, first of all, in addition to having excellent technical ability, other hard conditions are also very strict. In addition to the most direct length of service, a college degree is the threshold for promotion.
And through the method of conscription to non-commissioned officer promotion step by step, it is the most difficult to be promoted to a third-grade sergeant major and become a "senior sergeant".
Many people are often stuck in academic qualifications, or only have ordinary military combat capabilities, but do not have professional and technical capabilities. Even in the process of assessment and selection, the performance is not perfect, replaced by more excellent people, and eventually faces the resettlement of veterans, or the one-time subsidy to choose a career independently.
Although these benefits are also relatively generous, there is no need for all non-commissioned officers to compete for "senior sergeants", and retirement is also a good choice, but if the non-commissioned officers trained by the army eventually have to leave the army because of the promotion threshold, it is actually a loss of the combat effectiveness of the troops.
Therefore, the generation mode of our non-commissioned officer group has changed differently. The training of non-commissioned officers through different channels has also accumulated senior non-commissioned officer talents for our army and laid a solid foundation for coping with future modern warfare.
In fact, even the "sergeant major of the first rank" is no longer an extremely rare "rarity" in our army. After the military reform in 2017, the Rocket Military Organ alone held a promotion ceremony for 51 "First Class Sergeant Major Chiefs" at one time.
While they continue to enrich the ranks of "senior sergeants" of our army, they are also an important force in future army construction.
Why is the future war a "non-commissioned officer's war"? In what ways has the mainland increased the training of non-commissioned officers?
To be promoted to Sergeant Major 1, the minimum military experience must be 25 years. This not only means that the entire youth must be dedicated to the fiery military camp, but also be able to have professional skills and stay in the army to serve, in order to eventually become the "soldier king" of the world.
For our army, which constantly pursues modernization and informationization, it is very crucial to have a larger, high-quality and hard-skilled non-commissioned officer team, that is, today's "non-commissioned officer" group.
The increasing sophistication and modernization of military equipment has put forward higher requirements for grassroots soldiers who operate equipment, but the service time of compulsory soldiers is short, and even if they are proficient in relevant operations, they will soon face the problem of discharge.
Therefore, the core of equipment operation and maintenance is still a non-commissioned officer who can serve for a long time. Moreover, in addition to being proficient in relevant operations and technologies, these non-commissioned officers must also teach more soldiers to master relevant military skills and undertake the task of training and leading troops.
It is the most important link in the army, apart from the officers and talents who command operations, and the grassroots soldiers responsible for direct combat.
Senior NCOs are leaders in training and leading the entire NCO community, so their role in the military is even more critical. It is also said that the future war is a "non-commissioned officer war".
Therefore, in our army, there has long been a system for training non-commissioned officers.
The non-commissioned officers of our army are roughly derived from the following ways, except for the most difficult conscripts, converted into non-commissioned officers and then promoted step by step. College students directly recruit non-commissioned officers to join the army, and high school graduates apply for the "non-commissioned officer military school" has also become an important way to cultivate non-commissioned officer talents in our army.
However, nowadays, the proportion of college student soldiers among conscripts who join the army is increasing, and it is easier for many conscripts to become non-commissioned officers if they have mastered relevant skills in school. Another way for those who do not have enough diplomas is to get into a "non-commissioned officer school" in the army, and after graduation there will be a corresponding college diploma.
This approach not only solves the problem of the possible academic threshold on the road to promotion after some soldiers become non-commissioned officers. At the same time, the vocational and technical education in the non-commissioned officer school will enable them to master one or more professional skills.
And only professional and technical non-commissioned officers can become a more important cornerstone in the future army.
In addition to a large number of officer schools, our army also has a large number of "non-commissioned officer schools", and not only the rocket force, the navy and air force, and the armed police have independent non-commissioned officer schools.
Other military schools, such as the Army Engineering University, the Armored Corps Academy, and the Air Force Engineering University, have corresponding affiliated non-commissioned officer schools.