History
The rank and position were based on those of the sergeant major of the marine corps, established in its current incarnation on 23 May 1957. The chief of staff of the army, created the position in 1966, after asking leaders of the major commands for a personal recommendation. He asked that it not be considered a near retirement type assignment. He listed seven duties and functions he expected the sergeant major to perform, including service as a personal advisor and assistant on matters pertaining to enlisted soldiers. From 4,700 proposed candidates, 21 nominees were selected. Finally chosen was the only one then serving in Vietnam, Sergeant Major William O. Wooldridge of the 1st Infantry Division.
The other services later followed, creating the positions of master chief petty officer of the navy and chief master sergeant of the air force in 1967, master chief petty officer of the coast guard in 1969, and senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in 2005. These six positions are collectively referred to as "senior enlisted advisors" ("SEAs").
Read more about this topic: Sergeant Major Of The Army
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“The history of all Magazines shows plainly that those which have attained celebrity were indebted for it to articles similar in natureto Berenice—although, I grant you, far superior in style and execution. I say similar in nature. You ask me in what does this nature consist? In the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque: the fearful coloured into the horrible: the witty exaggerated into the burlesque: the singular wrought out into the strange and mystical.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)