A little more than a year into the job, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer is filled with a sense of urgency.
Driven by an increasingly volatile security environment and quickly evolving technology, the U.S. Army is working on one of its most ambitious transformations in decades—and it needs its NCOs, Weimer said. “We’ve got to be ready,” he said. “We’ve got to be ready now. That’s why I struggle with talking about 2030 and beyond, because you almost can get a little lackadaisical when you talk about 2030 and beyond.”
Led by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, the “whole team” is “pressing,” Weimer said. “We have to have a sense of urgency.”
Adapt and Adopt
One critical initiative is the Army’s “transforming in contact,” which aims to help the force more quickly adapt and adopt new technology and capabilities—and that’s where NCOs come in. “NCOs are going to be the ones that implement transforming in contact,” Weimer said.
Focused for now on three brigade combat teams—the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team and the 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team—transforming in contact gives soldiers the chance to experiment with and test new equipment and determine the best way to shoot, move and communicate with those new capabilities.
Soldiers in those units initially were skeptical, Weimer said. But as the Army has dedicated resources, time and effort to the brigades, equipping them with new capabilities such as the Infantry Squad Vehicle, the Next-Generation Squad Weapon rifle and automatic rifle, electronic warfare systems and unmanned aircraft systems, the soldiers are all in.
Soldier Buy-In
“Now they’re like, ‘Wow, you’re serious. We’ve never done this with an infantry brigade before,’ ” Weimer said. “Now they’re all bought in because soldiers love experimenting. ‘You’re going to give me new equipment and then you’re going to allow us to develop a plan to find out how to best fight it?’ They’re all in.”
Transforming in contact is one of the many ways the Army is evolving as it looks to prepare soldiers for a complex future battlefield, grow the force, modernize its organic industrial base, repair aging infrastructure and take care of its people.
As Weimer has embraced serving as the Army’s top enlisted leader, he has noted the many areas, topics and issues the sergeant major of the Army is involved in. The experience has been a whirlwind, Weimer said. “It’s both been challenging but also incredibly rewarding,” he said, adding that he has a “completely different appreciation” for his predecessors.
Caring for “a million people and all their families means something very different,” said Weimer, who was sworn in as the 17th sergeant major of the Army on Aug. 4, 2023. “You go from being able to be pretty focused at a much smaller level … and now, all of a sudden, everything’s on the table, from infrastructure to professional military education to Tricare to child development centers to modernization efforts with equipment and kit,” he said.
An Army brat and career special operations soldier, Weimer has taken every opportunity in the past year to visit the force and talk to soldiers and their families. “Something that I’ve also learned is if you’ve seen one installation, you’ve seen one installation,” he said. Every post is different, with different challenges, successes and needs, he said.
Making a Difference
As he travels across the Army, he’s starting to see excitement in the force, Weimer said. Soldiers are excited about the Army’s focus on warfighting, delivering ready combat formations, continuous transformation and strengthening the profession, he said. “Fourteen months ago, we kind of got some looks with our four focus areas, but … that’s not happening anymore,” he said, crediting time, consistency and changes that are making a difference in soldiers’ lives.
As an example, soldiers are excited about Army efforts to transform the way it feeds troops on its installations, he said. This includes options such as food kiosks and campus-style dining to increase access and convenience for soldiers. “The traditional ecosystem is not workable anymore, it’s not sustainable anymore, and they’re actually starting to see change at their installations,” Weimer said.
With an organization as large as the Army, “you’re going to say things for a while, but then you need time to be able to start implementing things,” he said. “The force is starting to see that, and the proof is in action, not words.”
Force Structure
Another initiative that’s gained traction is the Army’s force structure transformation. Announced in February, the plan reduces obsolete force structure and grows high-demand and new formations geared for large-scale combat operations. “You’ve got to educate commanders at echelon to be able to speak to their formations, and then we had to go around and reinforce it and explain the why,” Weimer said.
Recruiting is another area the Army has prioritized after missing its annual goals and struggling to connect with America’s youth. From changing how it selects and trains its recruiters to expanding its reach and scope, the Army is starting to see the fruits of its recruiting labor, Weimer said.
“We’ve had a great year,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of [U.S. Army Recruiting Command], and, well, frankly, the Army, because it’s taken the whole Army to get after this.”
The Army dared to make some “pretty big, bold” changes to its recruiting enterprise, and the implementation is starting to pay off, he said. “Now the key is, how do we not lose that momentum?” Weimer said. “We’re already thinking into ’25 and beyond, because it’s got to be sustainable.”
This means turning some attention to the recruiting stations. “That’s where we’re going to take the momentum,” Weimer said. Early efforts include using technology to help recruiters sift through thousands of potential contacts to home in on those who are most likely to commit to serving, he said. “When we get hits on ads or at events, now there’s a screening that helps you understand, what’s the probability of this person being seriously interested,” he said. “If you get 1,000 of those, you don’t have time to do 1,000 phone calls.”
Some prospecting apps can help recruiters determine which 20 prospects they should call first. “You’re on the clock as soon as there’s an opportunity, and so we’re helping them triage the higher-probability prospects, and we’re seeing the results from that,” Weimer said.
There also are efforts to streamline the recruiting process so it doesn’t take six to eight months, Weimer said. “These youngsters have a lot of [other] opportunities,” he said.
Retention Efforts
With recruiting trending up, Weimer is looking to retention. “Our retention numbers are still really good,” he said, but the Army also is “incredibly busy,” with some MOSs busier than others.
Air defenders are a prime example. “I’m watching air defenders like a hawk,” he said. “You know what’s going on in the world right now, and there’s just not enough air defense—people or equipment—to go around, based off the requirements.”
While the Army is restructuring to build more air defense units, that effort takes time, and it requires NCOs. “If you don’t have the noncommissioned officers that understand the mission already, then I have some concerns,” Weimer said. “That’s why I’ve spent a lot of time on retention.”
The Army also needs more tankers—it currently is filling tank crews with infantry soldiers. “It takes four people in a tank. We ought to have four people that actually are a real tank crew,” he said. The infantry soldiers are “crushing it, but that’s not their job,” Weimer said. “We need the infantrymen, so you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Private Competition
Cyber and information technology are two areas where the Army faces stiff competition from the private sector. “Those are all top demands in the civilian world, and they pay real well,” Weimer said. “You invest five years in a cyber warrior, and I get worried about, how do you retain them? We’re spending a lot of time figuring that out.”
One important way Weimer is trying to encourage continued service is through the Army National Guard or U.S. Army Reserve. “I’m never going to make a youngster feel bad if they want to [leave the Army]. That’s their choice,” Weimer said. “But I always have a good conversation about, ‘What about the National Guard or Reserve?’ ” This enables the soldier to stay on the Army team while pursuing their civilian dreams, Weimer said.
In the coming months, Weimer is looking for a holistic view of retention across the force. “We’ve got to be able to see ourselves when it comes to retaining ourselves,” he said. “What are our real strengths, projected losses, so that we can see a problem before we wake up to a problem.”
Every career counselor across the Army is talking to soldiers about retention and service, Weimer said. “I want to be able to see all of that in real time,” he said. “It’s a lot, but the bottom line is that … they all take time to put stuff into a system. I’m trying to get to where those systems come to one location, and Army senior leaders can actually see where we are.”
As he looks to the coming year, Weimer said NCOs will continue to play a key role in shaping the Army—and the Army of the future.
Using as an example the three transforming in contact brigades, Weimer said the NCOs in those formations had to understand the mission. “You can give them a bunch of equipment, but if you don’t actually give them the guidance in what we want them to do with this equipment, then give them the latitude to move their people around and create new structure, that’s a big deal,” he said.
As NCOs train and innovate with their soldiers, Weimer also believes the Army will get tighter, more cohesive teams. “They’re going to be focused on training because they’re all in, and I’m a firm believer [that] when you have tight teams focused on a mission that everybody buys in on, you have a healthier formation,” he said.
Transformation Strategy
The next phase will be to implement transforming in contact at scale—not just in the Regular Army, but also in the Guard and Reserve, Weimer said. “We have to be able to do this with a sustainment brigade, and we have to do it with a heavy brigade, and then we have to be able to have the division headquarters transformed, too,” he said. “How do you do this across the Army?”
The key objective is to “not lose momentum,” Weimer said. Traveling across the force, Weimer said, he already is hearing from soldiers who want to know, “When is my brigade going to get that?” It’s a good problem to have, “because now there’s buy-in, because they’re talking to their teammates,” he said.
For NCOs, experimenting, testing new gear and figuring out how to fight with the new equipment is a tremendous opportunity, Weimer said. “The Army needs you to get after this,” he said. “You’re going to inform the Army. … Your influence right now, from what you’re learning, will shape the Army of the future. It’s pretty powerful.”
As the Army continues its transformation, NCOs are the “secret sauce,” Weimer said. “We are the asymmetric advantage,” he said. That means maintaining a focus on standards and discipline, and being brilliant at the basics, Weimer said.
In the coming months, NCOs can expect to see the return of skills training, changes to professional military education, a new “blue book” outlining Army standards and discipline, and an emphasis on training management and providing more predictability to soldiers and their families. “I want them to continue to be excited about being a noncommissioned officer as they grow,” Weimer said.