Each year, the Association of the U.S. Army presents the George Catlett Marshall Medal in recognition of distinguished and selfless service.

First presented in 1960, it is AUSA’s highest honor, and this year’s recipient is a group that for more than two centuries has been known as “the backbone of the Army”—the United States Army Noncommissioned Officer.

“From the American Revolution to today, the United States Army Noncommissioned Officer has been the backbone of the force, training, leading, coaching and taking care of soldiers,” said retired Gen. Bob Brown, AUSA president and CEO.

The Marshall Medal is named for General of the Army George Catlett Marshall Jr., a former Army chief of staff who also served as secretary of state, secretary of defense and U.S. special envoy to China in a public service career that spanned the Spanish-American War through the administration of President Harry Truman.

Pointing out that NCOs are “the essential connective tissue of the Army’s formations and the envy of all other militaries in the world,” Brown added that the Marshall Medal is “one way to publicly honor these NCOs for their hard work, dedication and passion every day, whether at home or in combat.”

“Awarding the Army NCO the George Catlett Marshall Medal is a fitting testament to the selfless efforts of all NCOs, past, present and future,” said retired Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey, AUSA’s vice president for NCO and Soldier Programs.

While it would be impossible to recognize every NCO since the American Revolution, it is easy to learn from a selection of those serving today about what it means to be the professional standard-bearers for the modern soldier as they work to ensure that America’s Army remains the world’s premier land force.

“No one is more professional than I. I am a noncommissioned officer, a leader of soldiers,” begins the U.S. Army NCO Creed. Following are the stories of some NCOs and the values they embody as outlined in their creed.

MORAL COURAGE

In 2020, two 3rd Infantry Division soldiers who might have taken their own lives instead were thriving after getting the help they needed because then-Sgt. Morgan Edginton, a combat medic, intervened.

She saw each soldier behaving erratically and coaxed them into reversing their suicidal plans.

Today, Staff Sgt. Edginton is a medical adviser in the 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado. When she reflects on her decision to intervene, she said it “goes back to our Army Values, personal courage being one of them.”

“Moral courage is being willing to speak up, even if it’s going to ruffle some feathers or it’s going to be a hard conversation,” she said. “I really believe to be a good leader, you have to do the hard thing, and you have to maintain that. If you say you’re going to do something, you have to do it … even if it’s not easy.”

Leading soldiers takes patience and compassion, Edginton said, recalling the mentorship of a platoon sergeant she succeeded when she was first assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He took the time to mentor and coach her as she began her job, a caring gesture that demonstrated he was “the epitome of an NCO.”

“He just helped me step back and get a better perspective on how to mentor other soldiers like he mentored me,” she said. “I firmly believe that in order to be a leader, you have to be competent one, and you have to be confident.”

“Our job is to train our soldiers and take care of our soldiers, so when you make them a competent medic, that breeds confidence, and as they go through the ranks, now they’re competent leaders themselves,” Edginton said.

LEADERSHIP

Staff Sgt. Maira Alcalá is a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She is one of the Army’s 4,200 drill sergeants who train more than 115,000 new soldiers each year. It’s hard to imagine a more foundational responsibility.

“It’s super critical, because we’re literally taking a civilian and turning them into soldiers within a matter of 10 weeks,” said Alcalá, who has been on the trail for close to two years with the 165th Infantry Brigade. “We’re making American soldiers.”

Alcalá, whose MOS is 88M, motor transport operator, is passionate about the drill sergeant’s mission. “We need to ensure the Army remains a highly skilled, motivated and effective force, capable of diverse challenges throughout the years,” she said.

The job is done by NCOs, Alcalá said, because they possess the leadership experience, maturity, adaptability, discipline, patience, technical proficiency, resilience and communication skills required to mentor, coach and train people from diverse cultures who are entering a whole new world.

Even with the volume of new soldiers they are responsible for every day, all year long, drill sergeants pay attention to trainees’ every need, mood and issue.

“We notice when one of them is off. … You get to know them, and you notice when something’s not right, then you start asking questions, trying to help,” she said.

 The Army “would not be the Army that it is without NCOs,” she said.

“It is an organization that is commander-led, and the NCOs run it, enabled by staff. The NCO plays a huge and crucial part in the overall Army, and I think the absence of NCOs would lead to gaps in leadership. NCOs are indispensable to the successful functioning of the Army,” Alcalá said.

COMPETENCE

As an observer coach/trainer at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, 1st Sgt. Tracy Hamilton Jr. must be an expert at his craft as he enforces exercise rules of engagement, monitors safety, coaches, teaches and mentors soldiers from 10 companies per year.

“I see it all,” said Hamilton, who served as a drill sergeant for 18 months at Fort Moore, Georgia, and taught for two years at the U.S. Army Drill Sergeant Academy at Fort Jackson. “I see the bad habits, I see what units do well, and I take all of that stuff, and I get to put that in my own tool bag.”

For the units undergoing training, observer coach/trainers like Hamilton are their unsung heroes. Through his feedback, Hamilton, whose MOS is 11B, infantryman, ensures that the soldiers he advises are tactically proficient, and he pushes them to better visualize the realities of combat.

“When you put yourself on the outside, you’re really seeing the total concept,” he said. “I can observe for an hour or so … and talk to the command team [and] I can say, ‘Hey, have you thought about this?’ or ‘Let’s go outside of the wire. Let’s look at your position from the outside … to see what the enemy is going to do.’ ”

Hamilton tries to reinforce the importance of a combat mindset. “Everything we do needs to be tactical,” he said. “I think NCOs ... have to instill that combat mindset into their soldiers. From the moment they get up, to the moment that they go to bed at night, you’ve got to be thinking that way and training yourself for the next fight.”

More than 10 years after his first deployment to Afghanistan, Hamilton is still inspired by the NCOs who guided him as a young specialist. “These three NCOs … had been deployed multiple times and basically said, ‘Hey, follow me, man. I’ll show you how to do it,’ ” Hamilton said.

“They did it all. … They were right there in the foxholes with us every single time.”

LOYALTY

Before he would face a fierce enemy attack in Afghanistan and receive the Medal of Honor for his actions, Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Williams was inspired by the motto of the Army’s Special Forces.

“Our motto is ‘de oppresso liber,’ to free the oppressed, and that really spoke to me at a personal level,” Williams said. The motto went beyond fighting the enemy—it emphasized training, equipping and helping care for other communities and raising them up so they’re “capable of protecting themselves,” he said.

As he joined the Green Berets’ elite ranks, Williams learned from his first team sergeant, now-retired Master Sgt. Scott Ford.

Ford showed his soldiers how to be part of a Special Forces A-team, “how to train, how to take care of each other,” Williams said. “I really respect him for that and continue to respect that even more as I grow in my own career and leadership positions.”

On April 6, 2008, then-Sgt. Williams was an operations sergeant with the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) when he learned that his fellow soldiers had sustained several casualties and were pinned down on a mountainside in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley.

Under enemy fire, Williams and a team of Afghan commandos fought up the mountainside, executed a counterattack against the enemy and evacuated the wounded.

After initially receiving the Silver Star, Williams, who is credited with helping save the lives of four critically wounded soldiers and preventing the lead element from being overrun, received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, in October 2019.

Now assigned to the 4th Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, which is responsible for Special Forces MOS training, Williams is proud of his fellow soldiers. “I’m fortunate to be surrounded by some of the greatest NCOs and the greatest men … in the Army,” he said. “We continue to do a really great job of assessing, selecting and training these great Americans to be great leaders. That’s the goal, and we’ve been pretty successful at it.”

PROFESSIONALISM

In 2023, Staff Sgt. Andre Ewing led his squad to win the Army’s Best Squad Competition, an event in which two of his soldiers also were named the Army’s top NCO and Soldier of the Year.

He has been in the 75th Ranger Regiment since he enlisted in 2015, certain that he wanted to be a Ranger because he saw that “those were the guys who were getting after it.”

But when it was time to become a squad leader in the regiment’s 3rd Battalion, Ewing said he didn’t know if he was ready to take on a leadership role. As he stepped into the position, he said, he simply looked to the leaders who had brought him along.

“I was fortunate enough to be raised around just great NCOs,” Ewing said. “The moment I became a squad leader, I felt like I wasn’t ready … but I just kind of mimicked successful previous leaders that I had looked up toward, and that just [helped me build] a big cohesive bond and really made our squad tight.”

Calling upon his experience in building cohesive teams and spending the time to individually mentor and counsel Rangers, Ewing said being an effective leader comes down to caring about soldiers enough to get to know them.

Today, as a cadre member in the regiment’s Small Unit Ranger Tactics course, Ewing is like the NCOs he once looked up to, the leader who is taking teenagers and making them into well-rounded soldiers.

“I’m raising these soldiers,” he said. “I’m not just teaching these individuals, ‘Hey, this is how to Army.’ I’m also teaching them how to be an adult, to be a good person. I think if you build that professional and personal relationship, you definitely get more effort out of the guys you’re training.”