Despite the proliferation of technology, NCOs must master the fundamentals of soldiering as they prepare to deter and prevail in the Indo-Pacific, a panel of senior enlisted leaders said during the Association of the U.S. Army’s LANPAC Symposium and Exposition in Honolulu.

“If we’re going to win the next fight, it’s really going to be the noncommissioned officer that’s going to win that next fight for us,” said Sgt. Maj. Jay Garza of Army Futures Command. The modern battlefield continues to change, but the “secret sauce of our Army is the noncommissioned officer corps,” he said.

In the Indo-Pacific, land power is the strategic architecture that binds the fabric of the region, and the NCO’s role is “vitally important,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Jason Schmidt, senior enlisted leader for U.S. Army Pacific. “We are a people business, the Army is people-centric,” he said, adding that many of Army Pacific’s initiatives to build interoperability in the theater occur during exercises involving NCOs and soldiers.

Speaking on May 14, Schmidt and Garza were joined by Warrant Officer Kim Felmingham, regimental sergeant major-Army for the Australian Army, and Chief Warrant Officer Sanjee Singh, sergeant major of the Army for the Singapore Armed Forces.

In Singapore, the army advocates lifelong learning, offering its NCOs opportunities to pursue diploma and degree programs, Singh said. The army also emphasizes professional military education to ensure NCOs are ready for the responsibilities required of them, from leading soldiers at the front as junior NCOs to more leadership lessons as they progress through the ranks, Singh said.

Soldiers also must train hard, Felmingham said. “Training needs to be harder, to be wickedly challenging at echelon,” Felmingham said. “Training needs to challenge readiness, not consume it.”

The Indo-Pacific is home to some of the harshest terrain in the world, she said. “Ultimately, we need them to thrive and survive, … act decisively and swiftly in contact,” she said. “It’s not enough for them just to be experts. Our noncommissioned officers need to thrive.”

They also must be given a safe environment to fail and fail fast—and learn quickly, Felmingham said. “Every exercise has to be approached as if it’s a rehearsal,” she said. “Rehearsals must be designed to test an NCO’s drive. … [NCOs] must be personable, credible, be able to translate words into action, and they need to be optimistic, because war is going to be hard.”

Today’s NCOs must be able to embrace and adapt to emerging technology, the panelists said, but they also must be able to operate without it. “Technology is always the enabler,” Schmidt said. “The other piece with technology you’ve got to remember is technology is going to fail you.”

While NCOs must be able to integrate technology and use it to their advantage, “should that fail in the Indo-Pacific because we have those harsh environments, we’re going to have to be able to meet the demands of the large-scale combat environment,” he said.

Garza agreed. “Whether the environment changes or not, the fundamentals will not,” he said.

The Army can’t wait, he said. “If we have to fight today, that’s what we go with, that’s what we’re going to fight and win with,” Garza said.