SSG Matthew Carson is the 2008 Big Red One “NCO of the Year”. More importantly, SSG Carson is a Bandido who served proudly and valiantly in two combat tours Fallujah and Al Asad, Iraq!

Below, is the talk he gave at the 1st Infantry Division 90th Annual Reunion Banquet.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN NCO IN THE 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION

When I was told that I would be giving a speech about what means to be a Non-Commissioned Officer, I struggled for a couple of weeks with what I was going to say. Then I asked myself one question. Why was I having so much difficulty with this? I’m a pretty smart guy; this shouldn’t be this hard.  But I found that the reason it was so difficult was the reason that the Big Red One is special. History sets the 1st Infantry Division apart from the rest of the Army, and therein lay my problem.  I felt my speech had to live up to the high standard of the Division, but history gave me the answer.

I have been surrounded by history all my life, mostly unknowingly. A major roadway and a shopping mall in the capital of my home state of Iowa are named for one of the first three soldiers killed in action in World War I, PVT Merle Hay. He was killed in France, serving with the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. When I was a kid I watched a movie called the Big Red One, without giving the name of the movie a second thought. I watched because I liked Word War II movies (and the guy who played Luke Skywalker from Star Wars was in it).  Now, I watch it because Lee Marvin is a great NCO in the movie, and let’s face it, what other division has a movie named after it? Then, there is General Roosevelt, while not an NCO, still one of my personal heroes because he was the son of a President, and he didn’t have to be there but was dedicated to the Big Red One.

What do these pieces of history, and countless others, have to do with what it means to be an NCO in the 1st Infantry Division?  They give us a sense of who we are as members and former members of the Big Red One.  They give us a standard to live up to as Noncommissioned Officers.  They set us apart from all other units in the Army.

While we were named the 1st Division because we were the first one organized, it ws a sign of things to come. We were the first everywhere we went. The first to get to France, the first on the line, the first to see action and the first to cross the German border in World War One.  The first to England, North Africa, Sicily, the beaches of Normandy, and the first to capture a major German city in World War Two. The first division to deploy to Vietnam. The Big Red One spearheaded the attack in Desert Storm. Why were we the first so often? It ws because we were the best trained, most highly motivated and the most competently led unit from top levels of the Division down to the team level.

This is what we NCOs have to live up to every day. It is not enough to meet the standard in the 1st Infantry Division because exceeding the standard is the standard in the Division. We have a reputation to maintain as the best our Nation has to offer. We have the best Soldiers in the Army, and it is our duty as NCOs to ensure that they receive the best training and leadership available. Anything less would be unworthy of the commitment those Soldiers made, and unworthy of the sacrifice of our predecessors who fought and died while wearing the Big Red One on their left shoulder.

I have spent my entire career in this Division, first with the Blue Spaders in Schweinfurt, Germany, and now with the Iron Rangers at Ft. Riley. I have also served two tours in Iraq with the Big red One, first in Saladin Province and most recently in Al Anbar Province. I know the day is coming when I will leave the Division; there is no avoiding it in today’s Army... but I can assure you that I will be disappointed to leave. The only consolations I will have are that I will always have my Big Red One Combat Patch. I will always have the memories of those I served with in the 1st Infantry Division, and I will have the hope that someday I will have the opportunity to return to the Division that raised me from a Private and made me into a leader and a Non-Commissioned Officer.

No Mission Too Difficult!

No Sacrifice Too Great!

DUTY FIRST!