U.S. European Command’s Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bartelle, center, talks with Staff Sgt. Phillip Hoover of the 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry Regiment, during a patrol of the Serbian town of Pasjan, Kosovo, on Saturday. Bartelle also visited troops at Camp Bondsteel and Camp Monteith over the weekend. (Ben Murray / S&S)
U.S. European Command’s Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bartelle, center, talks with Staff Sgt. Phillip Hoover of the 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry Regiment, during a patrol of the Serbian town of Pasjan, Kosovo, on Saturday. Bartelle also visited troops at Camp Bondsteel and Camp Monteith over the weekend. (Ben Murray / S&S)
Pfc. James Pope and a fellow soldier from the 1st Battalion, 635th Armor Regiment, stationed at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, practice riot drills in the swirling snowstorm that grounded planes, buried roads and delayed base activities Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to let the soldiers off the hook to stay warm and dry indoors. (Ben Murray / S&S)
The highest-ranking enlisted soldier in Europe said this week that he is intent on ensuring troops under his care receive the best training and equipment the military can provide over the next several years.
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bartelle, the U.S. European Command’s top liaison to enlisted troops in the theater, said military families’ welfare and concerns also will be foremost on his mind during his three-year tenure.
A 26-year soldier with tours in Hawaii, South Korea, Germany and Belgium, Bartelle has worked his way up through “every noncommissioned officer leadership position from team leader to command sergeant,” according to his EUCOM biography.
His previous duty was as the Army’s command sergeant major at NATO, he said.
On his first official appearance as the command sergeant major since taking the office Feb. 8, Bartelle visited troops last weekend at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, where he said he was still adjusting to being treated more like brass than the enlisted soldier of his youth. “It still has an impact on me,” he said.
“The sphere of influence I have and how people react when they find out who I am and what I do.”
Despite his lofty position, Bartelle made an effort to personally thank as many troops as he could for serving on the Kosovo tour.
Asked whether he had any specific issues he wanted to address in his new role, the soft-spoken Bartelle said it was too soon for him to identify the type of systematic problems he may eventually deal with at the EUCOM level.
His first priority is to come up to speed on his role in the strategic planning of the military in the European command, he said.
“The amount of information I’m receiving is difficult to absorb,” he said.
About the one issue sure to generate waves of concern among military members during his tenure — the transformation and consolidation of the U.S. military in Europe — Bartelle said the best thing he can do until he knows more about the shape of the future force will be to disseminate information as fast and accurately as he can.
“The goal will be to ensure that everyone has a working knowledge of what’s happening,” he said.
Snow delays Bartelle’s departure
CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — The new command sergeant major for the U.S. European Command received a longer-than-expected tour of the main American facility in Kosovo over the weekend.
Problems with the C-12 Huron passenger plane that brought him and nearly a foot of fresh snow combined to turn his overnight trip into a stay of almost three full days at Camp Bondsteel.
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bartelle was on hand at the base to attend a transfer of authority ceremony and meet troops in his first trip abroad as EUCOM’s senior enlisted adviser.
Bartelle said he luckily had a pretty empty schedule for Monday, when he was supposed to receive some orientation around his new office in Stuttgart, Germany, but was eager to get back for a Tuesday teleconference about military quality of life issues.
Bartelle’s plane broke down on the flight line in Pristina, Kosovo, on Sunday, when he was originally supposed to depart, and replacement parts were delayed from reaching the airfield by the deepening snows.
On Monday afternoon, he was still stranded at the base. The delay left Bartelle wading through a long list of e-mails and taking care of administrative duties, he said, but didn’t affect his work too much. “Patience is a virtue,” he said.
— Ben Murray
