'A shining example'

SEMBACH, Germany — A Coeur d'Alene man was named the 2021 NATO Force Structure Top Soldier of the Year.

Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Welch is assigned to the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Spain in Valencia. The G3 operations noncommissioned officer was selected to receive the award by a panel of judges based on his impact on his organization during the previous year.

Welch’s impacts include providing counsel and mentorship while supporting the establishment of Spain’s first officially recognized sniper school, and mentoring sniper teams from the Spanish Parachute Brigade and Special Operations School.

“I think I’ve been lucky in my assignments and what type of people and organizations I have worked with,” Welchsaid. “So when I came here it was just easy to kind of reach out and help our partners in those areas where I have some experience.”

Welch has served as a sniper with the 10th Mountain Division, an infantry platoon sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division, a senior drill instructor at Fort Jackson, S.C., and a team leader and first sergeant with the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade. He has deployed five times to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He attributed much of his success not only to his training and combat experiences but also to a new Allied Land Command program called NCO Empowerment Enabling Decisions or NEEDs.

The purpose of NEEDs is to encourage and enable noncommissioned officers to accomplish more for their commanders and officer counterparts than what a traditional NATO staff uses their NCOs for.

“NEEDs was kind of my catalyst for doing all this extra work that I did,” Welch said.

Selection as the 2021 NATO Force Structure Top Soldier of the Year is “quite an achievement which underscores the high quality of our Army's NCOs and recognizes the professionalism, skills, experience and high human quality of Sgt. 1st Class Welch,” said U.S. Army Col. Jerzy Zubr, U.S. senior national representative in the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Spain.

U.S. Army NATO Brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Bryan J. Valenzuela said he was not surprised when he heard about Welch’s accomplishment because of the praise he has heard over the past year.

“He is one of the reasons our NCO Corps is a shining example to our NATO partners of how important our role as NCOs is to the U.S. Army, our Soldiers, officers and families,” Valenzuela said.

Welch credits his colleagues and unit leaders for making sure he had the time and opportunity to help outside his normal duties in the unit.

His advice for young NCOs looking to make a difference in their unit is “if you see something that needs to be done or could possibly be a good idea, just go for it. And don’t be afraid to be told no.”