USASOC NCO wins all-Army Equal Opportunity award

[Dan]

RELEASE NUMBER: 070116-01
DATE POSTED: JANUARY 16, 2007

USASOC NCO wins all-Army Equal Opportunity award
By Spc. Daniel Love
U.S. Army Special Forces Command Public Affairs Office

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, January 16, 2007) – A Special Forces Soldier was recognized as the U.S. Army Equal Opportunity representative of the Year during a ceremony Dec. 14 at the Army Equal Opportunity Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Master Sgt. Michael Clements, the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) EO advisor, received the honor for his efforts throughout 2006.

“He tends to exceed the standard in everything he does, and that shows a lot about his character” said Sgt. 1st Class Novaletta Ruffin, U.S. Army Special Operations Command EO Advisor. “His effectiveness also comes from the fact that he knows how to talk to Soldiers because he’s one of them, which makes those around him comfortable.”

An EO advisor’s responsibility is to ensure fairness and equality for all Soldiers, regardless of ethnicity or gender. EO advisors educate Soldiers on Army policy and advise commanders on actions to take concerning policy and discipline.

“EO is something nobody thinks about if its going well, but if something is wrong, everybody knows about it,” said Clements. “I like it when my work stays behind the scenes, because it means I’m doing my job the right way.”

EO advisors, from across the Army, competed and were judged on their advisor’s list of accomplishments during 2006. Clements’ list had many bullets, most notably community service, an Afghanistan deployment, and no EO incidents within his unit.

“An EO advisor can’t sit in the office and wait for problems to materialize,” Clements said. “When I am proactive and put in the extra time to get out and get a feel for how everyone is doing, I’ll find EO issues and take care of them before they get any worse.”

In Clements’ 20 years of Army service, 15 of them were spent in the Special Forces. He credits his experiences from deployments across the globe with shaping the personality and social skills needed to be an effective EO advisor.

“Being in the Special Forces hones a Soldier’s interpersonal skills,” Clements said. “I found that that helped me in this job because I was already adept at dealing with people before I even started.”

While he didn’t have any opportunity to work as an EO advisor in a position outside of the 3rd Special Forces Group, Clements said he had an opportunity to compare EO programs with advisors from across the Army.

“It seems like our ability to think outside of the box is what helps USASOC’s EO program run smoothly,” Clements said. “Our op-tempo is high and we need to do a lot of training between deployments, so we incorporate EO into combat training to ensure every Soldier has a well-rounded knowledge of command policies.”

Clements may have to retire for medical reasons in the coming year, but he said if he has his way, he would stay in the Army for a few more years. USASOC EO leadership agrees, but if he leaves, all agree that he has left his mark.

“Master Sgt. Clements is just a good person to begin with,” said Sgt. Maj. Jose Bailey, the USASOC senior EO advisor. “He’s a genuinely nice man and a very professional noncommissioned officer. The others in his career field will have big shoes to fill; we now use him as the performance benchmark for every EO advisor in USASOC.”

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