The United States Army's Noncommissioned Officer Candidate Course (NCOCC), originally located at Fort Benning, Georgia, was created to fill the Army's critical shortage of junior noncommissioned officers with the best qualified and best trained men available. NCO Candidates (NCOC) allowed to attend the course were selected from volunteers and many candidates were among the brightest soldiers of Basic Combat Training, Advanced Individual Training or in a subsequent assignment that demonstrated outstanding leadership potential. The program was in existence only during the U.S. war in Vietnam.
History
By the end of 1966, the US military presence in South Vietnam had grown to 385,000 with the majority of soldiers in the US Army. During the Vietnam build-up, many of those doing the fighting were enlistees and draftees as the Reserve forces were not mobilized for this action. Without “calling up” the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve Army, leaders had to induct and train raw talent and to distribute those new recruits and existing personnel worldwide. The size of the active component was not large enough to provide all requirements for the expanded Vietnam commitment and the Army found itself without alternative plans for expanding its strength. The rapid buildup, coupled with a Department of Defense directive that established a 12-month tour of duty in Vietnam made the replacement program a fundamental problem.
In order to meet these unprecedented requirements for NCO leaders the Army developed a solution called Skilled Development Base (SDB) Program on the proven Officer Candidate Course where an enlisted man could attend basic and advanced training, and if recommended or applied for, filled out an application and attended OCS. The thought by some was that the same could be done for noncoms. If a carefully selected soldier can be given 23 weeks of intensive training that would qualify him to lead a platoon, then others can be trained to lead squads and fire teams in the same amount of time. From this seed, the Noncommissioned Officers Candidate Course (NCOC) was born.
In August 1967 the Army established the Skill Development Base (SDB) program of formal instruction and on-the-job training (OJT) to address the Army's shortage of deployable enlisted personnel, and to fill requirements (mostly overseas) for squad and team leaders in pay grades E-5 and E-6 in Vietnam.
When created, it had three sub-programs, the Noncommissioned Officer Candidate (NCOC) Program, the Noncommissioned Officer/Supervisor Program, and the Specialist Program. The expectation was that graduates would be able to perform in their specialty at the grade they were promoted to on their first duty day. The Training Centers were given 24-weeks to accomplish that and the expectation was that students must have at least 13-months remaining on their enlistment contract when they completed all their studies. The NCO Candidate Program was envisioned to relieve the pressure of the shortage of combat leaders.
Overview
The 1965 build-up of United States Army ground forces broadened the conflict in Vietnam. As the war progressed, the attrition of combat, the 12-month tour limit in Vietnam, separations of senior noncommissioned officers and the 25-month stateside stabilization policy began to take a toll on the enlisted force to the point of crisis. Without a call up of the reserve forces, Vietnam became the Regular Army's war, fought by junior leaders. The Army was faced with sending career noncoms back into action sooner or filling the ranks with the most senior PFC or specialist. Field commanders were challenged with understaffed vacancies at base camps, filling various key leadership positions, and providing for replacements. Older and more experienced NCOs, some World War II veterans, were strained by the physical requirements of the methods of jungle fighting. The Army was quickly running out of noncommissioned officers in the combat specialties.