History of the NCO Websites

The NCO Websites (NCO Website, vBnHQ, SquadLeader.com, FirstSergeant.com, NCOTeam.org) were a labor of love of the webmaster (Dan Elder) between the Army, and computers. The chapter began in 1997 and after an over 8 year run, were donated to the US Army.

The NCOTeam (www.ncoteam.org) was the brainchild of webmaster Dan Elder that melded his two favorite pastimes, being a soldier in the Army and computers. It was an outgrowth of the original NCO Website, born in 1997, and transformed to Squad-leader.com, eArmyHQs, Firstsergeant.com, Virtual Battalion Headquarters, and eventually NCOTeam. NCOTeam was given to the Army (“gifted”) in October 2005 and now serves as the foundation for NCOnet, a key element of the Battle Command Knowledge System. NCOTeam was the final incarnation of the suite of sites ran by Dan Elder using the information from the original NCO Website directory and Squad-leader.com and made important information available to soldiers of all ranks.

The journey began prior to the days of the World Wide Web. The seed was planted in 1991 when Dan’s coworker bought a x286 computer and wondered what to do with the modem that came with his system. From that point on, Elder has been pushing the idea of connecting soldiers and sharing information.

Before the Internet explosion, the primary method for tele-communication was through Bulletin Board Services (BBS). Elder developed and operated the Old Soldiers Home BBS, in 1991 in the Fort Knox/Radcliff, KY area. BBS users were assigned a nickname or "handle," similar to Citizen Band (CB) radios. He was a SysOp (Systems Operator) for The Old Soldier's Home BBS for about 3 years (1991-1993) and was known as “Top Sarge” The handle has stuck ever since. Elder still occasionally get emails from those who were members on the site. The Old Soldiers Home BBS later became the National Data Exchange, then the National Data Service BBS (NDSBBS.COM).

Elder began building the NCO Website in April 1997, and it went online in May. He was interested in learning how to program in web language (HTML, or HyperText Markup Language) and took an online course with Ziff-Davis University. He had as a course requirement to build a webpage and chose to combine what he knew (the Army) with his hobby, telecommunicating. He had dabbled in computing for about 8 years by then before the web became popular.

The idea behind the NCO Website was a directory, a la Yahoo, but for sites of interest for US Army NCOs. There were many sites online that were multi-service or for specific groups (unit associations, organizations, etc.). He had stumbled upon http://www.enlisted.com, but it was directed to junior soldiers. His guess was that computers and the world wide web would become a major tool for NCOs, which it has, and figured a web site should be developed just for NCOs, by NCOs.

Soon after designing NCO Network, Elder began to get ideas from some of the visitors. It expanded from a directory to a forum for NCOs to sharing items of interest, discussion topics, and a place to ask questions and to get answers, correctly. As a companion to the web site, the NCO Zone, an email discussion group, was developed. At its peak, over 800 NCOs participated in this discussion forum. The site also included a bulletin board to participate in threaded questions or discussion on the web, links to hundreds of sites and a directory of some of the most useful and popular military sites in the .mil and .com domain.

In the Fall 1997 edition of The NCO Journal, Elder penned an article on NCOs and Computers, and how to leverage the Web. NCO Website provided a three-page directory listing of "Important WWW addresses for NCOs." The edition focused on the growing trend of the computer and internet, and it also listed Elder’s first article for the Journal, "Work the WWW."

In 1999 Elder developed Firstsergeant.com and the Squad Leaders Tool Kit. Ever changing to understand the expectations of soldiers the sites transformed in 2000 to eArmyHQs, then Virtual Battalion Headquarters, and eventually Squad-leader.com. Squad-leader.com grew in popularity and became the face to field for online NCO interaction and served as a focal point for all the sites as he worked to adjust the look and feel. Elder began to recruit and use “peer mentors,” or soldiers from the field who participated and emerged as informal leaders on the site. Additionally, different themed areas were “sponsored” by a growing number of volunteer soldier “editors” who took on some of the arduous tasks of keeping the sites operational.

In October 2003 the Office of the Sergeant Major of the Army sponsored an NCO.mil kick-off which began the march to migrate NCOTeam to come in to the Army goal to build Communities of Practice under a single organization and become NCO Net. In the final iteration of changes in the public domain, the majority of the sites ran by Dan Elder were merged with NCOTeam.org as it became a “sponsored pilot” for the future NCO Net as part of BCKS. As the NCOTeam volunteers became more exposed to useful applications they included as part of the site sponsored online chats, situational challenges, like the regular feature Think Like a Sergeant, and sharing of TTPs based on ongoing operations. After Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, 1SG Rudy Romero granted an electronic interview to Squad-leader.com and his comments were made available to all the members.

As the Team began to collaborate with the Army in developing official communities of practice, the group of volunteers led by Elder focused on the critical areas of importance for the site. The site still served its initial mission of a directory of links grouped and categorized by functional areas, downloads of useful documents, tools, and software, and threaded discussions. An early success of collaboration included the Firstsergeant.com initiative to improve casualty evacuation in the Combat Training Centers (CTCs) using Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) from First Sergeants, Subject Matter Experts from the TRADOC Schools, Observer/Controllers from the CTCs, and Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) handbooks. Another successful event was the use of live Chat Sessions with senior noncommissioned officers from across the Army to share knowledge with members of the sites.

The team members met many soldiers through the NCO Website, and have helped many young soldiers through dilemma's. Elder received upwards of a 100 emails a week through or related to the NCO Website. From requests to help find buddies from war, to soldier questions in the field, to words of thanks and encouragement. One soldier noted, "I have used this site for many years now. It has helped me become a better leader and do what I truly believe in, Taking Care of Soldiers. I tell all of my soldiers I do not know everything. They know things I do not know, and I know things they do not know, but it does no good unless we share that knowledge and put it to good use for the army, the mission, the soldiers. This site has been extremely helpful in fulfilling those needs." reminds us that there are many who used these sites as their key to the rest of the Army.

In Aug 2003, CSM Dan Elder was awarded the first (and only) US Army Knowledge Management Pioneer Award by the Army CIO/G-6 for his early efforts in connecting soldiers through forums. You can read a synopsis here.

In October of 2005 Elder "gifted" the entire enterprise to be run by professionals as the central point of NCO forums on the web at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy, Fort Bliss, TX, now online at https://nconet.bcks.army.mil. Read the NCO Journal article

In 2007 NCO Net won the CIO/G-6 Migration award for Knowledge Management.

Other Enterprises:

Top Sarge was the nickname founder Dan Elder used on his Bulletin Board Service (BBS) called Old Soldier's Home BBS, established in 1991. It was initially a free web-like computer information site, but later grew to a multi-node, subscription service. This was prior to the expansion of the World Wide Web and the internet.

Top Sarge Productions was born as the Old Soldier Home faded and its replacement, the National Data Exchange BBS sprung up in its place and began doing business overseas in Europe.

Dan Elder also developed software for the military market, also under the name of Top Sarge Productions. His popular Computerized Leaders Book (CLB) was one of the first programs for soldiers to automate their Leaders Book. Additionally, he developed the Computerized Study Guide (CSG) as a companion, along with a few limited software items.

TSP also has a desktop publications and books element. Dan Elder, author and researcher, published military related materials and monographs in the public domain and as part of the TSP family.

One of the most popular efforts of TSP was the NCO Website, Squad-Leader.com, and NCOteam.org. Those efforts included smaller sites, such as FirstSergeant.com, the Virtual Battalion HQs (vBnHQ.com) and the Army Resource Center PPT Classes site. In Oct 2005 Dan Elder "gifted" the entire enterprise (minus the PPT site) to the US Army and it now operates as the official NCO forum at nconet.bcks.army.mil as part of the Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS).

As a staple of online internet activity, TSP is also involved in marketing, banner ads and continues to support a few sites under the umbrella of Virtual Professional Services.

In March 2008, Top Sarge Productions became Topsarge Business Solutions, LLC. We continue to provide niche products and services, now to a broader audience and scale. This has expended in 2008 to Top Sarge Consulting, a business venture to provide support and services from former senior noncommissioned officers who offer a variety of operational and strategic experience from the enlisted prospective.

Dan Elder