This briefing will discuss the roles and responsibilities that Noncommissioned Officers typically assumed between the years 1775 and 1865. I will concentrate on the roles and responsibilities, but also look at how those roles and responsibilities have evolved and compare them to that of today's NCOs. Before we can truly determine where the Noncommissioned Officer Corps is headed, we must first know where we came from. We will also take a look at how we came to be known as the most competent and most professionally developed Corps of Noncommissioned Officers in the world.

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