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Brownhill Stays Busy Linking Troops, Command

Command Chief Master Sgt. Curtis Brownhill

Bob Hite/News Channel 8

By BOB HITE bhite@wfla.com

Published: Nov 15, 2005

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq -- Command Chief Master Sgt. Curtis Brownhill has been in the U.S. Air Force 32 years and, in that time, he's been in a lot of hot spots.

This may be the hottest.

"This is a dangerous place," Brownhill says. "There's not anywhere in Iraq right now that there is not a threat. ... There is not a single place in Iraq you don't need to keep your situational awareness. ...

"You have to be aware of everything around you."

Brownhill's job is to be aware of everything that affects the troops in the field. As the highest-ranking enlisted man at U.S. Central Command, he serves as the link between the enlisted troops and command.

Brownhill reinforces the purpose of their mission with the troops, carrying to them the goals and objectives of the command. But he also carries messages back up the chain of command.

"It's a two-way street. If we clarify the mission objectives down to the level of execution, then we also have to be able to translate those issues on the ground ... back up the chain of command so we can make changes," Brownhill says. "We seek inputs from the middle, from the ground, from the youngest troops, and they can handle that. They can handle, with ease, the discussions we have about why this effort is so important."

As an enlisted man himself, Brownhill has stood where the young troops stand now. And he's impressed with what he sees in the young men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The young people today are so much brighter, worldly," he says. "They can see where we're trying to go. And that makes them considerably different than when I was young."

Bob Hite