The Role of Company Sergeant Major

Well, as a company sergeant major, there’s really nothing written for a company sergeant major so to speak. I mean as a company sergeant major you’re responsible, you know the old saying used to be drill and discipline but I’d say you are more. You are the senior non-commissioned officer in the company so your job is to advise the company commander on the welfare of the men and how they are doing; observations, suggestions on training, you know, areas to be improved on, how’s morale in the company but also to sit in on his order groups and offer your opinion on operations and how you think that they should go and to provide advice and guidance both to the company commander, some of the junior officers and to the men as well. So you were, you had a very large role. In short, you were the company commander's right hand man. Wherever the company commander went, you went. There was always the company commander and the company sergeant major were always together. So you were out there all the time, taking tours of the line, talking to the soldiers seeing how things are going, making sure that the welfare of the men was looked after. That was the responsibility of the company sergeant major and he works hand in hand with the quartermaster to make sure the soldiers are looked after. By in large your ultimate responsibility is to be the interface between the company commander and the troops and to provide advice and guidance to both the company commander and the soldiers and to make sure their welfare was taken into account.

Although not a clearly defined role, Mr. Bradley describes his position and duties performed as company commander’s right hand man.

Daniel Bradley

Mr. Daniel Bradley was born June 24, 1958 in Ottawa, Ontario. At 18 years of age, walking by a recruiting centre, Mr. Bradley made an impulsive decision to join the military having a desire for the infantry. Mr. Bradley became a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment holding rank as an infanteer and obtained training at CFB Cornwallis in Trenton, Ontario. After training, Mr. Bradley spent a bit of time In Canada service but in 1978 experienced his first operational deployment to Cyrpus. In 1992 Mr. Bradley was given another opportunity to deploy to Somalia and joined a contingency from the RCR and became part of the Airborne Regiment where he held rank of Chief Warrant Officer. As his military career continued Mr. Bradley was part of an operational to Croatia in 1994, Bosnia in 1997 and more recently 2002/03 travelled to Afghanistan on two different operations, one being Roto O as Company Sergeant Major. Mr. Bradley retired in 2011 with 35 years of military sevice.