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• U.S. Army Reserves official site
• Command Sergeant Major Jones' bio

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Tavis: Command Sergeant Major Michele Jones is the highest ranking noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, and the first-ever female command sergeant major. The Baltimore native is now based at the Pentagon. But tonight, we're glad to have her out here on the West Coast. Command Sergeant Major Jones, nice to have you on the program.

CSM Michele Jones: Thank you very much.

Tavis: It's a pleasure to meet you.

Jones: Same here.

Tavis: And congratulations, I think, on being the first woman in this position. Is that a good thing?

Jones: It is. It is. It's a good thing. It's just indicative of what I always say, the pro of the Army. The bottom line being is if you do a good job, exceptionally good job, regardless of your gender, as long as you're a good soldier, that you can achieve the highest rank, you can achieve the highest position. And it has truly been a blessing to me. I love what I do, and the military has provided me the opportunities to do all the things that I need to do.

Tavis: I wanna talk more about your personal story, the backstory of how you got here, in just a second. Before I do that, though, tell me what it is that you do. A lot of words in this title. (laugh) But what do you do every day?

Jones: Primarily I would say I am the adviser to the Chief Of The Army Reserve, Lieutenant General Helmly, and my responsibilities is to be the enlisted soldier's voice as well as the family members of those enlisted soldiers. And that's from quality of life issues to training to readiness to pay issues, finance. It doesn't matter.

To be their voice at the highest levels within the Department Of The Army, Department Of Defense, Congressional, and in the media. Every soldier is not going to have the opportunity to talk and express themselves, their areas of concern, whether good or bad. And I am their voice. That is why this position exists. To represent them and their families.

Tavis: I'm curious as to what you are voicing on their behalf these days. And I raise that against this backdrop. I was telling you before we came on the air here a moment ago, I was down Fort Bragg way, where you were once station, down in North Carolina, literally just 48 hours ago, over the weekend. And as you also know, when you fly anywhere in that area, certainly right about now, the plane is full of officers and soldiers.

So I'm on these planes going in and out of North Carolina, and both ways, again, soldiers packed on both planes. So I just put my notes down, put the paper down, and just kind of listened to the conversations going on. And certainly on the way down there, I was on the plane with a bunch of soldiers who were going there to be trained to go on their way to Iraq.

And listening to the stories, and people asking questions, and what kind of training are we going to receive, and how long do you think we're going to be there, and what'd they tell you? I'm just eavesdropping on these conversations. And my heart just really, it got me right here. Because I'm listening to these guys who I know are going to be trained, who have been told they're going to be there for a certain period of time, and may be there longer.

So if you're the voice of these certainly reservists, what are you voicing to the top brass now about what you're hearing from these soldiers and from their families about what they're actually dealing with now, versus what they told they were gonna be dealing with?

Jones: Okay. Let's first talk about the training piece. When a soldier, an Army Reserve soldier, note I said soldier, not reservist, because these are soldiers serving in the United States Army, when they deploy, or prior to deployment, they are trained on those survivability skills that they need. You can never receive enough training.

From weapons qualification to first aid combat life-saving skills, anything. Driving in a hostile environment, any of those things that will enhance your ability to function in a combat environment to protect both your battle buddy to your left and to your right, as well as yourself, to come back home. There's always a level of anxiety when you're going into an environment where quite frankly, you can die.

And that is the life of a soldier. Now, as far as soldiers not really knowing how long, and in some ways that is true. Now, before I close that, there is a legal period of time. Any soldier called to active duty involuntarily for a period of up to two years for the same operation. And in this case, anything that is pertaining to the global war on terrorism, a soldier can be called to duty for up to two years, or 24 months.

So now that doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to be on duty for 24 months. They will spend one year, boots on the ground, in theater. And part of that two-year process is the training, preparation, getting familiar with the equipment, receiving all the equipment that they need, training in that equipment.

Because if you add an additional 30 pounds to 40 pounds, in some cases 50 pounds, of body armor to protect you, you've got to be used to wearing that type of equipment. So it is a process. We're not going to send a soldier forward without having additional training. And that's not just the Army Reserve. That's any type of operation overseas.

Tavis: What does the training mean, though, if once you get there, the equipment fails you? You've been trained in it, but the equipment don't operate right, and we've been reading those stories far too often, I believe.

Jones: Well, I would question what isn't operating right, and what I mean by that, in the beginning, we did not have all the body armor. And I know which ones you're referring to. Number one, there was never an intention across our Army, if you will, for everyone to have every last piece of equipment. Body armor was being produced at a rate for those combat arms type units.

The missions that you are engaged directly with the enemy. Well, now the battlefield is 360, so every soldier must have that. So what did the military have to do? We had to one, increase the amount of manufacturers to produce what our soldiers needed in theater. The same thing with the type of vehicles. And you may have heard up-armored vehicles.

Certain type of vehicles were not ever designed to be in an environment where they're taking IEDs and improvised explosive devices. Well, now any vehicle going outside the wire, as they say, is a target. So therefore, again, we had to put that type of material on every vehicle that goes outside the wire. That is not the type of warfare that we ever fought.

This is the very first time that we have engaged with this type of enemy ever in our history. So, all those things played into part as to why we were where we were. Now, it is getting better.

Tavis: No matter how well you train me, no matter how good the equipment is, never mind the fact that you tell me I'm going to be there for a year, and even if I come home a few months early, with all those ideal conditions, given the context of this conversation, if those are the ideal conditions, I'm still trying to figure out why, if I'm a talk show host or a banker, a lawyer, a teacher, why at this point would I want to join the reserves?

Jones: Well, a number of reasons. Number one, I would say, we have what we call call of duty. Everyone has a passion or profession that they choose to do. And for service members, there's a multitude of reasons. The first one anyone always hears, well, I joined the Army for college. Well, that's not so in all cases.

In a lot of cases, it's not. I did not join the military. I was in college. I left because I wanted to do something different than my peers. That's one thing. The second thing is the travel. The third thing is a contribution to something bigger than yourself. In our society, a lot of our young folks in particular, they have not joined an organization that is positive.

Not all. But there's some, and there are, that it's bigger than them. That they're contributing to someone other than their little small group, their friends, or themselves. And the military shows that. Shows them how. And a lot of people say, well, I'm going to join the Army for discipline. You have discipline. It's just showing you how to get there.

And I will say, whether you join for two years, five years, 10 years, the skill sets, the life sets that you learn, you take with you anywhere. Does the Army put you in an environment to develop as a leader? Absolutely. When you have 18 year olds and 19 year olds and 20 year olds making decisions that could affect your life, my life, or whether or not someone comes home safely, it's a more mature person. There's a set of values that the Army has, and that I'm sure you may be familiar with. But these are some of the reasons why they see.

Tavis: And yet, you and I both know, respectfully, that even with all that, very nicely done, by the way, I might add. Even with that, it ain't working. A lot of brothers ain't buying that these days. Sisters ain't buying that. The numbers, as you know, specifically of African-Americans, since we both happen to be Black, the numbers of African-Americans are way down right about now with regard to recruiting for the Army. So what do you do about that?

Jones: Absolutely not. That is not...

Tavis: Has that number turned around in the last 48 hours? 'Cause every number we've seen for the last few months, respectfully, is that they have not been hitting their recruiting deadlines, number one, and they certainly aren't getting the number of African-American enlistees like they used to.

Jones: Let me explain, when it says the numbers. When we're talking about recruiting, first of all, we're talking about the Army structure, roughly, was 77,000 recruited every year. The Army added an additional. We have increased our strength. So instead of recruiting, let's say, 75,000, now we're recruiting 82,000.

So we met what we normally met. With the addition thousands of soldiers that we are recruiting now, we did not meet that new one. But we met what we always have. So it sounds very dismal, like we're not meeting our numbers. But indeed, not only, we didn't meet the new numbers and the increased strength that we've been given authorization by Congress.

But we did meet what we always have. Now I would say in the Army Reserve, we have the highest population of African-Americans. We always have. It's over 25 percent. Why? Because again, there are different reasons that someone joins the Army Reserve versus the active component. Typically, it's either education that's going on.

Secondly, it could be own businesses. It could be a professional business that we do. If you talk to the average African-American soldier, they're going to tell you they joined because they chose to, not because it was the last resort. It's an educated force. We are an educated force. African-Americans, yes, do they take advantage of the tuition opportunities or the educational opportunities?

Yes. But again, I would say, and if you ask any African-American soldier, and yes, I'm very passionate about it, because I listen to them and I'm representing them, they will tell you they joined the military because it's what they want to do. They see something bigger than themselves. It's a passion, it's a commitment, and they believe, you know what? I'm African-American, but I'm a soldier, I'm American serving this nation, so. And, well, go ahead.

Tavis: You're on a roll. I hate to cut you off, 'cause you're about to convince me to enlist, and I got a TV show every night. Nice to meet you.

Jones: (laugh) Thank you so very, very much.

Tavis: Glad to have you, and we are proud of you, and glad you're there.

Jones: Thank you so very, very much for the opportunity.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you on the program. Got to get out of here before I...

Jones: I know, (laugh) before I have you signed up.

Tavis: Up next, actor Michael Rapaport. Stay with us.

Jones: Thank you.