RECRUTING STAION NEW YORK -- Written on the window of Staff Sgt. Albert Roman’s office is his goal for fiscal year 2006: “RSS East New York, City Station of the Year.”
The goal is a bold one, considering the recruiting sub-station has a history of not making mission. A few months ago that goal would have seemed impossible for the Marines of RSS East New York. But, after Roman took over as the staff non-commissioned officer in charge in late July, things have changed and the Marines have begun to taste success.
The leadership skills Roman is using to turn RSS East New York into a winner were the same traits recognized on Dec. 7, by the United Servicemembers Organization of Metropolitan New York. Roman was presented with the George M. Van Cleave Military Leadership award, recognizing his exceptional leadership skills.
“I was honored to be selected by the USO for this award,” Roman said. “All of the hard work, time and effort my Marines and I have put in is what allowed me to be in the position to even be considered for the award.”
The award, an impressively detailed statue of a bronze eagle, will sit proudly on display in Roman’s small three-man office in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. There, it will serve as a daily reminder of how any goal can be achieved through hard work, relentless pursuit of mission accomplishment and teamwork.
“If I can make three Marines believe in our goals, believe in themselves and believe in our team, then everything else will take care of itself,” Roman said. “See all of this,” he says, pointing to the numerous awards hung all over his office, to include recruiter of the year twice, “All of this wasn’t just me being a good recruiter. It was the Marines I had to my left and to my right that helped me be successful and put myself in position to earn these awards.”
Roman is especially thankful to the staff NCOIC of his previous RSS, where he says they developed a family atmosphere that he is trying to replicate at East New York.
“We built a team in Jamaica,” said Roman, referring to RSS Jamaica, located in Queens, New York. “We took the acronym TEAM and broke it down to Together, Everyone, Achieves, More. And we lived that phrase everyday.”
The hard work and belief in building a family earned Roman and the Marines of RSS Jamaica the title of City Station of the Year for 2005. And now, Roman has brought the same philosophies and recipe for success with him to East New York.
Though the rookie staff NCOIC is quickly achieving success on the tough and hardened streets of Brooklyn, making mission in three of the four months he’s been there, it hasn’t come easy.
Upon opening for business in October of 2003, East New York had an extremely difficult time making mission. In fact, East New York had made mission just six times in 22 months. Since Roman has taken over, the station has not only made mission in three of his four months, but has actually over-wrote their required number of contracts.
All of the success Roman has experienced he credits to his Marines and to his family.
“Being a leader out here is no different from being a leader in the fleet,” said Roman. “Marines will go to battle with you if they believe in you. And that’s the bottom line. We win, lose, fight and celebrate together. We are a team.”
If the team from East New York continues down the road of success they have started on this year, they will be doing one more thing together: Holding up the City Station of the Year trophy for fiscal year 2006.