Three remarkable facts about your Breakfast… Never later than 0600, always healthy except during christmas time, mostly plant based.
Why is your Job in JSEC interesting? As a CSEL I am relatively independent in what I am doing. This leads to a greater responsibility to my daily work but adds also the freedom to serve JSEC on my way. This gives me the chance to leave my own footprint at JSEC.
Seeing somebody providing real Comradeship to another person is good enough to gain a comfortable working environment
What are your loved and unloved tasks? There are no unloved tasks but I really hate to waste my time with meetings, which gain zero outcome. On the other hand, I like when I/we can achieve something for the greater good of the Command.
What gives you satisfaction in your daily work? Seeing the progress of JSEC as a young NATO HQ and individuals stepping out of their comfort zone to serve the Command and his Members at its best makes me always happy. Having said this, it is not always needed to make the big steps, just seeing somebody providing real Comradeship to another person is good enough to gain a comfortable working environment.
Whom or what do you need for a perfect day? At the moment a perfect day would start early morning at the beginning of a hiking trail to a big Mountain three to four thousand meters of altitude, and would end on the peak of the mountain with a bone fire. All without a mobile phone of course.
In June 2023, the former CSEL, Warant Officer 1 Henry Sanday, handed over to Command Sergeant Major Torsten Steinberger. Photos by OR-4 Gina Seegert
Please complete: After winning in the lottery I would immediately … First wait until I know what I have won. If it would be millions I would still go to work the very next day, without telling anybody of it and enjoy the freedom that from this very moment on. I can do whatever I want to do not what I need to do.
Do you have a secret or non-secret passion?
My non-secret passion is clearly testing my limits physically and mentally. A kind of a secret passion is enjoying a good whisky from time to time accompanied by a smooth cigar.
When you were a child, which profession did you dream of? Being a professional Soccer player was my dream of Course.
As Command Senior Enlisted Leader (CSEL) CSM Steinberger is responsible for all non-commissioned officers at JSEC.
Where do you see yourself in ten years? If everything is according to my plan, I will be retired since three months after having served in my last position as the ACO CSEL. Just running my own business which is growing in parallel at the moment.
Which prominent person (dead or alive) would you like to meet and why? There is no prominent person I would like to meet, I meet a lot of excellent people in the armed forces or in the civilian world which have most of the time exciting stories to tell. If you would pin me down to an answer and force me to mention a person, I would choose Elon Musk to understand why people like him are becoming successful where other once mess it up. As he took a lot of personal risk to achieve his aims that would be an interesting talk.
Should I travel to your home country, what would you recommend not to be missed? You definitely have to see the river Mosel area at spring time, especially the village Bernkastel-Kues with its old buildings.
What is your first suggestion about typical German/typical NATO? Typical German today is always complaining but still trying to find a solution. Typical NATO from the human perspective, is just interrupting talks between people. Organizational wise I would say always developing and never finished.