Senior NCOs are usually in the rear with the gear. I wasn't clear what his unit was. I just looked it up, he was a red leg, aka artillery. That generally is a fairly safe job in non-linear global war on terrorism type stuff but would be very dangerous if he was in the Ukrainian or Russian artillery unit right now because they are fighting a war of artillery attrition in a large part of the battlefield. So, shoot, then scoot and hope the other side doesn't figure out where you are so they can zap you. The Russians are actually pretty terrible at dynamic targeting so... Even if Iraq was on their a-game and he was part of the initial surge into Iraq in 2003, he'd have been reasonable safe although worked to death by all the rounds we fired at the Republican Guard.