Sergeant Major Siim Saliste
Sergeant Major of the Estonian Defence Forces
Sgt. Maj. Siim Saliste was born 8 October, 1974, in Kose, Estonia. He joined the young, re-established, Estonian Defence Forces in 1994 and served in a variety of units mostly as an infantryman.
Sgt. Maj. Saliste’s duty assignments include the Border Guard Training Center, Single Peace Keeping Company, Baltic Battalion, Peace Operations Centre, Scouts Battalion, National Military Academy, Infantry Brigade and the Land Force Headquarters. On 1 May, 2014, Sgt. Maj. Saliste was appointed as the Sergeant Major of the Estonian Defence Forces making him the the first noncommissioned officer to be assigned to this position.
Sgt. Maj. Saliste has served in numerous enlisted positions including rifleman, machine gunner, antitank gunner, squad and section commander, platoon sergeant, instructor, operations NCO, battalion command sergeant major, and the G7 senior NCO. Sgt. Maj. Saliste worked with allied forces in Estonia and abroad. He was trained as an instructor of small arms and attended military training with The British Royal Marines participating in The Royal Marines Commando Course. He trained with the Germany Army as an antitank system “Milan” instructor. He also has trained together with Italian Carabinieris, the French Mountain unit, the Danish Prince Henrys Live Regiment, the Swedish Infantry, the Dutch Royal Marines, the Polish infantry, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marines, Latvian and Lithuanian Armed Forces and hs participated in many multinational exercises domestically and within the NATO Rapid Reaction Forces.
Sgt. Maj. Saliste deployements include Kosovo in 1999 (KFOR) as the commande senior enlisted leader; Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2001 (SFOR) as a scout platoon sergeant; Afghanistan (ISAF) as sergeant major of the Situation Awareness Centre for the ISAF Commander. Sgt. Maj. Saliste has also deployed to Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg, Germany where he served as G7 sergeant major; sergeant major of the Situation Cell and operations sergeant major for the Joint Coordination Centre.
Sgt. Maj. Saliste is an active participant in NATO NCO development and represented his country’s enlisted ranks in the NATO Senior Enlisted Seminar for almost 10 years providing input instrumental in developing standardized guidelines for the Allied NCO development, and NATO Command Senior Enlisted Leader Course, Oberammergau, Germany
His decorations include the Estonian Defence Forces Distinguished Service medal and Estonian Army Silver Cross of Merit. Sgt. Maj. Saliste is married to the former Ms. Jane Zimmerman and they have a daughter Annette.
Sgt. Maj. Saliste is a graduate of Class 57 of the U. S. Army Sergeants Major Course.