"Captain, the Truth Changes!"

"Captain, the Truth Changes!" by Lieutenant Colonel Pat Knutson I There are no time-tested shortcuts to colonel. The only "assured" road to that promotion is the operational track. The operational track mandates that an officer spend nearly all of his time with troops. This track has always been in favor with the senior leadership of our Army because it is the track most of them used to get where they are today. ORSA, other functional area tracks, project manager jobs, foreign area specialists, and less well known routes to colonel have all had their day. Personnel oflicers pushed them in all honesty. At the time, they were the keys to leaping to the front of the pack enroute to colonel. In 1973, I was attending the Armor Officer Advanced Course. I was happy to be a tanker, and ready to finish the course and go back to doing great and wondrous things for Armor. Then, out of the blue, came a call from my assignment officer. He told me that I was "in the top third of the top third of my contemporaries, and that I had a great future in Armor that would be considerably enhanced by going to a fully-funded graduate-degree program for two years to become an operations research (ORSA) officer. It all sounded good to me, so I called him back to get his assurance that ORSA was a stepping-stone to promotion and greatness. He assured me that all was well, and that upon successful completion of my two years of graduate school and a three-year utilization assignment, I would continue on my way to keep the world safe from bad guys. He was telling the truth as he saw it on that day in 1973. I believed him and went to graduate school. Two years later, I called my new assignment officer to find out how he thought I was doing, and to find out where he was going to send me to pay the Army back for the two years I spent in pursuit of academic excellence. He told me that he had both good and bad news. The bad news was that I was "in the middle third of the middle third" of my contemporaries because 1 had been away from troops too long. Talk about a shock! His good news was that he was going to send me to HQ, TRADOC, at Fort Monroe, Virginia, to serve my utilization tour. Note that I had slipped away from my contemporaries by being away from troops and seemed now destined to slip further behind them by being kept from troops for at least another three years. It was mind-boggling. The truth had changed. The truth will continue to change during your career as well. It will change while some of you serve as assignment officers at

PERSCOM.

"So how do I get ahead of the pack?" you ask. I do not purport to be able to tell you what to do today to enhance your chances for selection to colonel many years from now. What I do purport to know is how you can approach the problem, and what factors are key to making you competitive for that most senior of field grade promotions. There Is Much to Do To become competitive for promotion to colonel you have much to do and very little leeway in how you get it done. If we can assume that all Armor officers do generally the same jobs during their first five years of commissioned service (OBC, platoon leader, company XO, battalion staWspecia1 stafl, assistant brigade staff/special staff, and OAC), then the problem reduces down to mapping out the options you have for assignments during the next 15-16 years to be ready for promotion to colonel at about 21 years of service. Table 1 outlines your options. Note that you really don't have many if you are trying to reach the pinnacle of the field grades via the time-proven method. What is outlined here is substantially in consonance with DA The Steps to Colonel Assianment Branch Qual. Jobs/ Schools Company Command Battalion S3 Graduate School Utilization Tour

CGSC

Battalion XO Battalion Command War College (Option) (Option) Table 1 Years Stmnt 5 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1 1 Cumulative Years 5 7 8 10 13 14 16 17 19 20 21 ARMOR - March-April 1990 45

Pamphlet 600-3, Contrnissiorted w- jicer Professional Developnierit and Utilization, though I have identified only one opportunity for a functional area assignment. The truth is you do not have time to do more than one full-term functional area assignment and still meet all of the gates for promotion to colonel with your contemporaries. The remainder of your career is pretty much set. If you choose to diverge from the paths (punches) shown above, it is unlikely that you will succeed. Analysis of FA49 (ORSA) promotions to colonel confirm my position: dual-trackers clearly dominate the promotion to colonel contest over single trackers, and dual trackers do so via the operational track. Every FA49 dual-track officer selected for promotion to colonel on the FY89 list had commanded a battalion-size unit. Joint Assignments Have to Fit In Those in tune with today‘s buzzword for enhanced opportunities for promotion recognize and believe in the term ‘3oint duty.” Jointness is undoubtedly important for generals and admirals, maybe even for naval captains and colonels of the other services. Those senior officers have few opportunities to experience and learn from the other services while serving in their advanced grades, so they must somehow do so as captains, majors, or lieutenant colonels. If you have stars in your eyes, joint duty is not optional; you must do time in the joint arena to become eligible for brigadier general, just as you must succeed as a battalion commander to become eligible for promotion to colonel.

LTC(P)

Nmbu

NON-SELECTS

Nwnbel a I . A My assertion portends simplicity: your opportunity for promotion to the grade of colonel is directly related to your level of success in company command. Company command is the single most critical career influencing position an officer will hold in the Army. Clear success in company command establishes your future prospects for promotion to colonel. Documentation of your performance does not guarantee that promotion by any means, but you cannot get there without it. The captains who excel in this critical assignment also earn by their reputation and demonstrated performance the opportunity to serve as battalion operations officers while still cap tains; gain selection for resident CGSC; get selected to serve as battalion executive officers; and increase their probability of selection for battalion command to become competitive for promotion to colonel. If you cannot convince your leadership that you can command a company with the very best, you are simply not battalion command material. Without battalion command you are not competitive for promotion to colonel. When I was a Lieutenant, success was delined as promotion to colonel. That definition still applies to those who successrully command battalions, however, the rest of the offrcer corps, regardless of level of competency, .cannot reasonably expect to achieve that aspiration. The truth changes. Today it is more realistic to view success as selection for promotion to lieutenant colonel. In the future, that promotion may also be threatened for those who choose to specialize in the nonoperational functional areas. Decreasing force structure over the next few years will limit not only command opportunities, but requirements for all field grade officers. The trends toward decreasing promotion rates shown in Figure 1 above emphasize what the future looks like. The figure shows the composite percents selected for promotion (i.e. those selected one or more years later than their contemporaries + those selected on time + those selected a year early). Only the most optimistic of single-trackers would believe that they are going to be selected for promotion to colonel based solely on their demonstrated technical expertise in a functional area. Don’t Command Too Soon Armor’s few battalions and cavalry squadrons will be commanded by the best officers we can find. That is the way it should be. The best are first identified by their performance as company commanders. Younger officers, particularly lieutenants, put themselves at a distinct disadvantage by fighting for command 46 ARMOR - March-April 7990 early in their years of eligibility. Think about that for a minute. Those who command earlier than their contemporaries are pitting themselves against more experienced officers in an environment in which all cannot “win.“ Battalion and brigade commanders have a responsibility to identify those officers with the greatest demonstrated potential for advancement and battalion command. They will do so. Junior officers, who could perhaps compete very favorably in a year or two, cannot expect to compete favorably against senior captains. Some. Alternatives Table 1 shows what you have to do in the time available. The operational assignments are virtually mandatory, and must be performed in approximately the order shown because of rank considerations. So what options exist? Virtually all selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel have credit for graduate level education. The roughly two years tied up in graduate schooling can be almost completely eliminated by pursuing such education after normal duty hours, or while attending the resident CGSC Course via the Master of Military Arts and Science (MMAS) Program. Either alternative can also free up the required 3-4-year utilization assignment period that goes along with fully funded programs. It certainly is not easy to get an advanced degree under other than full-time study programs, but the alternative may pay big dividends to those whose assignments allow them to do so. If you really believe you will be competitive for general officer, you must make every attempt to get double credit for your graduate school utilization assignment by serving in a joint duty position that is also AERB certified. CGSC also ties up a year. The course can be taken by correspondence with the same notations and MEL 4 credit as that given for resident studies. There is much controversy over the relative value (as perceived by promotion boards) of resident versus nonresident CGSC credit. In this area, as in many other areas of personnel management, the truth changes. Back 10 to 15 years, resident courses were clearly the only way to go. Today, PERSCOM maintains that there is no difference in future personnel actions based on the manner in which an officer attains MEL 4 credit. Several general officers have made similar statements. There are downsides to this decision, though. “The Best Year of Your Life” at Fort Leavenworth provides a welcome respite from field duty for many, time to be with your family, opportunities to develop life-long friendships, and the opportunity to do the introspective thinking and career planning each of us needs to do every few years. To adopt any of the above alternatives provides you flexibility to better manage your available time, more opportunities to serve in key operational assignments, and more time to serve in a joint duty assignment. The Bottom Line The advice given me as a second lieutenant has not changed, nor should it be expected to as long as the Army’s personnel management policies are established and enforced by senior officers whose promotions were based on their demonstrated excellence in operational (command) assignments. 0 You must excel as a leader. That is what the Army is all about. 0 Fight for the tough operational jobs and do them well. 0 Wait your turn. Trying to command early is stupid - you are pitting your limited experience against those far readier than you. Youth seldom wins over experience. 0 Get TOE commands. 0 Seek assignments that develop your ability to conceptualize, recognize, and understand broader issues. 0 Benefit from graduate schooling and a functional area assignment, but place your emphasis on troop duty above all else. 0 Avoid repetitive assignments that look like lateral transfers and do not represent increases in responsibility or knowledge requirements. You do not get credit for learning a job twice. 0 You cannot expect to command a battalion unless you have completely proven yourself superior to your peers in prerequisite assignments: company command, battalion S3 and battalion XO. Lieutenant Colonel Patrick K. Knutson was commissioned in Armor in 1968 as a d i st i ng uis hed military graduate from the University of Washington. He has served in Armor positions thru division level in Alaska, CONUS, Vietnam, and Germany. He is a 1980 CGSC graduate who has served in

ORSA

positions at HQ, TRAOOC, and CGSC, and is currently assigned as the Chief of the ORSA Committee at the Army Logistics Management College, Fort Lee, Va. ARMOR - March-April 7990 47