Flying A Desk

Flying A Desk by Captain John K. Bartolotto r 1 I IN I 1

OUT

So, your next assignment is the dreaded functional area utilization tour. You wonder, “who at branch did I infuriate?” You want another troop assignment, but you’ve done that part of your career.. Now it’s time to sit behind a desk and earn your pay working in your functional area. A little frustrated, you come to grips with the fact that you don’t have much of a choice but to fly a desk for the next three to four years. If you are a captain, with between five and seven years of service, you’ve already been or will be informed what your functional area will be. There are many, and one is not better than the other, it depends on what you want to do with your career and future once you take off the green suit. ‘Ihis is the side of the Army your OCS, ROTC, and West Point instructors never (really) told you about! Welcome to a world where most of the branch related things you’ve learned in a line unit, where the rubber meets the road, seem out of place. Even the acronyms that you’ve grown accustomed to in your troop assignment, like PMCS, have other meanings like: Program Management Control System, and not Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services. Now, your job will be to help design, plan, research, develop, study, resource, and support the rubber that meets the mad. You’re a little overwhelmed at first, and even have flashbacks of when you were a new lieutenant reporting into your first unit. It’s a whole new, different world, and you’ve been planted right in the middle of it. Your palms sweat, and you hope that you’ll wake up from this bad dream and fmd yourself on a range with the sweet smell of cordite burning your nostrils and fm commands crackling over A functional tour is not the end of your career that you at first believe it is. If you consider it a growing experience that will further your knowledge of how the other side of the Army o p erates and supports “the field Army,” mixed with some great benefits, you’ll learn to tolerate your time away from troops and maybe even enjoy it. The majority of functional tour assignments will fmd officers sitting behind a desk doing some sort of staff work. No matter what functional area an oficer is assigned to, the old military maxim, “The function of the staff is to sene the line,” applies. The Training and Doctrine Command motto best sums up what all officers serving in functional assignments must remember is their sole mission: “Prepare the army for war.” Does that make it easier for anyone in a functional area assignment to tackle the sometimes day-today challenges that occur while you’re sitting behind your computer? Probably not. So, what can you do to make your assignment more meaningful to you professionally and personally, and what should you be prepmd for? Functional area assignments give you the opportunity to have an unbelievable amount of personal time. Unlike troop assignments, where you’re up and running PT at 0630, functional area assignment hours usually begin at your cvc. sorry. 0730, and the normal work day is completed by 1730. FT is on your own, whenever you can find the time, and you need to find the time. Your spouse will inevitably be amazed at the amount of time you can now spend at home. You should take advantage of this Army gift and plan on some outstanding family time. The opportunity to do things with your family is probably the best thing a functional assignment has to offer, and after a troop assignment, your family deserves it and so do you. Unlike the “outdoor Army,” unit activities are few and rare, so take advantage of the social activities that are offered in and around your new assignment area. Career-wise, you’ll find that your functional area offers some great military courses that you should take advantage of and fight to get. Advancing your civilian education is another option that you should explore. You’d be surprised how many funds, grants, and programs are available to further your education. A masters degree is an excellent line to have on a resume if you’re contemplating leaving the service. In this day and age, having a plan of what you might do if you leave the service is just as important as having one if you plan to remain. Taking the Command and General Staff College course by correspondence is also an excellent requirement to fulfill during your tour, especially with your new found spare time at home. Whatever you choose, you’ll have the additional time to do it, whether it’s spending time with 24 ARMOR - Maydune 1992

Networking is basically a way of making contacts seems to move fast with the leadership of civilian indusfry. It is cited by your family or furthering your military or civilian education. The key is to make the most of your spare time. Working with civilians and computers will be your two most prominent and new challenges in these type of assignments. Your professional development will definitely benefit from both. m e tremendous number of civilians at functional assignments are the backbone of this side of the Army. Like noncommissioned officers in line units, civilians can provide you with the vital resources of their knowledge, skill, and background that no functional area course can provide. Civilians are there to provide continuity for the organizations, which military personnel, with their usual PCS moves, cannot. Working with civilians also provides opportunities for networking. Networking is basically a way of making contacts with the leadership of civilian industry. It is cited by job placement companies as the most prominent factor in getting a job in the private sector (something to keep in mind during these days of uncertain force reductions). The sooner you learn to take advantage of this vital resource, the sooner you’ll learn more about your new job and enjoy it. Your interaction with the civilian work force will also broaden your knowledge of another side of personnel management, one that you just don’t experience in a troop unit. You will quickly realize that there is a different set of standards and expectations in dealing with soldiers versus your civilian counterparts. Don’t treat civilians like soldiers. Your experiences in the office will actually help your leadership style to grow, believe it or not, as you come into contact with various styles of executive leadership. Unfortunately, there are bad apples in some functional assignments, just as there are in some line units. Take the opportunity to learn what not to do from these people. Patience and flexibility are two qualities you’ll need as you learn to adapt and function in a non-troop unit environment where the paperwork never enough. Mastering job placement WmpanieS as the most prominent computer processing and graphics factor in getting a job in the private sector programs is an area that you need to get ready to dive into. Most assignments have computer courses available, and even if they just make you less dangerous on the keyboard, I suggest you take one. If you know how to “touch type” (as opposed to hunting and pecking for the correct key), you’ll be ahead of the pack when it comes to working with a word processing program and getting paperwork completed. Which brings me to the next subject writing. Staff work at a functional assignment entails an enormous amount of papemork; writing clearly and concisely are keys to success. Your ability to communicate with the written work will make or break you. The effective writing courses taught at OAC and CAS3 will come screaming back at you, and your paperwork will be a reflection of you and on you. Concentrate on getting it correct the f i t time. Security. This is an important word that you must pay attention to at functional assignments. Classified documents and computer disks abound everywhere. Take the time to ensure you always safeguard classified material. It may sound minor; but believe it or not, many an officer has had his career tarnished by leaving classified material on his unattended desk or a safe unsecured. Use the same common sense OPSEC thinking in the office as you would in a line unit. Be aware of the security SOP for your office, especially when it comes to using secure/nonsecue FAXes, telephones, and computers. In all functional assignments there is one thing that you must take heed of: from the fmt day to the last day of your tour, you will be considered the expert in the area you are working. You must quickly learn to work with details. Unlike your branch assignments, in which the NCOs are the experts in one field, and the officer must ARMOR - MayJune 1992 learn the overall picture, a functional assignment requires you to do just the opposite. Remember you need to become an expert, not a bureaucrat. Keep the following in mind during your functional tour: be innovative, learn to sell your projects, answer the question(s), don’t dwell on past history of projects, keep an open mind, ask for help when you need it, and keep your sense of humor. After a few months, all the new acronyms, documents, and projects will be second nature and you’ll be an “expert.” Your functional area assignment may not be as exciting as a branch assignment, but your career depends on your ability to successfully tackle this challenge. Your knowledge of the total Army will increase tenfold, and you might even be able to take some of the skills you learn at that assignment and apply them when you return to troops. Captain John K. Bartolotto is a 1983 ROTC DMG of the State University of New York at Potsdam. He has served as a tank platoon leader, scout platoon leader, and tank company XO with 2-67 Armor, 3AD; S4 and tank company commander with 4- 67 Armor, 3AD; S3 Air for 3d Brigade, 3AD; and assistant OPS officer G3 OPS, 3AD both in FRG and during DESERT STORM. He has attended AOB. AOAC, NBC School, Air Assault School, CAS3, the Combat Developments Course and Material Acquisition Management Course. He is currently assigned in his functional area 51 (R&D) at HQ, TRADOC, Fort Monroe. 25