Posted on Jan 23, 2014
COL Thomas F.
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I was reading the below article from the NCO Journal yesterday
(yes officers do read these publications). It talks about requiring Division
and above CSMs take strategic courses from the War College in order to better
sync up with their GO thought process. The premise being that CSMs at those levels
are not trained adequately through the USASMA to help with the strategic issues
that General Officers oversee. I applaud this effort and have thought why this
was not introduced years ago. Does a CSM at the BN level who becomes a Corps or
Theater level CSM understand the political/social/international implications of
the GOs decisions, and how it will effects it across the command? Generally, I
would argue no they do not. I am sure there are smart CSMs out there that
understand it. In my experience at a variety of levels, CSMs are more worried
about the soldiers participating in Best Warrior competitions (other things of
that nature) and are unable to work on the strategic nuances that they need to
tap into to help out their Commander. I am curious what the catalyst was that
initiated this inquiry in December? I am curious what the CSM/SGMs thoughts
are. Much respect to the E9s, you guys deal with a lot of crap out there that
goes unseen by the majority of people.



http://ncojournal.dodlive.mil/2014/01/22/war-college-teams-with-usasma-to-develop-strategic-level-csms/

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Responses: 2
CSM Mike Maynard
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Edited >1 y ago

Sir, this is a very similar train of thought of how we educate/train our future SGMs/CSMs.

A few years ago, the Sergeants Major Academy adopted the ILE POI to better train/educate our future Operations SGMs as we found that there was a language/doctrine capability gap that prevented us from really assisting the Bn/Bde S3 in their duties.

 .

So, it's not surprising that we are looking at some type of "similar" training/education for Strat-Level SGMs/CSMs that will help make us more effective and able to contribute at that level.

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COL Thomas F.
COL Thomas F.
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Thanks CSM Maynad. Appreciate the feedback. I talked to a SGM here on my staff about this. It would appear that the first pilot class starts in Jan/Feb and will last a few weeks. These guys were hand picked to participate (by who? i guess Army G3?) The actual class I assume will be boarded based on my conversation so they pick the best guys. Also, they will be incorporated into the actual full term war college class with the O5/O6/Civ so they can participate. I also heard that the days of graduating SGMA and going to a GO level unit are gone. It sounds like SGMA grads will start at BN/BDE level and work their way up. We'll see what happens.
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SFC James Baber
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Sir,


I think this article is very informative and should garner some interesting opinions from some our distinguished E9s here on RP, hoping that they do respond as I think it would be a healthy and informative discussion for many of their junior subordinates learning the subject as well.

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