Posted on Jul 23, 2015
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A comment that I have heard reflects the idea of a Total Army, in which Active Component Officers should have served sometime in the reserve community before they are considered for general officer. The thought is since all three COMPOs are working more closely, AC GOs will need to intimately understand how the RC works and what it brings to the table to better incorporate them into the mission. Yes, they do get (limited) education in their professional military education, but we are talking about a significant time period embedded in an RC unit. Tours such as an AC/RC position, working in First Army, assignment to one of the USAR Training Commands, etc.
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Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 8
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not necessarily a bad idea, but not a great one due to flawed logic - you can read and listen, but until you have lived it, you will never know...
I thought it was, every reservist needed to do some time on active duty to know what "the real army was like." And, then, someone decided officers needed to served enlisted first, to better understand the plight of the soldier and barracks life. Of course, every President should have done some time in uniform (would a 4 year NG enlistment really be enough), of course, if you have been to prison, you probably better understand the shortcomings of the judicial system....
experience helps, but then you have those who try to tell you what you are and are not, based on those experiences.
I thought it was, every reservist needed to do some time on active duty to know what "the real army was like." And, then, someone decided officers needed to served enlisted first, to better understand the plight of the soldier and barracks life. Of course, every President should have done some time in uniform (would a 4 year NG enlistment really be enough), of course, if you have been to prison, you probably better understand the shortcomings of the judicial system....
experience helps, but then you have those who try to tell you what you are and are not, based on those experiences.
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It has a historic precedence. McArthur banished Geo. Marshall to the Illinois Guard as an 0-6, and Marshall did credit that time as essential in the conceptual design of the Victory plan. It is alleged that McArthur did it to kill Marshall's career, though.
That said, it is excellent in theory, problematic in practice. We have known professional officers that were 'box checkers"- in that they studied and tried to land on the dime of that certain amount of time to be branch qualified, in their functional area, joint assignments, whatever. I'd say such a policy would encourage that sort of behavior.
I actually also think that the RC side would be the entity that killed such an initiative. We have our own schedules and some of the same habits in "checking blocks", and an AC program of this sort would not be helpful in the timely checking of blocks.
So, I'd have to say no- it's the officer's own responsibility to be functional in all aspects of jointness.
One man's opinion.
That said, it is excellent in theory, problematic in practice. We have known professional officers that were 'box checkers"- in that they studied and tried to land on the dime of that certain amount of time to be branch qualified, in their functional area, joint assignments, whatever. I'd say such a policy would encourage that sort of behavior.
I actually also think that the RC side would be the entity that killed such an initiative. We have our own schedules and some of the same habits in "checking blocks", and an AC program of this sort would not be helpful in the timely checking of blocks.
So, I'd have to say no- it's the officer's own responsibility to be functional in all aspects of jointness.
One man's opinion.
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COL Thomas F.
Appreciate your comments sir. Did not know that GEN Marshall served in the ILARNG, and doing some digging realized he served as the Senior Instructor from 1933-1936. MacArthur served with the 42nd ID during WWI to get combat experience and his first star, but that didn't seem to influence him much during the Bonus Army incident in 1932. Guess everyone takes away something different from their experience.
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MAJ (Join to see)
This was done well into the early 2000's, it's failure is the reason the AGR program was stood up. All the AD XO's I worked for were terrible, the simple fact that the Army comes second in your life (behind your civilian career) is incomprehensible to many AD officer's which resulted in some very, very poor decisions. Then it also removes many of the responsibilities and opportunities for development from RC officers.
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I don't think this is realistic. The problem is for an active component officer to serve in the reserve component, they need to take a "slot" in the reserve component, and thus someone else's potential job opportunity.
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COL Thomas F.
The system is set up that AC officers can work in RC units in AC specific slots. They do not go against current positions as they specifically titled as AC only (I won't go into dual hat status). A good example is First Army which is a multi-compo unit. It has positions specified for AC, USAR and ARNG soldiers and only those personnel can be slotted there. There is ample opportunity for Captains through Colonels to work in either COMPO 2 or 3.
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