Strategic courses for CSMs that work for General Officers?

COL Thomas F. — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 08:39:04 -0500

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/

War College teams with USASMA to develop strategic-level CSMs

Though USASMA graduates are certified as world-class experts in the art and science of operational leadership, a recent survey indicated they are not as wholly prepared for strategic leadership roles,...

Response by SFC James Baber made Jan 23 at 2014 12:33 PM

SFC James Baber — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 12:33:23 -0500

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.

Response by CSM Mike Maynard made Jan 28 at 2014 1:41 AM

CSM Mike Maynard — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 01:41:55 -0500

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.