What Do You Think About Opportunities or Lack Thereof Regarding Military Specialty Schools?

CPT (Join to see) After thinking about this a bit more. The environment that military leaders should be fostering is an environment that preserves the Constitution. Too many leaders are so focused on the skill sets of combat that they forget about the purpose of the military at large. We swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. There are way too many politicians who have already encroached on our freedoms in the name of security. Gun free zones, undefended borders, no-knock raids on residential units, those are just the clear and present dangers to our civil liberties.

Military leaders should be more concerned with protecting the Constitution than setting up troops with schools that are beyond the scope of the MOS and unit the troop is in. If there is a school that all troops should go to, it is the school that teaches them about the Constitution so that even domestic enemies can be identified by their words and actions by all troops. That way, when an unlawful order comes down from "on high," the troops will be mentally prepared to summon all the courage necessary to confront the domestic enemy.

It is much easier to recognize an enemy who is wearing a different uniform than it is to recognize an enemy who is a "wolf in sheep's clothing." The time will come when global forces work to supplant our Constitution from within our political systems. In fact, it is happening now, and has already been happening. Even military chaplains are ordered not to counsel the troops based on their firmly held religious beliefs. These assaults on our freedoms are not being objected to by those who are sworn to defend the Constitution, and the lack of clarity and lack of action from our military leaders is creating a situation where God has been replaced by political correctness.

Good luck in your future, but please remember that as a military leader, your job is to protect and defend the Constitution, not to advance your career, and not to advance the career of others.

As a leader I make it a habit to review the career maps of all of my Soldiers and push them to hit those milestones in order to be competitive. However we must use practicality as the author stated.

We need to do the best we can train our soldiers to be successful in whatever their military occupational specialty or job is. However I find it hard to abdicate sending soldiers to school so it will never be useful to them or tea or me in any way shape or form. All that said soldiers deserve the best friends they can get in the army deserve them the best friend soldiers that they can get so as long as it benefits the Army in the soldier and the unit I think so she go to whatever schools we can send them to.

Never forget the retention power a badge producing schoool can have on a young Soldier too. I think this is one of the most important pieces of sending our Soldiers to school

So Sir are you willing to give up your pay or a new trooper, or new equipment in order to send someone to a specialty school- that they may or may not pass, or that is no help to your unit or Post? Budgets are budgets, you only get so much of the pie, and everyone wants a piece- someone has to loss for the good of all.

After reading some of the comments on here, I have come to the conclusion that most of the people that commented think that specialty schools should be MOS driven? Correct me if I'm wrong on that. Here is my belief. I believe that the should NOT be MOS driven. I graduated Air Assault school at Fort Campbell in 2012 as a 92F. In today's Army you have to set yourself apart from your peers. I was 30 years old when I went to AA school but there were 18-20 year olds that couldn't do it? Why would someone think that you need to be a certain MOS to do that? Should combat arms personnel be the only ones allowed to attend Air Assault, Airborne, Ranger, Sapper, DIVE school.....whatever the case may be? Now I am a 91E (Allied trades specialist, otherwise known as a welder and machinist. Should I not be allowed to attend Dive school? If not, I'd like to know why because you never know when you are going to need an underwater welder..... That is just my two cents. Sorry so long.

Ha guess it all depends on the situation. I went to pathfinder school as an E-5 supply sergeant as a bonus for re enlisting. 2 years later in Afghanistan that school helped me along load some equipment to get some of our guys out of a bind. That being said I don't think a high speed HR guy should be given the ranger slot over an infantry NCO who can actually benefit from the training. The weirdest experience I had was seeing a 2lt with ranger, Sapper, airborne, air assault, pathfinder. The only thing missing was a combat patch which I think is more valuable than all those schools combined

It should be an appropriate school but education is key to the success of each of us.

I'm going to guess that even a 2LT understands that budgets are the ultimate constraints in DOD, so I'll answer your question based on the "What if" manner that I'm hoping you were asking it in. Even forgetting about budgets, I don't think it is practical or desirable to let folks go to any school they can qualify for.

Schools take a lot of time. I know in the SOF world, and I'm guessing in the FORSCOM world, Soldiers have to meet a certain BOG/Dwell ratio. In SOF, if your on FT Bragg, it doesn't tend to be an issue, but if you have to travel and your head isn't on your pillow in your bed at home, you are using up days you need. These days of training should be reserved for schools of which you will be most likely to use the skills trained. It is pointless to send a Soldier to so many schools that they cannot actually deploy to use their skills.

The other reason is that even without budget considerations, trainers and instructors are finite resources. This in turn causes there to be limited spots in classes. I'd prefer to see folks get those slots who need them before instead of folks getting them to fill out their ERB/ORB or the back window of their really sweet F-150.

That being said, if a school makes sense for a Soldier's current job or desired jobs, there is money, training days available, slots, and they have been working hard, go ahead and send them. There is no reason to be unnecessarily stingy.

I imagine this very discussion is why organizations like these exist. Now, for those poor souls that are seeking adventure or the experience that would otherwise be offered in a military school, would this be an option you would allow them to partake in while on leave? http://www.internationalairborneoperations.com/ or http://www.imats.eu/. Granted we are all given the illusion of choice when we join but not everyone is aware of the different missions and subsequently schools the Army or military in general have before signing the contract. And for good reason, if every recruit new the amount of schools that are open to infantrymen and Special Forces Soldiers I don't know how successful we would be at filling our combat support, combat service support MOSs.