Posted on Feb 9, 2018
When is officer development the right time versus the betterment of the unit?
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Posted 7 y ago
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Alex-This is a somewhat loaded question...but a good one all the same.
First, you have to be more specific; If you're talking about getting qualifications, required courses, etc...etc, then I can offer from personal experience that you have to make a clear distinction between how you do your job well...and how you keep it. As officers, we have a considerable amount of professional expectations; we enter our first operational units "behind the curve" in a sense, and it is often up to our own personal levels of commitment and competency as to whether or not we're going to make the cut.
The challenge is definitely there to see the "real" task immediately before any JO...learning how to be a "good" officer, not just one whose "career" is in order. If a JO has any heart, compassion, sense of fairness, etc., he is going to feel a deep sense of obligation to the platoon or division (Navy eq.). He's going to accept from the start that he knows nothing in comparison to his NCOs and SNCOs, and will try to learn how to be an asset to them and the unit. He'll stand up for them, champion their successes, and make up for his lack of knowledge by showing each day that he genuinely cares and is willing to put them first.
As a company officer, you already know that while subordinates and superiors respect this, and will often help you along in your career as a result...those "wickets" seem to be the only real metric your career is measured by. A poor senior officer will let his JOs fall behind, a good one will try to balance his time between the day to day tasks of operations and mentoring subordinate officers...a GREAT one will have fostered a climate in which the SNCOs "run" the unit in keeping with commander's intent, the JOs learn "on the job" from them, and the officers' mess ensures every member; junior enlisted, NCO, SNCO and JO are being afforded the opportunities to advance.
Our challenge on board ship was always "schools". Enlisted needed them for ratings and advancement, officers needed to be kept up to par on ship-handling and simulators, boards needed to be held, and PQS completed. There was ALWAYS something more important, and we NEVER had enough personnel. The best CO I ever had gave clear guidance that we were to cross-train as much as possible and short of safety or mission...get the schools done. At times, this meant people were working above or below their position in port (officers sometimes even stood roving watch and chiefs were often senior watch officers). Often, it created frustration as "want to" tasks got pushed off. However, when we deployed, the benefits were immediately obvious.
First, you have to be more specific; If you're talking about getting qualifications, required courses, etc...etc, then I can offer from personal experience that you have to make a clear distinction between how you do your job well...and how you keep it. As officers, we have a considerable amount of professional expectations; we enter our first operational units "behind the curve" in a sense, and it is often up to our own personal levels of commitment and competency as to whether or not we're going to make the cut.
The challenge is definitely there to see the "real" task immediately before any JO...learning how to be a "good" officer, not just one whose "career" is in order. If a JO has any heart, compassion, sense of fairness, etc., he is going to feel a deep sense of obligation to the platoon or division (Navy eq.). He's going to accept from the start that he knows nothing in comparison to his NCOs and SNCOs, and will try to learn how to be an asset to them and the unit. He'll stand up for them, champion their successes, and make up for his lack of knowledge by showing each day that he genuinely cares and is willing to put them first.
As a company officer, you already know that while subordinates and superiors respect this, and will often help you along in your career as a result...those "wickets" seem to be the only real metric your career is measured by. A poor senior officer will let his JOs fall behind, a good one will try to balance his time between the day to day tasks of operations and mentoring subordinate officers...a GREAT one will have fostered a climate in which the SNCOs "run" the unit in keeping with commander's intent, the JOs learn "on the job" from them, and the officers' mess ensures every member; junior enlisted, NCO, SNCO and JO are being afforded the opportunities to advance.
Our challenge on board ship was always "schools". Enlisted needed them for ratings and advancement, officers needed to be kept up to par on ship-handling and simulators, boards needed to be held, and PQS completed. There was ALWAYS something more important, and we NEVER had enough personnel. The best CO I ever had gave clear guidance that we were to cross-train as much as possible and short of safety or mission...get the schools done. At times, this meant people were working above or below their position in port (officers sometimes even stood roving watch and chiefs were often senior watch officers). Often, it created frustration as "want to" tasks got pushed off. However, when we deployed, the benefits were immediately obvious.
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Sir, I had arrived to my unit expected to fill a KD assignment. However, seven months removed and am working as a staff officer to fill a MTOE slot but has no developmental use that I can think of, other than attending meetings from pt hours to COB. During my initial counseling, I brought up the issue of KD and career timeline as a Captain, but was told “I will look into it” this was 4 months ago, and since then I have never been told that I will be placed in a position to begin KD other than where I currently stand. Are captain timeline not important or should I just trust that my CoC has my best interest?
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Alex-I had to reference Army Pamphlet DA PAM 600–3 to be sure my experiences as a Navy officer offered any benefit in advising an Army officer. Section 7-6 describes a process very similar to "warfare qualification" in the USN. It even dictates the same limit of 24 months to achieve BOLC, which I assume you would've had to complete to attain O-3. It then dictates the Captain's Officer Education System, which I assume is branch specific. This differs slightly from the Navy in that our officers can and sometimes do achieve O-3 without completing a warfare qualification (branch specific); nominally, in the Reserves. My assumption is that your "pickle" is that your staff duty selection is delaying completion of CCCs? For us, "augmentation" was essential to career continuation in the active duty component. One basically had to complete a warfare qualification and make O-3 to augment. I got stuck in a similar situation as an O-1 and O-2, replacing an O-3 billet while completing my first sea tour. As an aviation officer, not assigned flying duty (1305), I had no clear path to warfare qualification. I did however take advantage of being at sea to complete the required qualifications for the 1100 series, Surface Warfare Officer. However, because neither I, nor my command focused on redesignating me to 1100 series...strictly speaking, I couldn't "Board" for the qual. To have done so, the command would've had to successfully sent me to SWOS, and frankly, we needed an Air Officer and a qualified OOD for operations, and the Navy had plenty of undergrad SWOs coming to the fleet. I and my COC incorrectly interpreted guidance that essentially let me put this off indefinitely...but in the end, I was sent packing with the IRAD. I was able to select for O-3 and later make selection for O-4 by transferring to the Selected Reserve component, and volunteering for a critically manned billet supporting Army ground operations...but without a "Warfare Pin", my days were numbered. My advice is this: I imagine the Army has some form of career manager similar to Navy "detailers". These folks are involved in the "nuts and bolts" of how an officer progresses and is (or isn't ) retained. Use your COC, and if a career is your goal...let them know that. Senior officers were all "us" once, and my guess is that they'll bend over backwards to help someone who expresses both a commitment to serving where immediately needed...and to making wise choices leading to a full career. I wish some senior officer had told me this: there are way more officers than are wanted from a budget standpoint, and your best defense is having met the requirements "on paper" to be progressed. Best of fortunes, and good luck.
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The unit will always have more needs, missions, requirements, taskings, etc... that you can fulfill. Units are like toddlers in that they always require your time and attention. If you wait on the perfect time to take care of yourself, you never will....
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When is taking care of your own career the right time versus unit requirements? And is that a selfish act?
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