Where are the senior leaders on RallyPoint?

2014-11-12T23:54:04-05:00

Here's the deal. I did a search for the top influencers and LTC is pretty much where it ends. There are a notable few COL's and CSM's I've seen on here expressing their thoughts and sharing their experience and wisdom with the fellows here on RP. There are a host of 1 Star and 2 Star officers which dwindles down to nothing at the 4 star level. Obviously there are less of them and given that their time is usually caught up in other things, but will any of you stop posting when you get up in rank? I don't plan on it, but hell...I could have reached the xenith of my leadership potential as a platoon leader. Is the discussion too open here? Is RP not mainstream enough? What a great community to message to. Hmm.

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Nov 12 at 2014 11:58 PM

2014-11-12T23:58:00-05:00

Any Cav leader that uses terms like "Cavtastic" is far from reaching his peak.

Response by CW2 Joseph Evans made Nov 13 at 2014 12:04 AM

2014-11-13T00:04:45-05:00

At some point you have to transition away from the military community and into the civilian side. As a GO, your profession is dependent less on the interaction with the troops and more with politicians and contractors.
As influencers, they provide the wisdom through other means such as linkedIn and professional publications. One advantage is they don't find themselves wallowing in the mud over divisive, yet minor topics like politics or religion.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 14 at 2014 12:11 AM

2014-11-14T00:11:41-05:00

COL Private RallyPoint Member, there are a few Senior NCOs here on RP after whom I would like to model myself. I'll probably watch and see what they do as they gain rank, and do likewise.

Response by LTC Yinon Weiss made Nov 14 at 2014 8:18 AM

2014-11-14T08:18:11-05:00

This is a great question. We've seen a lot more senior enlisted engage with the community on here then senior officers. There are many CSMs on the platform at the Battalion and Brigade level and above. We even have the CSM of the entire Army Reserve engage with the community from time to time.

My only guess is that there may be a JAG in the ear of senior officers always telling them about the dangers of social media, or maybe this comes in O-6 and above training. It seems like they have a lot to lose? It's unfortunate if that is the case, but I also believe that as RallyPoint becomes even more mainstream (it's only two years old), we will see a lot of activity from senior officers, including dedicated "Q&A" periods where they will be online at pre-announced times answering questions, contributing to the Command Post, etc.

Response by Maj Chris Nelson made Nov 14 at 2014 9:16 AM

2014-11-14T09:16:33-05:00

I would also pose that at the higher levels, the degree of responsibility and the scope of what they need to do may limit the amount of time they have to "play" on the internet. In addition to that, the older you are, the later in your life computers and internet came into being....therefore, until some of the youngsters get to that level after having played on computers their entire life, the oldsters have little interest in social media...especially at the GO level where they are too busy mucking it up with other GOs and politicians.

Response by 1SG Steven Stankovich made Nov 14 at 2014 12:11 PM

2014-11-14T12:11:29-05:00

Great question COL Private RallyPoint Member. This is such a great platform to share information, guidance, and experience. It is unfortunate that some Seniors have chosen not to participate to the fullest. I never pass up an opportunity to toss something else in my ruck, or to pass along something that I have learned along the way. That is the only way for our Services to move forward.

Response by PFC Zanie Young made Nov 14 at 2014 12:28 PM

2014-11-14T12:28:13-05:00

Usually, generals don't have much time and neither do SMAs, but I personally would like to see the most senior officers and sergeants major on RP.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 15 at 2014 3:42 AM

2014-11-15T03:42:53-05:00

At some point in an officer's career--probably around the time an officer is promoted to O-6 or O-7, if not before--the line between personal opinion and representing the Army blurs, and the two become essentially indistinguishable, at least in public forums.

As a major, I still feel comfortable expressing my opinion as my opinion and not worrying that someone or some press agency or journalist will misinterpret my opinion as written in short blurbs on RallyPoint as the Army message. Maybe down the road I'll regret all my social media posts. Who knows? I'd guess that at some point, if I were to get promoted, that either my understanding of how posting my personal opinion could be interpreted as the Army message would change, or public affairs officers, JAG officers, or other staff/advisers would point out that, essentially, senior officers don't have personal opinions, or at least that senior officers should keep their personal opinions personal and stick to the Army message.

While RallyPoint so far seems to be a fairly controlled environment where current and former service-members can engage on a range of topics, we do see RallyPoint discussions popping up on Army Times/Military Times/Facebook/etc, and its only a matter of time before one of our RallyPoint colleagues either gives to a journalist or uses themselves as a journalist discussion topics from RallyPoint as the basis for articles.

CW2 Joseph Evans noted that GEN Odierno has a blog, and we can see his personal opinions on said blog. I'd just note that the last blog entry was from August 2013, and one would assume that the Chief of Staff of the United States Army has plenty of public affairs officers drafting his blog posts for him---these blog posts are the Army message. The GEN Odierno Twitter account is much more active (https://twitter.com/GENRayOdierno); however, based on the amount of activity (and comments that senior leaders don't have a lot of free time to "play" on the internet), one would again assume that staffers are posting some, if not all, of GEN Odierno's tweets. GEN Odierno's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/RayOdierno) is similar in content to his Twitter account, so the same assumption likely applies here---this is probably (mostly) not content from GEN Odierno, but stuff his staff posts on his behalf. However, the Facebook account does seem to have a lot more content that seems truly personal. And, of course, it is possible that GEN Odierno is much more technologically savvy than I'm giving him credit for, and may just have enough free time to make multiple posts to multiple social media sites at the same time......

As far as senior leaders sharing their personal opinions in their published works, I'd note that truly academic work always has a note that differentiates the content as the personal views of the author and not as representative views of the Army. But being published in an Army-funded journal is different, and we'd need to look at such publications not as personal opinion but as the Army message. And publications from senior leaders (such as op-eds in The NYT or Washington Post or the like) aren't personal opinions--these are Army messages at their strongest.

Having RallyPoint host discussions with senior leaders would be great. But let's not mistake what senior leaders say in such hosted discussions for personal opinions---such discussions will be on-message.

GEN (R) Ray Odierno (@GENRayOdierno) | Twitter

The latest Tweets from GEN (R) Ray Odierno (@GENRayOdierno). 38th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. (Following & RTs Endorsement). Instagram @GENRayOdierno

Response by LTC Paul Heinlein made Nov 15 at 2014 11:27 AM

2014-11-15T11:27:50-05:00

I guess a COL who had a chance of becoming a GO would not want to risk "unnecessary" social media interaction for fear of saying something that might jeopardize a nomination. I would gather to guess the risk analysis goes something like this...posting on Rally Point as it relates to my career...Best Case Scenario- I do no harm...Worst Case Scenario- I say something that causes me not to get a nomination confirmed. I'm sure the same goes for CSMs that are in or trying for nominative positions and current GOs.

As far as just belonging to the site, as long as they have an account they can read/ see what everyone is talking about and take the info in account without posting anything.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 15 at 2014 1:16 PM

2014-11-15T13:16:24-05:00

You are right Sir. I have two in mind that post regularly in my circle. The information they have is helpful. Im not sure if the senior crowd is really down with posting information on the internet. I am sure it will trend up in the future as the site becomes more familiar to others.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 15 at 2014 3:14 PM

2014-11-15T15:14:01-05:00

I once asked why we didn't see GOs on the old AKO discussion forum and was told that it may be because their comments may be too close the being "policy".
I wonder if that is the same line of thought here

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 3 at 2014 11:55 AM

2014-12-03T11:55:08-05:00

Age may be a factor, social media is a new tech still in it's infancy. Newer officers and NCO are more comfortable with it. Anyone older than 40 didn't have a computer in elementary school and likely didn't touch one until they were in their teens or older, so they are sometimes slower to grasp new forms of tech. But as with Facebook, where I have great aunts, and other older relatives now online, they will probably come around eventually. I see several General officers on LinkedIn. Which is the cousin of this site.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Feb 24 at 2016 10:52 AM

2016-02-24T10:52:36-05:00

Maybe the Bird Colonels are "socializing" with the generals somewhere else

Response by CW4 Craig Urban made Jun 12 at 2019 8:24 PM

2019-06-12T20:24:21-04:00

I worked for LTG Denniss Bechoff and LTG Ron Hite at Fort Ord. Hite told me that when I was a CW2 I was better that any COL he had working for him. That was when i was a GS12.