Army Times - At West Point, cadets told the Pentagon chief... | Facebook

I read the full article here, thanks. There are some merits to the points the cadets are making. However -- my first reaction was head shaking at the mindset that some of these cadets appear to have even before coming into the regular force. I was in the Army from 2006-2011 and in my first 3.5 years, I had typical roles for a junior officer (I was field artillery) -- fire support officer, platoon leader, battery executive officer. That rhythm of progression was according to the 'rigid' career track that some of these cadets are lamenting. But you know what? Those roles were critical to my progression as a young officer. I loved each one. I'll say that I NEEDED to have those jobs to really have the Army start to make a lot of sense to me. If I had gone and studied somewhere like Oxford for a year, yes perhaps I would have learned some new things -- but you know what, the best teaching for me was waking up each morning and coming in for PT and staying late with my NCOs and working my tail off to learn how the heck to do a really good job as a young officer. In my opinion, my time spent as a sponge in those first few years was invaluable -- the best teaching tool. It's not like an O-1 is going to finish up 1 year at Oxford and come to a battalion, and the battalion commander is going to say, "Ok Lieutenant, how can we reinvent the way we do things here?" You see the point I am making. There were many times where my head was spinning as a young officer and I grabbed one of the NCOs in my unit and said, "Hey, I don't get this -- can you work with me to help me learn this better?" -- or, "This is the way I'm looking at the problem and this is what I'd recommend -- can you check it out and let me know your reaction?" Those NCOs were like my little Oxford, lol.

I was particularly intrigued by the one Cadets comment about a less-hierarchical more casual structure. I would be skeptical, but I can't even figure out what that is, at least not enough to give words to my skepticism. I do think there are things that we can learn from the civilian world, but the tend to be more "technical" in nature. There are probably a lot of things that social media companies could teach the military about social media as relates to The Intel Section and Civil Affairs. But I personally believe an internship would be better spent on someone who has a thorough grounding in military needs and systems, from a few years as Company Grade Officer, Senior NCO or SNCO.

Depends, on what their chosen Military Field is. If you want to join my Group as an Officer, Cutting your teeth on an Internship at Google may not be a bad idea. I think that would be a Benny for an Officer in the Information Warfare Community.