Posted on May 25, 2016
To Be or To Do? The Trick Question of Air Force Officer Development
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Back when I was at Gettysburg on a staff ride, I had the pleasure of listening to COL (ret.) Fred Wieners relate the battle. Perhaps what marked me the most was his quote from John Boyd, "to be someone or do something". I believe it would be foolish and arrogant to discuss about the ethics out of context, but this article (sorry, it's long and fastidious.) could give some answers.
I would just leave that here: should the military settle on what seems to be another Cornelian dilemma?
I would just leave that here: should the military settle on what seems to be another Cornelian dilemma?
To Be or To Do? The Trick Question of Air Force Officer Development
Posted from jqpublicblog.com
Leadership
Officer
Ethics
Warfare
Gettysburg
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
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Great post.
Let's face it, the path to becoming a commissioned officer...at least the more conventional path...tends to favor those who "stay out of trouble" and "don't rock the boat". A great part of the selection process is, in fact, "political". Then, you're subjected to the training that is presumed to influence you towards higher ethics and competency, but admittedly, strongly re-enforces the concept that any purpose you'll have for the first decade or so of your career, is primarily NOT being a "maverick" or "game changer". When you do finally arrive, pressed and dressed, in front of that small group of service members...it becomes immediately obvious that you're "intruding" into a tribe of people who do a great deal for very little pay, and often become the subjects of poor decisions and unbelievably incompetent practices...all stemming from your "tribe". The choice is to, as Mr. Boyd says, "be someone" or "do something". For myself, it was a balancing act of never being able to quite become "one" of my sailors...but neither allowing myself to become one of "them"; those officers whose willingness to sacrifice for their people stopped right where it might negatively impact their careers. If the services could "flick a switch" and adopt a sincere respect for that mentality, we may see a great many more officers "doing something" towards improving the institution as a whole.
Let's face it, the path to becoming a commissioned officer...at least the more conventional path...tends to favor those who "stay out of trouble" and "don't rock the boat". A great part of the selection process is, in fact, "political". Then, you're subjected to the training that is presumed to influence you towards higher ethics and competency, but admittedly, strongly re-enforces the concept that any purpose you'll have for the first decade or so of your career, is primarily NOT being a "maverick" or "game changer". When you do finally arrive, pressed and dressed, in front of that small group of service members...it becomes immediately obvious that you're "intruding" into a tribe of people who do a great deal for very little pay, and often become the subjects of poor decisions and unbelievably incompetent practices...all stemming from your "tribe". The choice is to, as Mr. Boyd says, "be someone" or "do something". For myself, it was a balancing act of never being able to quite become "one" of my sailors...but neither allowing myself to become one of "them"; those officers whose willingness to sacrifice for their people stopped right where it might negatively impact their careers. If the services could "flick a switch" and adopt a sincere respect for that mentality, we may see a great many more officers "doing something" towards improving the institution as a whole.
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LCDR (Join to see)
Mr. Green-By "Conventional", I mean the primary accession pipelines, ROTC, OCS and the Academies. In my personal opinion, officers coming from SNCO ranks, direct commissions and LDOs have already earned and developed an expertise/leadership profile that the services recognize...while those of us entering via the aforementioned paths are more of an "investment" the services are making in our "development". In simpler terms, every incoming JO with either no, or minimal prior service, is on a sort of "probation" as regards their performance and influence. Sadly, I believe this fosters hesitation, if not resistance to leading from the heart instead of the FITREP.
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I imagine all services have to deal with similar, I know I saw a lot of it on AD and I still see it in the Guard on the Army side. Officers, NCOs, military members in general should on the most part be values oriented and driven. I know there are a few outliers, but generally with values driven individuals, the single most important thing in life is the ability to wake up every morning and look the person in the mirror in the eye and be okay with what one sees. If enough service members and leaders keep that in mind, we'll start turning the be/do paradigm closer to the right distribution.
Great read, Cadet! Thanks for sharing and best of luck in your pursuit of a military career!
Great read, Cadet! Thanks for sharing and best of luck in your pursuit of a military career!
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1LT (Join to see)
Sir, what would you say about those outliers? Should they be shown the way out? Or should we try to instill those values in them?
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COL (Join to see)
Great follow on... I would say of the outliers that when practicable, those values should be impressed upon and emphasized. The sad reality though, is that usually by the time someone with the "game" mentality gets out into the force at large, it is often too late to fundamentally change an individual's beliefs. Not to say one should not try, and that's why I cannot stress the importance of senior company and junior field grade officers taking an active role in mentoring junior officers (another area that while the Army is taking steps in the right direction, it is still woefully behind where it should have been all along). So that's a really long winded way of responding that instilling those values is a very difficult uphill battle that while we shouldn't be opposed to the effort, often times the only correct answer would be to identify those who have no place within the profession and taking actions to assure they are not afforded the opportunity to be in a position where their behavior is rewarded, or at worst, disseminated to younger, still impressionable officers.
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Yes, however I don't think it should be seen as a dilemma, but rather presented as a constant challenge, one which each generation of officers needs to incorporate to the best of their ability. Thanks for sharing the article.
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