For nine years, since my chapter “Culture Wars” has come out in Bob Bateman’s Digital Wars in the Frontlines, I have been touting this same theme with ample evidence. It is always nice when others echo what one believes, especially as prominent as Bob Goldich, who I interviewed for Path to Victory back in 1998.
A View from the Generation at the Tip of the Spear by Robert Goldich, Small Wars Journal Five junior officers, all veterans of combat, recently came together for a day-long dialogue with current and former senior manpower and personnel officials from the Department of Defense. Their major assessment was that an “industrial age” personnel system is being used to fight an “information age” war.
This frank assessment was sponsored by Anita K. Blair, the acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs). Ms. Blair’s purpose in bringing the two groups together was twofold. First, it provided an opportunity for senior manpower and personnel officials, both active duty and retired, from the military services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, to hear, first-hand, the experiences of a group of five young officers who had served in Iraq, and their views of how personnel issues affected operations. Second, it also afforded the young officers, all of whom have published and commented on their wartime experiences in various electronic and print media, a chance to gain knowledge about current policies and practices from the perspectives of current senior defense leadership.
The Personnel System at War
A View from the Generation at the Tip of the Spear
by Robert Goldich, Small Wars Journal
…
The five officers came from a variety of backgrounds. Four were Army, one Marine Corps; one was a woman; ages varied, approximately, from 27 to 39. One was an active Army major in the Aviation Branch, currently transitioning to a Strategist MOS; he commanded an aviation unit in Iraq as a captain. Another was an Army Reserve captain commissioned in Military Intelligence, who served as an operations planner and intelligence officer in an infantry brigade in Iraq. A third remains in the Army Reserve as a captain, also in Military Intelligence; she spent two tours in Iraq, one as a supply officer for an MI brigade and her second as commander of a tactical human intelligence team, and has also returned twice to Iraq for shorter tours as a contractor working on intelligence matters. A fourth has recently left the Army Reserve as a captain; a Military Police officer and a lawyer (although not a JAG officer), he spent a year in Iraq as an adviser to the Iraqi Police. The final officer, a Marine Corps Reserve infantry major, served in a Force Reconnaissance unit in the initial Iraq invasion in 2003 and as an adviser to the Iraqi Army in 2006-2007…
Continue reading “The Personnel System at War”
Good luck in reforming the personnel system, especially since those who have benefited from it are running the show.
We almost have to have a Pearl Harbor type disaster for the system to be fixed.
We hd a Pearl Harbor type disaster on 9/11, and again at Katrina. All they generated was a defensive posture surrounding the existing policies and a digging of more trenches to protect the same. Reform is a dangerous four letter word in Upper Echelon circles…
What we need is to start firing people at the top and bringing in new blood and ideas. Bold thinkers not afraid to upset the apple cart.
“Good luck in reforming the personnel system, especially since those who have benefited from it are running the show.”
I agree with Bob’s realistic pessimisim.
Although, the choice of Robert Gates as sec. of Def. was miraculous and a step in the right direction.
His quoting of John Boyd was a spectacular breaktrough,
allthough he’s since backed off.
I’ve heard that “insiders” (as Robert says) are giving him a real hard time, and it remains to be seen if HE will survive the Pending new regeim.
It’s disturbing how the future of the USA as we know it,
seemingly will come down to such faint hopes.
M
Almost every ill within the US Army’s area of responsibility can be traced back to a shoddy personnel system that needed to die off in 1991 after Desert Storm.
There is a lot of talk – and it’s just that – about Army officers, mainly majors and higher, being taken off the traditional career path to persue interagency, joint and combined jobs.
The problem is that we are losing very base and fundamental skills within the force – such as tank and artillery gunnery – that seem to be relics of a bygone age. As much as I would like to believe that, they both have roles within the framework of 4GW and there still is a 3GW threat to deal with.
The officer corps is also very selfish – this should come as no surprise – but every major is looking for those “key developmental” or “kd” jobs because that’s the ticket punch for higher rank. Once above 04, it gets worse when only 17% of LTC’s actually command battalions, and then it’s only a 12-24 month timeframe. You could be the combination of Manstein, Balck, JS Wood and TE Lawrence, and you are still giving up command because the system says you can only stay so long.
We are doomed when we continue to rotate command positions simply because your time is up. It doesn’t matter how effective you are – you are moving on.
Ski,
I compeletely agree — it is very similar with the Navy (my service). The officer corps is a mess and the system doesn’t allow real development — only the eternal shifting of square pegs and round holes.
Ski,
I compeletely agree — it is very similar with the Navy (my service). The officer corps is a mess and the system doesn’t allow real development — only the eternal shifting of square pegs and round holes.
That is why I keep advocating an perform or out system (Mark Lewis’s phrase) which is a up or stay system with tough accessions, and a far smaller top officer corps. You will see it again published in Wheeler’s anthology due 19 November, as well as my just released book Manning the Legions.
Don
The problem with a perform or out is that who determines the performance parameters? Do you really trust the Army G1 community to be the ones that come up with those? You’ll get the same clones that are reaching higher rank right now.
The OER system is in shambles. None of your OER’s mean a thing now until you make 04. They are placed in a no access folder. How can anyone determine the difference between a stud and a dud with a system like this?
Officer manning requirements have ballooned with Modularity, and there aren’t enough to go around now. There’s probably 40-45% of the CGSC class that simply shouldn’t be here due to inability to grasp the concepts being taught or because of branch (we need JAG’s here why?)
Anyhoo, the system is decrepit, fossilized and cracking. It’ll fail soon because the people who make the system run are more important than the people who are forced to live with the system. There’s a MMAS in that sentence if I gave a shit.
Don,
Again, I agree with Ski — who decides performance and on what basis? I is ridiculous to be bringing this question up — but our system really is that bad. This is an essentil question that needs to be addressed before any shift to a real “perform or out” basis can be applied.
The existing FITREP System (again, Navy) is completely worthless and barely has anything to do with actual performance. Due to the strict guides on the CO’s average and the incredibly detrimental effect a “negative” trend (moving backward in the unit rankings) does to an individual officer’s career, evaluations are no longer a judge of performance and have instead become a que line. Those who arrived at the command first are at the top and the whole list shuffles as people are transferred.
Never mind evaluations, what about command selections? In the Navy we don’t even talk to the candidates. The Board doesn’t even bring their records into the decision process! Can you imagine? The detailers screen the eligible personnel for qualifications and then — it’s all who you know. Hence, the entirely predictable trend to HQ jobs. Want command? Head to HQ/Pentagon. Don’t bther with combat/field experience — you need to get your face and name in people’s minds.
We have no expertise anymore — everyone shuffles endlessly from one position to another, regardless of personal skill, expereince, or tendency. We are the epitome of the industrial revolution method. All of our technology, computers, databases — but we know nothing of our people. We just put a peg in a hole and pray it’s the right shape. And if not, oh well…
Like I said above — the whole system needs s serious shake up. I suppose we can continue in this way forever, but our deplorable condition will only get worse and worse. I’ve only got another posting to go and then my 20 is up and I’m done — just a shame to see it go this way. Even worse is the feeling of utter hopelessness and disappointment. The bureacrats run it all now…