America's Best Leaders: US Junior Officers, Military

America's Best Leaders: US Junior Officers, Military - Anna Mulrine, US News and World Report

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... They have been called upon to serve in bloody and complicated wars on two fronts, many for more than half of their short careers. As a result, lieutenants and captains often have more combat experience than the generals who command them. "They are wise beyond their years," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about junior officers in an address this year to the Army War College. "We owe them our attention and our time." He urged their superiors to listen to them and called upon junior officers to question their superiors as well.

And they have. Indeed, the experience of junior officers has occasionally created strained relationships with senior leadership. Many have been frustrated by what they view as a lack of accountability at the highest levels of leadership. "It has created some tension," says Nathaniel Fick, author of One Bullet Away: the Making of a Marine Officer and a platoon leader in Iraq in the spring of 2003. "A private who loses a rifle gets into more trouble than a general who loses a war."

This stress has been compounded by the demands of repeated deployments on young troops and their families and made the accomplishments of those who have chosen to stay in the military all the more remarkable. Gen. David Petraeus, the former commander of US forces in Iraq, expressed admiration for the captains in the services, as well as concern about losing them, in congressional testimony earlier this year...

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Much more at US News and World Report.

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Originally Posted by SWJED

America's Best Leaders: US Junior Officers, Military - Anna Mulrine, US News and World Report

Much more at US News and World Report.

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[bitter]Now, if American industry was even faintly interested in "leadership" junior officers would be golden....[/bitter]

AND, their NCOs would be divine.

Glad I never joined the civilian sector... not a clue what discipline even means.

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Originally Posted by 120mm

[bitter]Now, if American industry was even faintly interested in "leadership" junior officers would be golden....[/bitter]

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I'm still putting it on my resume, right next to "2x Co-Time Magazine Person of the Year":D

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Originally Posted by Stan

AND, their NCOs would be divine.

Glad I never joined the civilian sector... not a clue what discipline even means.

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Nor do they know what planning is:)

And need to apologize to "American Industry".

They, indeed, understand "leadership".

Leadership is being first in line to steal American Taxpayer Dollars in the form of "Bailouts" when their incompetence in running a company and inherent criminal nature is exposed when they inevitably crash and burn their business.

So, American Industry has leadership; it's just a different kind of leadership than US Army junior leaders exhibit....

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Originally Posted by RTK

I'm still putting it on my resume, right next to "2x Co-Time Magazine Person of the Year":D

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Roger that; once as "The American Fighting Man" & once as "The American Soldier":)

To illustrate the topic of this thread - watch this great video, part of the promos for Tom Ricks' new book - "The Gamble". CPT Cook takes his own risk in reconciling with AQIZ members, leading to transformation of his sector.

I would embed, but the Wapo format won't paste here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...egamble/video/

Related article here.

Best Leaders: US Junior Officers

Those words should never be used in the same sentence.

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Just jabbing at you elites from this enlisted slime......:D

The Article left out the caveat...

Best when they have a strong platoon sergeant and squad leaders. My time as a PL in Iraq was mostly easy because my SGTs ran the platoon while I went to mission briefs. My smartest move was to let them.

Weird thing, that approach worked too as XO, then as S4, then as S2... Weird.

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Originally Posted by ODB

Best Leaders: US Junior Officers

Those words should never be used in the same sentence.

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Just jabbing at you elites from this enlisted slime......:D

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"An officer is only as good as his NCOs."

Oh, Snap!

Gotcha back...

No, good officers can rise above bad NCOs, just as good NCOs rise above bad officers to take care of soldiers and accomplish the mission.

Usually you have a mix, but so long as everyone is listening to each other, and allowing people to do their job all the way up to where they clearly demonstrate that they are either unable or unwilling to do so, it usually all works out. If this were easy, anyone could do it.

One huge advantage our JOs have today, is that the nature of the conflict we are in is not either killing off or running off the pool of talented, experienced NCOs. Most officers seem to forget that while they were at PLT level for 12-18 months, their soldiers are there for 12-18 years.

My ex brother-in-law joined the Army in the late 60s, and the top prospects from his class of basic trainees were drawn off and sent to 3 different shake and bake courses. One group to be instant 2LTs, one group to be instant squad leaders, and one group to be instant drill sergeants. He's still alive today, so yeah, he drew the drill sergeant gig. The fact that we can arm our JOs with NCOs who have a wealth of exerience today gives them a tremendous advantage over what JOs encountered when they got off the helicopter at some firebase to meet their platoon back then.

Regardless of how the Irregular War vs conventional war theorists sort out, one thing we can rest easy knowing is that we will have a military filled with officers and NCOs alike with more experience than we've seen in a long time. Future fights will offer new challenges, but character, dedication and leadership will apply in every case, and those who stay will possess all three in spades, (and the National Guard will posssess even more experience, both from their own deployments, and from the regulars who have joined their ranks).