Military Staff

[Cavguy]

leave the Army and Marine Corps due to having been assigned as a Support Platoon Leader or the S4...

I hate to say it, S4 was a great time for me in combat as far as staff jobs went - think Don Rickles' character in "Kelly's Heroes" (well, not that bad).

Then again, I was working for an absolutely spectacular BN CO and XO, whom I would have been happy working for in any capacity.

S4 CAN be fun.

Just to add context, because of "queues" for command I took command relatively late, spending 3.5 years on staff before command and 8 months after (stop-loss). While it sucked, for those 3.5 years I was a S3A, S4, and S1 at BN and BDE, and an AST Commander in Kosovo. I learned how a BCT worked, and how to get things done. I watched other CO's do well and poorly, learning from their mistakes. When I took command I KNEW how to run a company inside of that BCT, and get what I needed/wanted. If I hadn't have had that staff time I doubt I would have been nearly as effective. So it isn't all bad. In fact, the S4 time paid huge dividends in command as I learned to work the system to get everything we needed. My company never wanted for anything, and I was able to train my XO as well.

I was blessed with serving under good officers during most of my staff time as well, which made it much more bearable. But it isn't all bad.

That said, nothing beats a command position.

[Ken White]

I hate to say it, S4 was a great time for me in combat as far as staff jobs went - think Don Rickles' character in "Kelly's Heroes" (well, not that bad).

er... worse???

Then again, I was working for an absolutely spectacular BN CO and XO, whom I would have been happy working for in any capacity.

That does make a big difference...

S4 CAN be fun.

I've known a few who made it that, biggest problem I've seen with the jobs were bad, overenthusiatic Bn / Bde XOs.

I was blessed with serving under good officers during most of my staff time as well, which made it much more bearable. But it isn't all bad.

True, I've always found a pony in there somewhere...