Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 32

capabilities-development directorate and wished he
had paid more attention during CGSOC.
Army careers are more than just at the brigade level and below. As figure 2 illustrates, the odds are likely
that a field grade officer will spend much of his or her
career outside the tactical environment.18 Often, after
majors successfully complete key developmental positions within their branch, they are moved to developmental assignments within the generating force where
they will utilize force-management processes.
A recent Army War College report on senior officer
talent management made a quite compelling point:
Because advancement requires a “warrior”
career profile, officers studiously avoid nonoperational assignments. These are universally regarded as hazardous to one’s career,
even though such assignments can develop
the specialized expertise demanded by the
majority of senior officer duty positions,
which are predominately nonoperational.19
It is important to have leaders with experience in
developing the force to meet the challenges of uncertain future operating environments as well as to bring
those operational experiences to the generating force
to help ensure the Army captures the proper requirements. These institutional assignments would not
end a career but develop future leaders of the Army.
For example, Gen. Raymond Odierno was the director of Force Programs, Office of the Deputy Chief of
Staff for Operations and Plans, before he was the 4th
Infantry Division commander and, eventually, the
chief of staff of the Army. While knowing these key
points is important, how the Army trains new field
grades is critical to them obtaining a better doctrinal
understanding of the processes.

CGSOC Curriculum
Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-3,
Commissioned Officer Professional Development and
Career Management, states that one of the goals of
the officer education system is “to produce a corps of
leaders who … understand how the Army runs.”20 To
support this goal, CGSOC provides an eighteen-hour
block of instruction titled “Force Management” in its
core curriculum. The intent of this instruction is to
familiarize the students with the basic principles and
processes of force management. It is not designed to
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make them force-management experts but to provide
an overview of the many interrelated processes, terms,
and procedures used by the generating force to manage change within the Army so they can communicate
within the profession.
The block begins by laying a foundation with a
discussion of documents such as Title 10, The Army
Plan, and the Army Operating Concept, three strategic guidance documents that few CGSOC students
have heard of and even fewer have read, and explains
how these drive the development of the Army force.
Next, students are exposed to the Joint Capabilities
Integration and Development System ( JCIDS) to learn
how the Army and joint staff develop capabilities by
looking at future needs and current capabilities and
identifying gaps for which TRADOC then develops
solutions within the doctrine, organization, training,
materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities, and policy
(DOTMLPF-P) framework. Students then learn how
those different solutions are prioritized within the
Army and become tables of organization and equipment or tables of distribution and allowances.
The total Army analysis process is introduced and
discussed to demonstrate that there is a quantitative
and qualitative process behind Army decisions. The
next topic—planning, programming budgeting, and
execution—provides an overview of the process that
develops the budgets for each program, adjusts and
approves them within the Army priorities, justifies
the requests to Congress, allocates funds received, and
manages the expenditure of funds to ensure missions
are accomplished.
Discussion and readings then focus on how
the Army acquires materiel using the Defense
Acquisition System (DAS). While few officers in the
Army are actually involved in the DAS directly, all
need a basic understanding because they are impacted by the products.
The final topic of instruction is force integration.
Students learn how the Army prioritizes requirements,
and some of the key points of manning and equipping
the force. Key Department of the Army guidance is
discussed along with how the Army manages units
within the new sustainable readiness process.
While not directly a force-management topic,
operational contract support (OCS) is also covered
to explain how the Army fills in the gaps in capability
July-August 2016  MILITARY REVIEW