Task Management is the most difficult task in the Army that I personally struggle with. It is in my blood to accomplish all missions and tasks, no matter how many hours it requires to complete. It has literally taken me 7 years to realize that the Army does indeed give us more to do than the time we have in a day, week, month, or even year. That became true to me in the article, “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession”.

That article hit the nail on the head in regards to lack of company and platoon level training time to overtasking. There are so many competing priorities handed down to the battery/troop/company level that it makes it extremely difficult to conduct training, in addition to meeting all the requirements that are asked of us (plethora of meetings, multiple administrative tasks, multiple mission support tasking, multiple maintenance support tasking, etc).

If I was given 2-6 weeks per year to focus only on my company METL training, I would be the best trained FSC in all the division! For example,during our latest FTX, where I realistically had 2-4 days of train up for a 3 day FTX and I was able to only objectively assess my company at a P-/U level on the METL tasks. If given dedicated training time, unhindered by tasking’s and support requirements, I could be a more effective and efficient FSC.

This would pay dividends in the end, by only allowing me dedicated white space to conduct squad, platoon, and company level training events.

Now I am a big advocate for use training time available and looking for opportunities within a support mission to get it in where you can. However, due to multiple planning efforts, mission supports, and company operations, this is rarely realistic.

I have read the Article, “Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession” many times through, and it rings true more times than not. When everything is determined to be important and a priority, nothing can be important or a priority. Commanders, and subordinate leaders, are usually asked to do more than they have the time to do and asked to assume a lot of risk in doing so. I only hope that I am accepting the right risk and getting battalion commander, or staff, involved as needed.
I have never been one to “paint bubbles green”, regardless of the picture it has painted for my organization and I think my unit does a good job of the same compared to other units I have seen.
Hopefully my insight was helpful and not just a myriad of subordinate commanders words.