BN Commander observations of Lieutenants

I’m currently serving as a Company Tactical Officer at West Point. I sent this email to my senior cadets this week and wanted to share with the force at large.

Don’t be deterred by the length of this post, there won’t be a test. Please save this, and when you have time, read through it.

An old boss of mine recently took command of a light infantry BN at Fort Carson, and he’s been assessing the state of his LTs and sending me feedback on where they’ve been struggling. In order to set you all up for success, I’m sending you some things to look through. Given time, we will select a couple of items to discuss in person, but I understand your time is short and valuable as you finish school. As I’ve stated before, if I’m trying to show you something, it’s because I genuinely believe it will assist you as a new LT to reduce the very steep learning curve and reduce the number of mistakes you will make. It won’t mitigate all of the mistakes you’ll make (and you will, trust me), but this information will assist you in taking care of your Soldiers in the very near future.

First, here’s the original email, and below are my “stream of consciousness” notes. You’ll find some resources attached as well.

////ORIGINAL EMAIL////

A few notes on what I have seen from LTs since taking command; training management at the platoon level, meaning they don’t do well at hour by hour management of Soldiers time on their training calendars out to 4 weeks, Task/Conditions/Standards for training events and PT – nonexistent at first. Medical and Personnel readiness – we’ve fixed it, but they struggled to stay ahead of this and see their platoons. 8-step training model; I still think they don’t fully understand what the steps mean and how to lay it out on a training calendar. Maintenance; maybe because we are a light unit, but they struggle to fully understand what they should supervise – I routinely find them in their office and not out enforcing standards.

Balanced PT approach; we have lots of Soldiers on profile as a result of PT competitions that includes weight lifting – Soldiers don’t have the right form and end up with back injuries. We are adjusting to ensure we do it right and preserve the force.

As I get further into command I will send you updates on what I see at the LT level.

////END////

The 8-step training model (http://www.benning.army.mil/Armor/OCOA/content/References%20and%20Guides/8%20Step%20Training%20Model.pdf\; see attached slide from the Armor school). An Army staple to track and manage your training, this thing is under-taught and highly utilized. This slide does a decent job outlining the steps and what goes into them. Also attached is an example CONOP that my unit used for the train-up to Afghanistan that has the 8-step built in with a RAG chart (Red Amber Green, you’ll hear that a lot, especially on staff). I was able to retool that product for my second unit while deployed to Korea and it proved very successful.

Resource tracking. Important and undervalued at the Platoon Level, knowing how to request, manage, and track the status of your resources for training is a great way to set yourself apart from your peers. Short version, keep this example tracker updated (it’s on the bottom left side of the CONOP slide) and you’ll be fine. The caveat being, ALWAYS CHECK, ESPECIALLY AT 72/24 HOURS PRIOR TO EXECUTION. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had external assets (e.g. range control, digital simulation centers, forward support company) drop the ball and cause friction with my training. If the training doesn’t happen because you failed to check (even though it was somebody else’s fault), it’s still YOUR problem.

Task/conditions/standards, AKA Training and Evaluation Outlines (T&EOs). Another underutilized but critical tool in this fiscally constrained environment. Short version, if your training doesn’t have a T&EO, you better have a good reason why you want to do it, or you’ll get denied. If it does, and you’re not using it, then you’re wrong. These documents (use https://atn.army.mil to find T&EOs) allow you to follow a checklist and assess the execution of training events. Why more people don’t use them, I don’t know. It makes life so much simpler when you get busy.

Medical/personnel readiness. This one is tough to track at the platoon level because you don’t typically have access to the systems that manage the numbers (MEDPROS/eProfile/etc). I unfortunately don’t have a good tool to send you for this one, but guess who does? Your Platoon Sergeant. If they don’t work with them to build one. It’s too easy to build a master excel tracker that will assist you on upcoming suspenses (e.g. NCOERs, PCS awards, dental/vision/hearing readiness). Life hack: use conditional formatting in excel to make things highlight based on dates. I’ll leave you to get creative with that one, it really does help to have excel automatically highlight with colors at 90/60/30 days prior to one of your Soldiers going “Red” on a readiness stat. BONUS: If you and your PSG can forecast who will go “Red” during a long field exercise and get them “Green” before you head out, your life will be 10 times easier than having to get them back to the rear for an appointment they could have done early. Trust me on this one…

Maintenance. Critical for nearly everyone (I’m sure there’s a branch out there who doesn’t do maintenance, but I haven’t met one yet) and it’s too easy to excel. Simple solution and bigger learning point: be where your Soldiers are. We used to call it “Leadership at the Point of Friction.” What this means is, be with your Soldiers and set the example. I’ve seen too many officers look poorly in the eyes of their Soldiers because they didn’t conduct/understand/supervise maintenance and instead hid in their offices. You won’t know the ins and outs of PMCS at first, but if you put on a set of coveralls and start turning wrenches with your Soldiers, you’ll learn very fast and earn some serious street-cred. I had a solution to fix this problem in my company: I gave my new PLs 2 weeks where I didn’t task them with anything when they arrived, and told them to stay in the motor pool with their Soldiers. At the end of their 2 week trial, they had to go through an entire Before PMCS with myself or the 1SG to validate their knowledge.

Time management. There are times where you will have competing demands, like literally constantly. Your big brain has to decide how to manage your and your Soldier’s time effectively. While you should always try to be with your Soldiers as often as possible, there are times where you’re better served working in the office (OPORDs, training plans, admin stuff, etc.). It’s up to you to figure out how to balance your time, because the first time you fail to do so and your platoon/section has to stay until 1900 because of something you failed to do, that will be a hard lesson to learn. PROTIP: to get yourself an extra 3 hours in the day, bring your meals in, eat in the office, and have a “working breakfast/lunch.” This is almost entirely uninterrupted time where you can get admin stuff done, freeing up time to spend with your Soldiers doing the dirty work. SUPERPROTIP: get into work at 0530 to catch up on emails. You’ll miss traffic and set up your whole day for success. Also, because you’ll have a lot of work already done, you can get home at a decent time, which becomes more important as you get married/have kids.

PT. We’ve talked a little about this, but here’s the cold, hard truth: you MUST be physically fit. Every unit I’ve been in has required new LTs to go on some sort of PT event (usually a “death run”) with either the Battalion/Squadron commander or BN S3/XO to “validate” them. Also, your minimum standard should be a 270, no questions asked, at any given time. Because of the readiness concerns across the army, units will conduct no-notice tests of different facets of readiness. I’ve seen impromptu APFTs, Rifle Qualifications, and Personnel Document Scrubs (DD93/SGLV, etc), where the unit is alerted with an hour’s notice. You do NOT want to be that person who fails an APFT, I promise you. Additionally, the LT is USUALLY one of the more physically fit members of a unit, simply by the fact that you must lead your Soldiers. With that said, you should serve as at least an advisor on PT-matters, such as proper form. Use assets available to you (most posts have people who can help train you, Master Fitness Trainers in your unit, or if nothing else, YouTube) to make sure your Soldiers are using proper form. More importantly, be smart about what you’re doing; make your PT challenging, but not so much so that you injure people. We do enough dangerous stuff to get someone badly hurt during PT.

Random resources/notes. Take some time to check out the Combined Arms Center-Training (CAC-T) website (http://usacac.army.mil/organizations/cact); it has some incredible resources to leverage. Check out the Army Training Network (ATN) (https://atn.army.mil/), which is a great tool to use in developing training. If you aren’t familiar with CATS, DTMS, or what the METL is for your unit, it’s all in ATN. Digital Training Management System (DTMS) (https://dtms.army.mil) is another big one that you’ll have to become familiar with. I believe most BOLCs are teaching this now, and to be honest it’s such a dense subject it’d be a waste of your time to teach you here. You’ll get plenty of hands-on training at your unit, and the DTMS Knowledge base has some of the best tutorials I’ve seen in any Army system.

Random thoughts. There are a ton of things that will help you be successful in the Army, but in my humble opinion, the single thing that sets any Soldier (officer/NCO/enlisted) apart is initiative. This comes in many forms, through self-development, forecasting through tracking/systems, or simply taking the leap into something. It’s not something anyone can teach you, you either do it, or you don’t. With that said, the people who take initiative are the ones who are successful, bottom line. Do what you can to be proactive, not reactionary.

Never forget who you are, and be the leader you would want to serve under. Our Soldiers deserve the best, and your job is to take care of them. Too frequently, officers think “giving time off” is how we take care of Soldiers. While true, there’s a larger way we take care of Soldiers: train them. The training you plan, prepare, and execute will help keep your Soldiers safe and get them home to their families; THAT is how we take care of Soldiers.

Last thought from an entirely personal standpoint, find your drive and find a way to internalize it. I’ll share with you mine, it comes from “The Leader’s Prayer,” which is from Once an Eagle. “Help me to be wise and full of courage and sound judgment. Harden my heart to the sights that I must see so soon again, grant me only the power to think clearly, boldly, resolutely, no matter how unnerving the peril. Let me not fail them.” I shortened this and put it on a bracelet that I wore while deployed: “Think clear, bold, and resolute no matter the peril. Let me not fail them.” I spend every day making sure that I don’t fail “Them.”

I won’t tell you who my “Them” are, but I’d ask you to find your own.

Zach