Broadening Opportunities for KD Complete Lieutenants

It is over, just like that.  You spent four years at your commissioning source, dreaming of being the next Dick Winters as a Platoon Leader and it was over in the blink of an eye.  Those 12-18 months flew by.  You had your exit counseling, relinquished a multi-million-dollar primary hand receipt, and maybe even got a fancy little plaque for your trouble.  It was a great run, but it is time to move on to bigger and better things in your career.  But what better things? Contrary to popular belief, many broadening opportunities exist for junior officers before attending Captain’s Career Course.  Although untraditional, there is incredible value to be found in a multitude of opportunities that exist outside of what is explicitly mentioned in DA PAM 600-3.

Where do I start?

DA PAM 600-3: “Commissioned Officer Professional Development and Career Management”, is the basis for establishing your career timeline.  It defines a standard path to a successful career and can be used to ensure you are progressing accordingly towards timely promotions.  Most officers are intimately familiar with key designation (KD) billets that they are required to fill in each grade.  The primary example is Platoon Leader, which spans most branch requirements, but others do exist, such as serving as a Company Fire Support Officer in the Field Artillery branch.  Beyond operational assignments exist broadening assignments, those of which “provides officers with exposure to a different environment, presents them with opportunities to work complex problems, and ultimately helps the Army grow strategic, adaptive, and innovative executive-level leaders.”  In sum, these are assignments typically outside of your branch requirements but still stimulate career growth.  Unfortunately, the DA PAM does not provide thorough information regarding broadening opportunities.  Rare exceptions exist in the likes of the INF, AR, EN chapters of the publication.  The overwhelming majority of branches fail to even acknowledge broadening opportunities in their career progression outline.  As a Field Artillery officer, I noticed that our respective chapter of DA PAM 600-3 goes as far to say that: “Due to the formative nature of this career phase, lieutenants do not have significant opportunities for broadening assignments.”  This is true, opportunities are scarce, but they do exist and can provide substantial value to your career.  Examples of such opportunities are Patton and Cavazos Intern programs, Initial Military Training (IMT) XO, USAREC XO, Aide de Camp, and the Old Guard.  Requirements for these opportunities vary by branch and experience, and selections are based on merit.  These examples can provide varying degrees of value to your career, each possessing its own unique challenges, mission sets, risks, and rewards.

Exhaust Your Resources

So, if the oft reliable DA PAM does not provide a catalog of broadening opportunities, where can one look? There are a variety of resources, and they should all be exhausted to properly understand what is available to you.  The most readily available and on demand resource for information on assignments is the AIM 2.0 marketplace.  This interface includes pertinent information on current and upcoming available assignments for your grade.  Typically, assignment requisitions include detailed information about the duty description as well as a point of contact for the unit.  AIM 2.0 also presents officers an opportunity to “sell” themselves.  Deliberately set aside time to build your resume and knowledge, skills, and behaviors for units to see.

Your career branch manager who is responsible for junior officer assignments is a key resource regarding your career progression.  They can provide you with an objective and expert evaluation of your profile and performance to date, which should influence your decision to pursue a broadening assignment.  Understand that they are managing thousands of officers just like you and are likely inundated with correspondence.  Be patient and courteous in communicating with them.  Ensure that you conduct your own research before engaging them with questions that you can answer yourself.  With the implementation of AIM for processing requisitions and assignments, information on potential assignments is more readily available now than ever before.

The S1 NET is an underused and extremely valuable resource for Army administrative information.  Specifically, the S1 NET Message Summary is a weekly synopsis of new Army Directives, All Army Activities messages (ALARACTs), Military Personnel messages (MILPERs), and updates to publications and policies.  It is free to enroll with CAC access via MilSuite and can be configured to push notifications directly to your email account.  This enables SMs to immediately be notified of rare career opportunities, submit subordinates for unique awards, as well as be cognizant of obscure changes in policy.  In fact, the S1 NET is where I discovered the application to be a Junior Fellow in the Center for Junior Officers.

An informal resource is your personal and professional network.  It is quite possibly the most important and most valuable of the three that are listed here.  Who has successfully applied and been selected for a broadening assignment within your battalion? Within your brigade? Leverage these relationships.  Whether you drop by their office, shoot them a text, or shoot them an email – engage them! Regardless of if they are awaiting transition to the assignment, currently serving in it, or have completed the assignment, they can provide direct insight.  Through my personal network, a friend in my battalion connected me to his friend within our brigade.  He is directly responsible for encouraging me to apply and ultimately be selected as a Patton Program intern at Howard University.

Firsthand Experience

As officers, we are always trying to sharpen the sword.  Searching for new knowledge, different ways of doing things, and getting out of our comfort zone are vital to growth.  My one short year at Howard University as a Patton Program intern made me a better officer, mentor, and professional.  Upon arrival to Howard University’s Army ROTC program, I was thrust into an instructor role on a small staff of four Soldiers who all had 10+ years of Army experience.  I was the newest guy, the youngest guy, and was not familiar with TRADOC operations.  I was out of that comfort zone.  Despite all of this, the opportunity to be a direct mentor to sixteen potentially new Army officers was incredibly rewarding.  For many of the students, they had no prior exposure to the military or our culture.  The challenge of incorporating them into the Army culture while managing expectations as they fulfilled their academic requirements was a difficult task.  What my experience taught me was how to effectively communicate instruction and verify that it was being well received.  I had to overcome virtual barriers, cultural barriers, even my lack of instructor experience was a barrier towards effective communication.  I did not have the

liberty of the entirety of my students having graduated Basic Training and AIT prior to receiving them in my formation.  All of these students were dispersed across the country hundreds of miles away, and this assignment forced me to follow up with them and ensure I put people first.  Some of my cadets were displaced due to Hurricane Ida, some became caretakers of siblings and cousins when schools shut down, and many struggled with the circumstances of isolation and loss of their support networks.

Additional Perspectives

Don’t just take my word for it, I have many peers who have or are actively serving in many of the broadening assignments mentioned above.  I spoke with them in detail about their experiences and what lessons they learned as they move forward in their careers.  In USAREC, CPT Tim Becker and CPT Sam Lampman shared similar sentiments about the challenges that accompanied civilian/military teams.  CPT Becker stated “We didn’t have the same command authority over them (civilians), and they could just quit at any time.  You really had to learn how to manage a team outside of just giving orders.”  CPT Lampman recounted a similar leadership challenge, and that assignment under USAREC was a productive change of pace in operational tempo for him.

In the Old Guard, CPT Charlie Goodfellow found the opportunity to be a platoon leader all over again albeit with a different mission set.  Stationed at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, VA, CPT Goodfellow noted that his professional and personal network has greatly expanded.  Conducting operations in vicinity of the nation’s capital brought rare opportunities to him.  I shared a similar experience during my time at Howard University.  More importantly, he related that “serving in The Old Guard affords officers, especially junior officers without combat experience, the opportunity to understand the gravity of their responsibility to their Soldiers and organizations”. 

As an IMT XO, CPT Isaac Flynn served in Fort Sill, OK for a year prior to attending Captain’s Career Course following an assignment at 4ID.  He was grateful for the predictable training schedule and tempered operational tempo of TRADOC, but it was by no means easy work.  Many take the Army’s Basic Training and AIT for granted, as if it is simply “Groundhog Day” to rinse and repeat daily.  There is some semblance of truth to this, but CPT Flynn shared that for him, the regimented schedule “emphasized the importance of systems and processes” to empower the drill instructors.  Too often in the Army we hear others mention “being in the knife fight” with unit taskings.  By learning how to establish efficient systems and actively employing them like CPT Flynn mentioned, the “knife fight” can largely be avoided.

Self-Reflection: You Could Do This, But Should You Do This?

Officers need to have a candid conversation with their raters, trusted mentors, and branch manager about their performance to date before considering a broadening opportunity.  Are you ready to move on from a tactical assignment or is there more benefit to be found within your unit? DA PAM 600-3 dictates what experience and skills are to be developed during your time as a lieutenant.  For example, the Field Artillery states that officers “should complete their time as lieutenants with a portfolio of technical, tactical and procedural artillery skills, fire support employment skills, and troop leading skills.  Specifically, Field Artillery lieutenants should have a fundamental grasp of section certification and qualification programs, command maintenance discipline program (CMDP), command supply discipline program (CSDP), troop leading procedures, risk management, safety, fire control, gunnery, digital communications and fire support.”  At the end of the day, your career is centered around the domain knowledge and technical know-how that is earned in tactical assignments.  If you do not have absolute confidence in your ability to perform your job requirements described in DA PAM 600-3, then you need to stick around and gain that confidence.  Consider pursuing additional tactical opportunities within your battalion such as Mortar PL (INF), Fire Direction Officer (FA), working in the Provost Marshall office (MP), or even earning experience on your battalion staff.

Broadening opportunities are scarce for post-KD, pre-command junior officers, but they do exist and can be extremely rewarding.  If complete with their respective key designation billets, officers should monitor the AIM Marketplace, S1 NET Messages, and engage in dialogue with their branch manager to peruse potential opportunities.  Some examples of such are IMT Platoon Leader, USAREC XO, Patton/Cavazos Intern, the Old Guard, and Aide de Camp.  Each assignment holds its own unique value, mission set, and challenges – consider applying today!

———————————————————————————————————————

CPT Flem B.  Walker is a native of Lineville, AL he graduated from Auburn University in 2017 and the University of Louisville in 2021.  His first duty assignment was in Fort Stewart, GA with 1-9 FA, 2ABCT, 3ID serving as a Company Fire Support Officer, Platoon Leader, and HHB XO.  Following this assignment, he was selected as a Patton Program Intern at Howard University for one year, and is currently a student at FA CCC in Fort Sill, OK.  He is engaged to his fiancée, Rebecca Irvin, and will be married in April of 2023.  Flem is a 2022 CJO Leadership Fellow.