Civilian employment is the greatest challenge of serving in the RC.  I’ve struggled with this quite a bit but have found my way to employment opportunities that are forgiving of my military service.  This isn’t the case with many of my soldiers who may have challenging civilian careers that take up their lives or, even more so, the Soldiers that a…[Read more]

For USAR Lieutenants the promotion to 1LT is nearly automatic so long as you meet the requirements and your personnel records reflect accordingly.

-18 months TIG as a 2LT

-Completion of BOLC, DA1059 in iPERMS.  Unfortunately, this document is submitted by the schoolhouse and may take several months to reflect.  If this is the case your p…[Read more]

Joe,

A topic close to my heart!  Sometimes I feel lucky that I was able to serve in the S-3 for a unit without a full-time SOTS, prior to taking command.

First I have some observations:

-Training management training is severely lacking on the NCOES/OES that I’ve been a part of.  My experience has been with the RC transportation NCOES system a…[Read more]

Early in my command and I’m supposed to be preparing for a BN conference call…so I won’t go into too much.

Planning is critical and the hardest thing to do.  You need to have the foresight to look out months in advance and ensure key training resources are locked in.  To add to what @cale said, I force my TPU (m-day) Soldiers to be involved i…[Read more]

If you’re going to a logistics branch (QM, TC, OD), there’s a 99% chance you will have to live in the new hotel. The only BOLC students that don’t are those that live within commuting distance. Unless, of course, the 1000 room hotel is booked up.

I was envious of the LTs that lived in the new hotel. It’s right across the street from the ALU so…[Read more]

The retirement points option is the most common I see but also very under-utilized especially for the junior Soldiers.

Of course there’s the option of awards or recognition in the cases of Soldiers doing outstanding work outside of BA.  Coins, COAs, and AAMs in some cases.  These can be especially useful to junior Soldiers where they aren’t as m…[Read more]

In the last year my organization has stopped allowing Soldiers to sign-in, receiving Us for the weekend, if they are medically red (MRC3/4).  This has helped to improve medical readiness and forced Soldiers to take care of it on their own.  It has also driven our unsat participants up, although I’m not sure that’s a bad thing in many cases.

I’m c…[Read more]

I agree with @brownhd and think that the evaluations are more focused on the outcomes rather than how the the leader got to those outcomes.  If they did a great job with minimal effort, that’s just as great as if they did a great job and put in 100 hours during planning.  I do think that, in general, you can tell who put in the extra effort a…[Read more]

@brock.j.young

I will admit that this appears to be a significant issue for the USAR.  Retaining mid-grade officers is a challenge.  As a result, nearly every Company in my brigade is commanded by a 1LT.

This is such a great topic that I’ve dealt with for years in the USAR and my perspective is solely from being a TPU.  I currently spend at least 10-15 hours per week doing things related specifically to my unit and that doesn’t include professional development and education I do on my own.  Over the last 3 years I’d say the average has been a…[Read more]

@brock.j.young

Some excellent points and tips to go with it.  I’ve been considering ways to “encourage” Soldiers to accomplish many tasks, such as DL courses and evaluations, outside of BA.  The organization I’m part of currently spends an inordinate amount of time on BA weekend completing administrative tasks, like filling out forms and p…[Read more]

@brock.j.young

Some excellent points and tips to go with it.  I’ve been considering ways to “encourage” Soldiers to accomplish many tasks, such as DL courses and evaluations, outside of BA.  The organization I’m part of currently spends an inordinate amount of time on BA weekend completing administrative tasks, like filling out forms and p…[Read more]

Hello, my name is Brian McGarry and I’m still a lurker for the time being.  I’ve been hanging around the forums most recently on Milsuite and stealing tools that Brock has posted.  I started to listen to the podcast a few months ago and I’ve been more interested in participating in forums like this recently.

I’m a TPU reservist of 15 years and c…[Read more]