Good morning brittany.rodriguez

I just spoke with our BDE Retention NCOIC.

She advice that you apply at your 12 month mark, so 2020. Jokingly but somewhat serious, she mention that you could/should apply every year as their justification will change since the army is currently in a growing stage. Essentially big army is not loosing you as a SM y…[Read more]

@ae_rollinson,

Digging into my upcoming annual training period (my company has been designated SIM Cell and OPFOR… yes, I bought a special uniform) I wanted to throw another point out another thing that would greatly help out commanders and PLs; go to your local Training Support Center (TSC). Walk around, get their catalog, see what they have…[Read more]

These are excellent points! I was thinking inside the house (literally)!

Overlaying family goals onto the discussion of finances and transitioning from a student to an officer is really important. I think this can range from married to a civilian, stay-at-home spouse, dual career, dual military, not to mention what goals or plans of children…[Read more]

@falcon6 – thanks for your input! I think we should spread the good word about JO Forum.

How long have you been in command?

Do you have Ft. Hood’s commanders course POC? I would love to reach out to them!

Here’s an old conversation from last year about finances that also ties into balancing large purchases: https://juniorofficer.army.mil/discussion/living-conditions/#post-793

Here’s my take on your categories:
Kitchen –
CrockPot v2 – InstaPot or a digital crockpot. DO NOT get an IoT pot, it’s not worth the security issue and you’ll be too busy to…[Read more]

1) Broadening Opportunities – I will say that overall, I suggest that Broadening is being seen as not a deviation as the next step after KD. Go ahead a check out the Smartbook PAM 600-3 (via MilSuite, under S1Net) and you’ll see that is expressed under your branch’s career chart (possibly called the Talent Management Career Timeline now). I will…[Read more]

@brittany.rodriguez – I will too have to do some more digging to ensure I can provided the right answer.

I’ll ask my BDE chief, and get back to you!

@brittany.rodriguez – tracking the thread. Awesome question, Brittney. I’m going to have to wrack my brain and consult some resources, so hang tight for a few days and early next week I should be able to post some resources. I admit that I’ve only worked with officers going the other way (RA to USAR), and while USAR is also controlled by HRC,…[Read more]

Paul, great questions. I was in your shoes a couple of years ago and asked numerous leaders the same question. Here are my thoughts.

1)  Yes, broadening opportunities are seen as detours but some say not anymore. In my opinion, as deployments have decreased and new challenges arise (cyber, China, Russia, etc), the importance of broadening and…[Read more]

@pstofan – this is a great question! Moving this to a new discussion.