Oh yes. YES!!! Effing, yes! Policy letters. Consider me #triggered.

This is a great sub-topic under preparing for command. This should be SUPER easy, but as @smehr has found it’s just… not. Why? Well, turns out, go figure, it’s complicated. There is no 100% universal, standardized list of required policy letters. Huh? How is that possible? We’ve been doing these things basically forever. Correct! And the standards change constantly. As a result, the “required” policy letters will be commander determined. No, company commander, not YOU. Commander determined many, many levels above you. The CG will tell the inspector general’s office and the subordinate commanders what’s important, and that creates a snowball rolling your way.

Ugh!!! Seriously, I don’t have a staff and my Training Room NCO is brand new. How on earth am I supposed to write 26? 43? 64? policy letters? This will take FOREVER to produce a product nobody will read. Easy. I got ya’. There are a few options. These two (and a half) are my favorite.

Option 1 “By the book” – head over to milsuites and you can find an example of essentially every policy letter written in the history of ever. Buy some pizza for you and training room NCO and lock yourselves in the office for one afternoon making the necessary changes. Involve your Armorer, senior PSG, and Supply NCO in this party, while you’re at it. You can give your training room NCO a three day weekend for the hard work. Much of this stuff deals with things related to Supply and Arms Room. The senior PSG needs to see this process as preparation for being a 1SG someday…

Option 2 “The creative solution” – Yeah, you don’t have a staff, but the Battalion does, and they already did all of this work (or they should have). Why on earth does your policy letter need to say something different than your Bn CDR’s policy letter? It doesn’t. So, make one policy letter that says, “all company policies support the guidance outlined in BN policy letters X, Y, Z…” When you get inspected, and they say, “no, you need your own policy letter,” practice this phrase, “with all due respect MSG, can you show me where it says that in the regulation?”

Option 1.5 “The amalgam universe” – Here in the real world, the best option always falls somewhere in the middle. Publish and post the policy letter from Option #2. It’s a one-page policy letter that covers everything under the sun. Someone might actually read it. Then, keep in a binder for inspections the giant stack of “required” policy letters from Option #1. Hey! These policies are important! You’re right, but rules are only rules if you can enforce them and policies are only policies if someone reads them.  Just sayin’.

I personally always preferred Option 2. My company had only 5 policy letters total as a result. All of them were one page. Example attached.

~Jeff