More than Half of Senior Army Officers Are Turning Down Command Consideration

[daftandbarmy]

A familiar theme in civvie street too...

More than Half of Senior Army Officers Are Turning Down Command Consideration​

More than half of the Army's senior officers are turning down opportunities to command, choosing instead the stability of staff roles over the high-stakes demands of leadership, or retiring, according to internal service data.

The Battalion Command Assessment Program, or BCAP, a cornerstone of the Army's effort to evaluate leadership readiness, assesses 800 to 1,000 lieutenant colonels annually through interviews, psychological tests and physical fitness evaluations.

Historically, 85% of those participants have been deemed fit for command. Yet this year, 54% of eligible officers voluntarily chose not to participate -- a significant uptick from the 40% average opt-out rate seen since 2019.

"The predominant reasons were personal and family circumstances, such as retirement eligibility and family stabilization," Maj. Heba Bullock, an Army spokesperson, told Military.com in a statement.

The rank of lieutenant colonel carries unique prestige, offering officers the chance to command units of roughly 1,000 troops and to play pivotal roles in Pentagon plans for preparing forces for war. The position sits at the intersection of the Defense Department's big picture and the daily life of rank-and-file troops.

But while a command position is extremely high-profile, it also comes with endless work hours.

More than Half of Senior Army Officers Are Turning Down Command Consideration | Military.com

www-military-com.cdn.ampproject.org

 

[Lumber]

Interesting to see the US army is experiencing the same thing I've seen a lot of in the RCN. I know a fair number of what I would term "quality" LCdrs who have gone staff stream or simply "opted out" of Command so that they can stay in Ottawa and/or Halifax. I know one XO in Halifax who has somehow never left Halifax, and has said they won't likely ever take Command (and they have no problem with that) because that will require either a posting to Ottawa first and/or a CO tour on the west coast, and they simply will not leave Halifax.

 

[Pelorus]

While I think this theme is probably present across militaries, I would hazard a guess that it's more acutely felt within the US. Unity of Command is important, but from what I've seen over the years they are seemingly the most insistent on sacking (or worse) a CO over a major mistake.

I'm not convinced you'd see criminal charges ever laid against a Canadian CO whose ship had an accident while they were asleep and not directly involved in the proximate causes of the error chain:

Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own

Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.

www.propublica.org

 

[Navy_Pete]

While I think this theme is probably present across militaries, I would hazard a guess that it's more acutely felt within the US. Unity of Command is important, but from what I've seen over the years they are seemingly the most insistent on sacking (or worse) a CO over a major mistake.

I'm not convinced you'd see criminal charges ever laid against a Canadian CO whose ship had an accident while they were asleep and not directly involved in the proximate causes of the error chain:

Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own

Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.

www.propublica.org

We haven't seen charges with a CO where they were fully awake and on the bridge, because sometimes shit happens.

 

[dimsum]

While I think this theme is probably present across militaries, I would hazard a guess that it's more acutely felt within the US. Unity of Command is important, but from what I've seen over the years they are seemingly the most insistent on sacking (or worse) a CO over a major mistake.

I'm not convinced you'd see criminal charges ever laid against a Canadian CO whose ship had an accident while they were asleep and not directly involved in the proximate causes of the error chain:

Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own

Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.

www.propublica.org

The US “up or out” system is partially to blame here - if you only have a few chances before you’re kicked out, then you’re not going to take any chances, or specialize in anything aside from a laser-focused fixation with getting the next rank.

 

[FJAG]

This is nothing new. In the years of the great Vietnam debacle and thereafter the standing attitude was that command was the kiss of death while staff was the way to the top. That was one of the observation of the book "Crisis in Command" where blame attached to commanders for all the faults of their subordinates - which came in large quantities during the draft days - but managerial careerism in line with McNamaran philosophy had little risk but major reward.

 

[OldSolduer]

This is nothing new. In the years of the great Vietnam debacle and thereafter the standing attitude was that command was the kiss of death while staff was the way to the top. That was one of the observation of the book "Crisis in Command" where blame attached to commanders for all the faults of their subordinates - which came in large quantities during the draft days - but managerial careerism in line with McNamaran philosophy had little risk but major reward.

I reckon it would be safer as a staff type - the commander takes the responsibility for all the errors. Command isn't for everyone - if it was easy anyone could do it.

 

[Halifax Tar]

We are seeing this in the NCM world as well. The people interested in being a CPO1 are getting less and less each day.

The rank and position is seen as shell of what it once was as, and just aide for an officer now.

 

[Haggis]

I'm not convinced you'd see criminal charges ever laid against a Canadian CO whose ship had an accident while they were asleep and not directly involved in the proximate causes of the error chain:

Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own

Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.

www.propublica.org

That was a brutal read!

 

[Navy_Pete]

While I think this theme is probably present across militaries, I would hazard a guess that it's more acutely felt within the US. Unity of Command is important, but from what I've seen over the years they are seemingly the most insistent on sacking (or worse) a CO over a major mistake.

I'm not convinced you'd see criminal charges ever laid against a Canadian CO whose ship had an accident while they were asleep and not directly involved in the proximate causes of the error chain:

Blame Over Justice: The Human Toll of the Navy’s Relentless Push to Punish One of Its Own

Navy Cmdr. Bryce Benson accepted responsibility for the deadly crash of the USS Fitzgerald and was told, “That’s done now.” But when another ship crashed, the Navy decided it wasn’t through with him. Its pursuit nearly destroyed him and his family.

www.propublica.org

I can't believe they withheld permission to go back to the US for medical treatment for a traumatic brain injury if he appealed the admin review findings, that's ridiculous. They should have sent him back as soon as he had clearance to travel.

I'm sure we would have the same thing is a CO tried to tell the fleet commander the ship wasn't safe to sail; probably would get told they don't have the 'can do attitude' and shuffled off (probably to a ship in DWP or something) unless they had a huge amount of risk assessments, training deficiencies etc etc as a CYA. We would 'mitigate and accept' the risk and carry on with a bunch of bullshit on paper that didn't actually fix or change anything.

 

[OldSolduer]

We are seeing this in the NCM world as well. The people interested in being a CPO1 are getting less and less each day.

The rank and position is seen as shell of what it once was as, and just aide for an officer now.

In 2010 the Queen visited Winnipeg. No MWOs wanted to be the Guard CSM. They asked me and I jumped at the chance.

 

[dapaterson]

I can't believe they withheld permission to go back to the US for medical treatment for a traumatic brain injury if he appealed the admin review findings, that's ridiculous. They should have sent him back as soon as he had clearance to travel.

I'm sure we would have the same thing is a CO tried to tell the fleet commander the ship wasn't safe to sail; probably would get told they don't have the 'can do attitude' and shuffled off (probably to a ship in DWP or something) unless they had a huge amount of risk assessments, training deficiencies etc etc as a CYA. We would 'mitigate and accept' the risk and carry on with a bunch of bullshit on paper that didn't actually fix or change anything.

The last Army CO I know of to say "my unit is unfit to deploy" was removed from command, replaced, the unit deployed anyways... and, well, the CAR ended up disbanded.