The Military Experience

Abstract

Since World War II, movement through the officer career system has been driven primarily by the needs of the military services for forward presence either on land or at sea. How long one spent in an assignment (duration) and how often one moved in a career (frequency) were largely a function of the lengths of overseas tours or seashore rotations. For the Army and Air Force, overseas tours were mostly of three years duration. For the naval services, deployments and operating tempo caused rotations between sea and shore assignments. Individual officer needs for educational and experience development could be accommodated in most skills within the movement created by service needs for overseas assignments and deployments. However, in the future, forward presence requirements for officers are likely to be fewer. As a result, the individual s need for career development—number and duration of educational tours and assignments—may not be accommodated by service movement needs. 1 Changes in requirements such as those outlined in Sections 2 and 3 affect the nature of jobs and the need for different experiences. In turn, these changes affect career paths that link grade, skill, and experience. For example, the need in the military for more experience in joint matters has led to more requirements for joint duty assignments, and the new assignments must fit into the developmental career path. These assignments are typically perceived as broadening for an officer rather than as substitutes for other assignments. To the extent that either deeper or broader experience is needed, the pattern of duration and frequency of assignments changes. This view about new patterns for future development of officers was recognized by the Secretary of Defense. The rush to prepare large numbers of officers for global conflict created career patterns that may be inappropriate for the armed services of the post–Cold War era. 2 Job and task experiences are important to development and are hindered when movement is either too rapid or too slow. There is, thus, a trade-off between position turnover and stability: How quickly can an officer be developed to be ________________ 1 While training provides benefits to the organization, there is a cost. In the military, it is measured in the size of the budget allocated to transients, trainees, and students—personnel not filling programmed manpower structure spaces.