This is important. Moreso than many of you will realize.

Important for shaping the future leadership of the Army and for capturing and holding the lessons hard-learned this time around. And for many of you who don't realize the importance of this message... you're probably reading it and going, "D-uh, no brainer, what's the big deal?"

Let's go into that, shall we?

Peace, Prosperity, Poultry in Hawr Rajab Photo by Sgt. David Turner, April 29, 2008.

First Lt. Michael Falk, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, currently attached to 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., rescues a chick while poultry farmers load 6,000 of them onto trucks in Hawr Rajab, April 27. The chicks were purchased by the Baghdad-7 ePRT to help jump-start chicken farms in the area, which have suffered in recent years due to insurgent activity.

It's the nature of the services to focus on what they consider (and the inertia of tradition figures in here) their core missions and skill sets. It's a key symptom of "Last-War-itis." This leads us to the situation where outside agencies, like Congress via the Goldwater-Nichols Act or Secretary-driven reforms imposed from above and without to get the services to put sufficient value and emphasis on skillsets other than sinking ships and taking down the Soviet Union, or bombing things.

The failure to adapt and shift our service cultures causes us to have senior leaders who are really very good at those big, sweeping core functions, but who aren't that good at other things - something we've suffered from in this war - and to maintain a service culture that doesn't attach sufficient value to those new skills (or re-discovered old skills) that are actually more relevant to the problems at hand. This leads to a whole lot of "rediscovery learning" which has a cost in lives, time, money - and even success.

And because we don't put sufficient institutional and cultural value on those skills, we end up, via the forcing function of promotions and the imperatives of the personnel managment system, dead-ending those officers who have developed those skills, and the promising ones avoid those crucial jobs because they are seen as career-killers - giving us, again, senior leaders who are smart, educated, and unskilled in needed skills. Ask all those counter-insurgent warriors from Vietnam who were forced out or who retired as Majors and Lieutenant Colonels...

The Army is taking an important step to capture and value just those kinds of skills - the ones present in the core of soldiers who are on the Transition Teams and Provincial Reconstruction Teams - jobs that many good officers were avoiding if they could, because they were seen as dead-end jobs, while in fact they are a key enabler in us not having to stay in Iraq or Afghanistan in large numbers for an indefinite time. Good on the Army. For those of you who read this space who have already served in those positions - I'd be checking with HRC soon to make sure that your records are all caught up. So that officers like Lieutenant Falk don't have happen to them what happened to our resident Rotorhead, CW4(R) Bill T, who coulda/shoulda been Colonel or General retired, by my books.

General Casey's message is below:

From: GOMO
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 2:32 PM

Subject: CSA Sends - Transition Team Commanders (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

CSA SENDS

Soldiers that serve on our Transition Teams (TTs) and our Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) are developing exactly the type of knowledge, skills and abilities that are vital for our Army to be effective in an era of persistent conflict. These are tough, demanding positions and the members of these teams are required to influence indigenous or surrogate forces as they execute missions that are of vital interest to this Nation. The tasks associated with Transition Teams, from direct combat to stability operations, will be a major part of full spectrum engagement in theaters of interest now and for the foreseeable future. I want to ensure that the officers that lead these teams are recognized and given the credit they deserve.

I am directing that the Major's positions on these teams be immediately designated and codified in DA PAM 600-3, for all branches, as Key and Developmental (KD). Any officer holding one of these positions will be considered "KD" for his or her branch as a Major. Additionally, these officers will be afforded the opportunity, should they desire, to hold an additional 12/24 months of a branch specific KD position (e.g. XO, S-3, etc). Our promotion board guidance already stresses the importance of these positions and this additional information will be added to all upcoming board instructions. Additionally, because the success of these teams requires our best leaders, I have directed HRC [Human Resources Command] to award Centralized Selection List (CSL) Credit for LTCs serving specifically in the TT Commander positions that have direct leadership responsibility for a training/transition team. [This means the guys are getting effective credit for battalion command - a Big Deal]

Therefore, we are creating a new CSL sub-category called "Combat Arms Operations". It will be open to all eligible officers in the Maneuver, Fires and Effects (MFE) branches and to Foreign Area Officers (FAO). It will fall under the Operations category and will be effective on the FY 10 CSL board which meets this September.

As a bridging strategy, for FY09 we will activate officers for these command positions from the alternate lists of all four major MFE command categories - Operations, Strategic Support, Training, and Installation. Officers accepting and who serve will be awarded CSL credit in the Operations category for serving as a Transition Team Commander. Additionally, if selected by the FY 10 CSL board, the officer may opt to command in the category they are selected after completion of their TT Command. Those that do command will receive credit for a second CSL command. If chosen, and they opt not to command, they will still receive credit for their TT command. [This is a REALLY big deal - multiple commands!]

Our ability to train and operate effectively with indigenous forces will be a key element of 21st century land power. We need our best involved.

GEN Casey

H/t, Jim C.