TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-017-7. ConclusionThe complex operating environment of the twenty-first century demands innovativeapproaches to personnel management. Many of the suggestions in this chapter echo elsewhere inthe Human Dimension study and other concepts. New personnel management systems mustbalance the needs of the Army with the needs of the individual and families. The Army’spolicies and systems to promote, assign, and educate leaders are keys to the success ofoperational units and the effectiveness of the Army as an institution. The Army will continue toconsist of dedicated men and women in the active and reserve Army serving as Soldiers,government civilians, and contractors. Taking care of people and insuring missionaccomplishment includes providing them with the best and most modern equipment andfacilities. The next chapter presents a look at how S&T contributes to this aspect of the humandimension.VignetteLieutenant Colonel Rick Stacy finished the pre-command course and was really excited abouthis assignment to the 4 th Infantry Division. He’d served with the division as a lieutenant in Iraq.Getting to command one of the new FSV combined arms battalions was a dream come true.Stacy had had an interesting career path—unconventional most would say. He was in the yeargroup that first went through the 360-degree rating and local selection for promotion to Major.Being an instructor at West Point at that time didn’t bode well for him and his contemporaries,or so he thought. The officers on the staff and faculty at the academy were out of themainstream. Worse still their 360-degree cohort included mostly fellow instructors all of whomwere as competitive as the dickens and most of whom were ensconced in the academicdepartment stovepipes. Few really knew other department instructors. Stacy thought the 360-degree idea had its place, but at the U.S. Military Academy were they going to let the cadets“rate” their instructors?Stacy and all but one of the eligible captains at the Academy that year made the Major’s list.They attributed this to their prior assignments, but failed to appreciate how the personnel systemhad really changed and how assignments like teaching in ROTC or the academies reallymattered.Years later as he looked back at Intermediate Leaders Education at Fort Leavenworth andhis subsequent assignment as an industrial intern, he really wondered what the West Pointexperience did to his career. Here he was a junior major nearly five years away from troops andthey were sending him to Detroit?Actually, he’d enjoyed the time with General Motors. It was only six months, after all, and hegot the S3 operations officer slot in a Fort Riley combined arms battalion. He also got to be hisbattalion’s executive officer and did two turns at the National Training Center, one as the S3,163