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

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01and one as the executive officer. It must have made some difference or he wouldn’t be getting abattalion.What Stacy didn’t fully appreciate was that he was one of a select group of officers whoseofficer record briefs were flagged electronically with a code for command. He’d been briefed onhow it worked and assured that it was not the only discriminator for battalion command. Heck,he’d even nominated cadets, lieutenants, captains, and majors using the electronic 360-degreerating form. The instructions were simple. If you thought an individual exhibited leadershiptraits and would be a command candidate you were authorized to click that box. It wasn’t visibleto the individual, and if you clicked it on everyone the system rejected your nominations. Inplace for about five years, the Army was still assessing the effectiveness of grooming certainindividuals for command positions.Stacy knew the system had been used for NCOs since 2011 with some success. His own firstsergeants and the command sergeants major he’d known were products of this system. They’dbeen very good too. Other senior enlisted Soldiers serving in staff billets were quite good at whatthey did, but may not have been good company first sergeants. Stacy fully bought the philosophythat one size doesn’t fit all.Six months later…“Good afternoon Warriors!” Lieutenant Colonel Stacy said addressing his primary staff andcompany commanders.“Hooah!” Came the expected reply. Nothing wrong with a little enthusiasm, he thought.“Let me begin by thanking all of you for the outstanding rotation at Irwin. I am so proud ofhow we’ve welded into a team.” The officers and senior NCOs clapped briefly, anxious to heartheir battalion commander’s word on the Real Deal alert.“Okay, I know we’ve barely returned from the National Training Center and none of us havehad time to even see our families. That’s tough on all of us, but that’s our world, and I know youknow it all too well.“Here’s what I know. Operational Plan 2020, the one we just used, is now OperationalOrder April 2020. We are wheels up in twelve hours with the advanced element. Division is nowTF Green. We’ll be flying to Darwin with an emergency entry command post from division.Special operations forces are already in the Sumatra Caliphate. Our mission is the same as wejust executed at the National Training Center: ‘Conduct joint forcible entry operations throughAO Aerie to defeat Anderian forces in and around Pekanbaru, reinforce the airborne BCT onPekanbaru International, and support the capture of Anderian leadership.’“We have about 19 hours of flight time to do some en route mission planning and rehearsal.Get the word to the troops. I’ve asked brigade if there’s any chance of a family send off. Rightnow this whole operation is totally under wraps. You know the drill. Nothing that could alert themedia of our deployment. I’m just as sorry about that as all of you.164