The Army’s New Advisory Units Don’t Need the Best Officers, They Need the Right Ones
Rick Montcalm | December 7, 2017
Soon, officers being considered for assignment to future security force assistance brigades (SFABs) will be assessed before being placed on orders. In contrast, officers in the 1st SFAB were hand-selected and assigned to the unit—a significant investment in talent that reflects the priority Army leadership is giving to the SFAB mission. The 1st SFAB got the best officers each branch had to offer. But such a model will likely prove unsustainable as five more SFABs are stood up and with competing demands across the force for the same pool of leaders. Further, “best†does not necessarily mean “right†for the advisory mission.
And so, the SFABs are adopting an assessment program to select officers. The 1st SFAB already utilizes an assessment and selection process for enlisted volunteers, which largely aims to validate job-specific skills. And, it appears to work: roughly one-third of enlisted candidates are not selected. Officers in the 1st SFAB have participated in a similar validation, but were already relocated to Fort Benning and assigned to the unit beforehand. So as the SFABs become true all-volunteer organizations, the assessment model will become the critical mechanism to ensure units have the right people for the task.
https://mwi.usma.edu/armys-new-advisory-units-dont-need-best-officers-need-right-ones/
