What It Takes to Be a Military Commander

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Requirements for joining the military
Basic training
Beyond basic training
ALI and AR-600-8-19
Hierarchy of the military
Marriage and the military life
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

The road to becoming a commander in the military hierarchy is both long and convoluted. This is partly because each journey has no precedents- how one attains that ultimate goal can never be likened to any other person’s rise. Although there are some basic guidelines along the way, most of the achievements of a commander are a function of the individual’s unique personality and experiences. But all military commanders tend to share a common trait: a strong drive towards perfectionism. Not surprisingly, considering all the hurdles they have to overcome to attain their status. To grasp the sheer amount of odds that one has to overcome to rise in the military hierarchy, it’s important to start at the beginning- the initial decision to join the military.

People join the army for different reasons. For some, the military defines a lifelong passion. For such, the army becomes a lifelong career, and the ultimate goal is usually to attain the highest position possible. For others, the military is but a halfway station- schools of thought that will enable them to handle other challenges in their post-military careers. For such, the ultimate goal is to attain certain skills in the military that will come in handy in their civilian lives later on. This latter group of people rarely last in the military for more than four years. And they usually join the army to hone some skill or other that they already possess. The US military, for example, offers over 800 specialized jobs. Of course, no one wishing to spend less than four years in the military can ever hope to make it to a commander status (Kelly, N.D.).

Requirements for joining the military

A person joining the US military has to decide which amongst three divisions is he or she going to join. The divisions are the regular army, the reserves, or the National Guard. The regular army division is further subdivided into enlisted soldiers, warrant officers, and commissioned officers. Usually, a local recruitment office facilitates the initial uptake. The basic requirement for any potential solder is at least a high school diploma, and physical fitness. The age range for recruits is 17 – 34 years within the US. With these in place, the potential solder then undergoes the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. In this, the solder has to get a minimum of 31 points to score to be fully accepted into the military. A potential warrant officer has to get a 110 point score in the general technical fraction of the test (Ed, 2008).

Basic training

Although further down the line, individual soldiers can choose their unique career paths, in the beginning, they all have to undergo basic training. This occurs during a nine-week training period during which the soldiers build up their physical and mental fitness. They also learn how obedience to their superiors, how to maintain and use their firearms, first aid, and other basics like map reading (Ed, 2008). Under the tutelage of strict drill sergeants, this basic training period is rarely perceived as easy, but all who persevere through to the end reap the benefits. Their personality is profoundly changed for the better, and usually, a strong bond develops between all soldiers who underwent the training together. Most individuals who’ve borne this basic training phase through to the end get to have a much more organized and disciplined life thereafter (Rod, N.D.).

Beyond basic training

After the basic training period, each individual is then free to choose a unique career path to pursue. The careers can be in the medical fields, artillery, engineering, and so on. As already said, the military has over 800 jobs on offer. In each of these fields, a person gunning for a fast promotion has to contend with certain realities. For one, some level upgrades are time-dependent – regardless of one’s qualifications and achievements, a certain period has to pass before the next level in the military hierarchy can be attained. Typical level upgrades in this respect include becoming a sergeant first class, master sergeant, and sergeant major. These level promotions consider how much time in the service and the particular grade has been spent by the individual (Tom, 2004). To facilitate this, an Automatic List Integration (ALI) Policy was put in place to bring individual solder’s promotion needs to the attention of unit-level leaders. For an individual to be thus promoted, his or her credentials need to be approved at both the unit and the army level. The unit recommends, and the army selects. The synchronicity between the two is crucial if a staff shortage at the upper army ranks is to be avoided.

ALI and AR-600-8-19

The Automatic List Integration Policy was instituted to reduce the ambivalence and subjectivity that promotion within the military previously suffered from. For example, sometimes, an individual would be fully qualified for a level upgrade, but subjective obstacles posed by the superiors could be proving a hindrance. Some militant commanders may suppress their subordinates by requiring unrealistic performance levels before they can agree to upgrade them. This, of course, is unauthorized and goes against the superior’s basic responsibility of developing their subordinates for the next level upgrade. It can get very frustrating for anybody wishing to rise to the next level. But with the ALI policy in place, such incidences have been reduced, and promotions within the military are more cognizant of individual performance (Tom, 2004).

The AR-600-8-19 is an army regulation whose policies govern the promotions or reductions of personnel within the military. Under this regulation, enlisted promotions or reductions are reliant on an individual’s overall performance, attitude, development potential, and leadership capability. If an individual has, from an ALI perspective, attained the time requirements needed to go to the next level, but is still deficient in other areas, he or she should undergo counseling, directed at those areas showing deficiency. If, on the other hand, an individual demonstrates exceptional performance, well ahead of peers, he or she becomes subject to a “secondary zone”, in which incentives for the extra performance are provided. An advance promotion can also be arranged for such an individual (Army, N.D.).

Hierarchy of the military

As an individual goes up the hierarchy, so do the corresponding responsibilities. In particular, the number of subordinates directly under the rising hierarchy increases. A lance corporal or a sergeant is at the lowest level in this hierarchy. He or she is in charge of a fire team, the smallest group in the military, comprised of four or five soldiers. Two fire teams make a crew or squad and are supervised by a corporal or staff sergeant. Several squads make a platoon or troop and are under a first or second lieutenant. The platoon or troops join up to make a company or squadron and are headed by a captain or major. The squadrons then make up a battalion and fall under the power of a lieutenant colonel. Three or four battalions form a regiment, controlled by a colonel. Several regiments then make a brigade, headed by a brigadier or colonel general. A division has several brigades, and a major general is in charge of it. The major general answers to a lieutenant general, who is in charge of the corps, made of several divisions. At the top of the hierarchy is the field marshal, who heads the whole army, made up of all the divisions around. The population of soldiers at this level is well over 60,000 (Nation Master, N.D.). The responsibilities at this level are enormous, and very few people ever attain the necessary capabilities that the status demands. Still, fewer get the actual status, for there are only a few field marshal positions available at any one time, worldwide.

Not all countries have all the hierarchy rungs listed above. Some do skip some levels. For example, in Canada, the hierarchy goes up only to the division level. In the UK, the battalion and the regiment are almost synonymous, status-wise. The words used for each level may also differ slightly, and a foreigner may get confused by the local implications of a word. But all this does little to subtract from the fact that the military operates on a hierarchical system, and up the ladder, the demands on the individual increase considerably (Nation Master, N.D.). The corresponding individual attributes also become more demanding. For example, towards the upper levels of the hierarchy, the individual, in addition to the discipline and leadership attributes, also needs to have accumulated political and diplomatic acumen. This is given the wider fields of influence that come to fall under such an individual – international relationships, warzone decisions, presidential advisory scenarios, etc.

Marriage and the military life

Other peripheral factors act upon every military individual. For example, marriages to anybody in the military can be hectic. This is because of the odd hours kept sometimes, and the frequent deployments that occur. The overall divorce cases within the military are significantly higher than those in the civilian US population, which are already at 50 %. A person dedicating his or her life to military life has to have these realities in focus, and be ready to deal with them. But there are some incentives that the military provides to offset these harsh realities. For example, it provides housing allowance for a married couple in the military. All the dependants of a member of the military are covered by the military medical system. Then, where the military member has to go abroad for prolonged periods, the government provides separation allowances to the families. But even with all these in place, it still takes significant dedication and perseverance for any family to survive the military lifestyle (Meredith, 2003).

Conclusion

By way of conclusion, there is no easy or clear-cut way to the top position in the military hierarchy. In fact, by any conventional standards, rising within the military hierarchy tests the individual’s will and resolve to the extreme. From the very first day in the military environment, the individual’s very perspective and personality are tested for validity and relevance. The ability to adapt to wildly varying conditions and terms is also put to the test. Rising from one grade to the next is a matter of overcoming odds daily. And though the colleagues do help each other’s morale through team spirit and such, ultimately, it is the individual unique attributes that count. Some people find the conditions imposed on them too stringent, and drop out. The basic training phase, lasting only 9 weeks on average, effectively gets rid of 40% of all people who join it. Thereafter, the individual performance and demonstrated potential act as guides in determining who rises to the next level. The competition and standards to be met get stiffer up the ladder. Anybody even remotely thinking of becoming a military commander hence has to be ready and equipped for total devotion to this noble goal.

Reference

Army.com (N.D.) Promotions and reductions. 2009. Web.

Ed Grabianowski 2008 How the US army works. Web.

Kelly Kilpatric (N.D.) Things to consider before joining the US military. 2009. Web.

Meredith Leyva Married to the Military: A Survival Guide for Military Wives, Girlfriends and Women in Uniform Simon and Schuster, 2003 pg 41- 44.

Nation Master (N.D.) Military unit. 2009. Web.

Rod Powers (N.D.) How to survive basic military training. 2009. Web.

Tom Gills, Sergeant Major 2004. Army Times It’s up to commanders. 2009. Web.

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