Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 8

6 July-August 2014  MILITARY REVIEW Photo from U.S. Army Cadet Command engage forward and maneuver strategically with its Corps (ROTC) Cadets with USARAF country desk partners. As Field Manual 3-22, Army Support to officers who accompanied the cadets to Lesotho, Security Cooperation, states: Zambia, Djibouti, Uganda, and Italy. According to Maj. Whether providing humanitarian assistance Christopher D. Sturm, International Army Programs training in Southeast Asia, providing moliaison to USARAF, the skills, experiences, and culbile training teams in Africa, or developing tural awareness the cadets gained would provide an interoperability with European partners and important baseline for their future positions.3 Sturm regional security organizations, the Army as said, “Ultimately, our Army is stronger in the near and part of the joint force conducts security coopfar term because of engagements like this.”4 The Cadet eration activities to help shape the environOverseas Training Mission is one small example of how ment and prevent unstable situations from cadets can gain experience that will prepare them to escalating into conflict, in support of comapply strategic landpower. Such programs should be batant commanders and to achieve national expanded. security objectives.2 Against this backdrop, what skills will Army leaders Science, Technology, Engineering, need? How can the Army develop leaders who will and Mathematics achieve success in applying strategic landpower? The The Army’s approach to recruiting and trainanswer is to start as early as possible in a leader’s career. ing cadets has much room for improvement; it has Future Army leaders need to gain critical skills as changed little in 20 years. The ROTC program should cadets, when education can lay a foundation in science, entice elite students and ensure the Army gets the technology, engineering, mathematics, languages, and best possible return on its investment. Currently, world cultures. Cadets need to use those skills from the the main incentive is college scholarships, but career beginning of their careers. fields are not guaranteed. Cadets take Army ROTC To manage the talent it will need, the Army should classes in addition to their chosen area of study. Near ask in what ways education, experiences, and training the end of their senior year, they are assigned a basic during college will prepare cadets to apply strategic landpower as officers. The strategic landpower concept can guide how the Army prepares its officers during their undergraduate study and their initial years of service. The Army already has taken some steps toward preparing new second lieutenants for future assignments, but it should improve how it recruits students and manages their careers as officers. In August 2013, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, U.S. Army Africa (USARAF), and U.S. Army Cadet Command cooperated to provide cultural understanding and leadership A cadet practices tactic s and movement while on a Cultural Understanding Language development to a group of caProficiency (CULP) mission to Lithuania in 2013. The cadets trained with the Lithuanian dets. The new program embedded military, taught conversational English, participated in humanitarian outreach projects, and three Reserve Officer Training learned about local culture, values, and language.