Military Review English Edition July-August 2014 | Page 8
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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.