Military Review English Edition January-February 2017 | Page 101

CADET COMMAND

Leadership Innovation
in the Reserve Officer
Training Corps and the
Future of the Force
Col. Andrew Morgado, U.S. Army
Material solutions alone will not provide the decisive edge
against the complex array of rapidly adapting threats we face.
To answer the challenge of this new paradigm, the Army must
invest in its most valuable resource, its people.
—Lt. Gen. Robert B. Brown

T

he number one priority in the U.S. Army
Cadet Command is to produce second lieutenants who contribute to what Lt. Gen. Robert
Brown refers to as the Army’s “decisive edge” and meet
the Army’s requirements in an increasingly complex
world. The 2014 U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a
Complex World (AOC) clearly asserts that the operating
environment is changing and so must the Army.1 The
Army’s Cadet Command produces over 70 percent of
the total officer corps through its programs, and it provides fertile ground to grow the Army of tomorrow.2
This contribution to the force constitutes a significant
portion of the leaders who will drive this change in
the force. My brigade, one of eight that lead Reserve
Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs across the
country, is responsible for identifying, training, educating, and inspiring these future officers. Each day, we

Army ROTC cadets of the Blue Devil Eagle Battalion welcome the
Cadet Command deputy commanding officer, Col. Brian J. Mennes,
to Duke University for classroom instruction in officership 3 October
2014 in Durham, North Carolina. During the school year, cadets receive multidisciplinary instruction on leadership, ethics, behavioral
sciences, and tactics. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Army ROTC)
MILITARY REVIEW  January-February 2017

are learning and adapting our approach and methods
to produce the leaders who are capable of meeting and
overcoming the challenges of tomorrow.
As our operating environment changes, the Army
must consider how to adapt its approach in educating
and developing the leaders that will guide the institution
through this change. The pace and type of change the
AOC describes indicate that many of the current training
and education models are becoming irrelevant. Times are
changing, and college and university ROTC programs
must change with the times to stay relevant. Though
the Cadet Command program has produced officers for
an Army that is the envy of the world, the limitations
of the current program are growing more apparent.
Understanding what the AOC demands of future leaders
must form the foundation for further action to help
reduce or eliminate those limitations. Therefore, Cadet
Command—with a national presence in over 270 host
institutions and over a thousand partnered colleges—is
shifting its training strategy from one largely based on
post-World War II models, which are narrowly focused
on one type of conflict, to one designed to meet more
varied challenges reflective of the times.3

Army Operating Concept Vision
The AOC suggests future conflict will be characterized by an increased velocity and momentum of human
interaction. One of the effects of this new dynamic is that
future enemies will seek to leverage these interactions by
drawing U.S. forces into more complex urban terrain together with other strategies aimed at generally negating
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