CLC3: Looking back

As I look back over the past six months, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I learned a lot and became a  more ... "secure" in being a captain. I also understand better what the staff functions are and how they interact. And from phase 1 I at least know what references are out there in case I need to look something up.

On the other hand, I regret that there wasn't more to learn. In phase 2, especially, we wasted a lot  of time going over unit capabilities without any sort of overarching purpose. I remember drifting through blocks of instruction thinking, "Ok, that's nice trivia to know, but why should I bother trying to remember this?"

I've heard it said that this situation is because the branch commandants (generals) are responsible for the material we study, rather than the ALU colonel. That might explain why we had to study inter-magazine distances and maintenance site selection, despite the fact we will (with a 99% probability) *NEVER* have to do those things.

And while the LEX and the ICOS were good exercises, they focus the course exclusively on the SPO shop. Very little of the course addresses three other staff jobs a logistics captain might likely hold -- S-4, S-3 (in a combat sustainment support battalion), and company commander.

Concern about the last position is dismissed out of hand because "the next location you'll be at will have a week-long company commander's course." Right -- 20 weeks for staff, but only one week for command. OK.

Yet of all these complaints, the single, most glaring oversight in the development of this course is the dearth of case studies. If the Army is serious about officers being real "leaders," there has to be a greater emphasis on situational decision making. It's one thing to have regulations (even if very few know them), but how do you balance the ethics of a real leadership decision?

So here I am, going off to my new position, with the sneaking sense that I'm only somewhat prepared to be a SPO in a CSSB.