Quote:
Originally Posted by Brush Okie
Even in a regular unit I was taught the basics of leadership starting in Basic and AIT. Later it was formally taught in PLDC. Notice the L it stands for leadership. I used the lessons learned about leadership when I became a medic and was leading several people in a rescue operation to save people lives on a daily basis.
|
Perhaps the LT should have been more precise in his article and stated the new PL has likely had more formal leadership training than most of the soldiers in his platoon. I offer for consideration the following viewpoint.
Most soldiers will receive a good deal of informal leadership training shortly after taking the oath and joining the Army. Formal, centralized enlisted leadership training (i.e., TRADOC run) occurs at Warrior Leader Course (formally PLDC), which typically comes after 2-4 years of service when a soldier attains the rank of E-4 and assumes the role of a fire team leader (speaking from an Infantry perspective). This training runs just over 1 month. The next formal NCOES course is the Advanced Leader Course (formally BNCOC), attended by E-5s and E-6s with anywhere from 5-7 years of service, and runs 4-6 weeks (for 11Bs and 11Cs, respectively) and is a combination of leadership and MOS advanced skills training. The Senior Leader Course (formally ANCOC) runs around 7 weeks for E-6s and E-7s.
Before a new LT ever receives his commission , he has received formal leadership training for several hours a week for nearly 4 years. In other words, as an entry-level leader, he has received 400+ hours of formal leadership training in operations from fire team to platoon level. Time-wise, that's longer than WLC and ALC combined, and incorporates the same command level of operations as SLC (maneuvering multiple squads, IPB, MDMP, writing orders, incorporation of the platoon in company-level combined arms operations, etc.).
Again, speaking from an Infantry-perspective, the new LT then attends 17 weeks of IBOLC, which like ALC and SLC is a combination of leadership and MOS skills training. All this training occurs before he ever reports to his initial unit assignment. He'll likely then attend two months of Ranger School for even more demanding leadership training.
So, in truth the brand new rifle platoon leader has a great deal of formal leadership training, more even (time-wise) than any of his NCOs, individually. What the new PL actually lacks is the hard-earned, combined years of invaluable experience held by his NCOs, which can never be adequately replaced by some training course. These combined decades of experience are critical to successfully leading a platoon, and why a PL absolutely depends on his NCOs to advise and guide him in the finer points of platoon leadership. This is the sentiment 1LT Ginther alluded to in the first point of his article, but fell a bit short in clearly expressing in his second point.