Major Milestone

Saturday, 12 July 2008
1300

I just returned from the post office after mailing in my last paper for ILE-CC Phase II (Intermediate Level Education – Core Curriculum). This is the course all field-grade officers must take from the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, in order to be eligible for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel (LTC).

When I got back in the Army Reserve in 2006 after a 13 year break in service, I was far behind in my military education. Nonetheless, due to my date of rank I was immediately tossed into the promotion pool. Being educationally unqualified means automatic non-selection, which in turn means career death.

Since I had made a decision to resume and finish out my military career, I had to get up to speed on my education as soon as possible. The first step was a course called CAX (Combined Arms Exercise), which apparently replaced CAS^3 (“CAS cubed” , for Combined Arms Services Staff School). It took several months for me to get into a class, but I got it done in June of 2006, and immediately enrolled in the next school, ILE-CC.

ILE-CC is much longer. For active-duty officers it is a ten-month resident school at Ft. Leavenworth. The Reserve version of the school consists of three phases – the first phase is a two-week resident school, done as an annual training cycle. The second phase is a year’s worth of weekend class sessions, done in addition to or in lieu of regular Reserve drill. Phase III is another two-week resident school, done as a second annual training cycle. Alternatively, there is an online version of the school. You are allowed to take the phases in combination as well – I have heard that some people do Phases I and III resident, but do Phase II online.

In my case, knowing I had to finish as soon as possible, I registered for the online version. It turned out to be a good thing, because I was mobilized soon afterwards and have been deployed ever since. It’s been challenging to get the courses done, particularly when I first got here and was overwhelmed by all the work that had to be done. Once I got a better handle on things at work, I was able to dedicate more time to getting the classes done and my progress has been steadier.

When I first got back in and read the regulations and policies, the rule for promotion was that in order to be eligible for consideration you had to be enrolled in the course and request a military education waiver. If you were selected for promotion, you would come out on the promotion list but not be eligible to actually pin on the new rank and move to the next grade until the course was completed.

Unbeknownst to me, they changed this policy before last year’s promotion board. When I got my board letter, it informed me that in order to be eligible for a military education waiver, you had to have finished Phase II. There was no way I could have it done in time for the 2007 board, and so I went into the board as “Not Educationally Qualified” and was not selected for promotion.

Now that I have finished Phase II (finally, nine papers later!) I am eligible to request an education waiver and can be considered by this year’s LTC promotion board. (Well, I will be eligible once I get back the last couple of grade reports and my official Phase II completion notice).

Phase III was just a few online courses and a final exam, and so I was optimistic that I’d be able to actually finish the entire course and be qualified for promotion without a waiver – but it turns out that was not to be.

Yesterday I requested online access to Phase III, so that I could get started on the classes this morning. They granted me access, but the course has changed. This is good news and bad news, in a way.

Because I originally enrolled in June 2006, I was enrolled in an older curriculum that had not been updated to reflect new doctrine. It’s been “interesting” to work on some of the modules, when the online references were outdated and the doctrine was not current. I got to the point where I just refused to use the outdated online references and instead used the newer manuals (which are all available online from DOD websites). I figured this approach was better for my actual military education, even if it meant I was not directly in line with the courses as written. It ended up working out fine.

Today, however, when I got access to Phase III, they informed me that the curriculum I was in previously has now been “archived”, and they have enrolled me in the later, updated curriculum. From the standpoint of military education, this is great. I am actually working on the latest doctrine, with current operational examples and relevant exercises.

Unfortunately, however, it is not just the content and references that changed, but also the course structure. Instead of just online classes and a final exam, Phase III now consists of several online classes with exams, two classes with written assignments (more papers!) and a comprehensive end-of-course exercise that also requires a written submission.

The upshot of this is that even if I could get all this done in time (which would be extremely challenging given that I am still deployed and approaching the end of my tour), there is no way the written submissions could be graded and returned to me in time to get the results to the promotion board.

So I will definitely be requesting an educational waiver, and working on these new classes and assignments as time permits. I just want to be FINISHED!

Now that I have mailed in the last paper for Phase II, it is time to open up my promotion board file (which ought to be visible by now) and make sure it is up to date and accurate. That in itself can be a process, and it is now my priority, since the deadline for submissions is 25 August. I’ve known this was coming, but had to complete Phase II of ILE first, for the board file even to be relevant. As my kids’ mother always used to say to them: “First things first, next things next”.

It’s been interesting to walk around here as a 49-year-old Major (I sometimes imagine myself in the role of MAJ Harvey Stovall, Gregory Peck's adjutant in the movie "Twelve O'Clock High") .

I was promoted at age 33 and got out of the Army only a year later. Now my peers who stayed in are mostly either retired LTC’s or active as full Colonels. It doesn’t really bother me – you play the hand you’re dealt, and this one is a result of choices I made that seemed best at the time. I’ve gotten a couple of very good evaluations here, so I hope the promotion board will look at those and decide that this superannuated Major is a good candidate for promotion to LTC. In any case, it’s good to have passed a major milestone so that I can at least be considered.

Now that I think of it, perhaps I should have titled this entry “LTC Milestone” . :-)


Mood: Upbeat
Music: Carl Stamitz – Clarinet Concerto No. 7