March 14, 2018.
Congratulations! You have been selected to attend the resident Command and General Staff Officer’s Course (CGSOC) at the US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC). This summer, you and a selected cohort of your peers will come to Fort Leavenworth to prepare for field grade officership. The time spent at the CGSC will be valuable and rewarding for most officers. They will seize the opportunity to prepare themselves for the challenges which lie ahead.
For a few officers, however, the CGSOC will be difficult and frustrating because they have false expectations, are unprepared, or both. This essay offers some modest advice to help future students avoid these frustrations. The first part addresses the most common false expectations and suggests a more realistic concept of what prospective students can expect. The second part suggests a few ways future students can prepare themselves for success.
Expectation Management
Many students arrive at Fort Leavenworth expecting a liberal arts education. The CGSC, however, is a professional school, not a liberal arts college. Understanding the difference is essential. Liberal arts programs offer a broad education across many fields. Professional programs, on the other hand, are a mix of education and training designed to prepare graduates for a specific career field.Examples of other professional programs are medicine, law, and architecture. The purpose of the CGSC is not to provide a broad education; instead, it is to educate and train officers in the profession of arms.
Professional schools combine theory and practical skills. A medical student, for example, learns the theoretical underpinnings of medicine, but he or she also learns practical skills like cutting and stitching. Similarly, the CGSOC combines theoretical concepts and practical skills. Like the medical student who must cut and stitch, the CGSOC student must apply learned knowledge by planning, preparing, executing, and assessing Army and Joint operations in a training environment.
Another distinguishing feature of professional programs is that they prepare graduates for professional credentialing—something which is of equal importance to earning a professional degree. Going back to the medical student example, a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree is of little use unless the graduate can pass the board exam and obtain a medical license. Similarly, the CGSC is accredited to grant the Master of Military Art and Science (M.M.A.S.) degree, but equally important is that students meet the credentialing requirements of Army and Joint professional military education (PME).
As a professional military program, the CGSOC curriculum emphasizes the application of Army and Joint doctrine. Some CGSOC students expect something similar to a business administration or security studies program. While these civilian fields of study are valuable to military professionals, they nevertheless do not fulfill the unique needs of PME. Students will take courses in history and leadership, as well as receive exposure to concepts from a variety of fields including international relations, strategy, and management. However, these elements are included so students understand the contexts within which they must apply Army and Joint doctrine to solve military problems.
Finally, some students struggle because they do not expect the CGSOC to be academically challenging. Make no mistake; CGSOC is a demanding, graduate-level program and students can expect to have a rigorous academic workload between in-class seminars and out-of-class study. Students will write continually throughout the course. Many students arrive at the CGSC unprepared or underprepared in this regard. Students will also be assigned plenty of reading and the old saying that “it’s only a lot of reading if you do it” does not hold water. It’s a lot of reading, period. Students are responsible for all reading assignments, and moreover, must demonstrate mastery of them by passing comprehensive written and oral examinations.
Preparing to Attend
The CGSOC is challenging for well-prepared students; arriving unprepared complicates an already stressful experience. Students who prepare before the course will benefit greatly. Here are a few areas future students should consider:
Physical Fitness. The first event of CGSOC, like any Army school, is an Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). The APFT usually takes place on a hot, humid Kansas summer morning. Students should arrive in good physical condition. Those who can barely pass the APFT under ideal conditions will fail in the Kansas heat.
Writing. The most common academic struggle for students is writing. Students will write nearly continuously throughout the year, and future students should polish up their writing skills before they arrive. Students should be able to write a basic argumentative essay; an introduction and thesis statement, major points supported by evidence, and conclusion.
Professional Knowledge. As previously stated, the CGSOC curriculum focuses heavily on understanding and applying Army and Joint doctrine. Students should familiarize themselves with the latest doctrinal manuals including JP 3-0 Joint Operations, JP 5-0 Joint Planning, FM 3-0 Operations, FM 6-0 Commander and Staff Organization and Operations, and ADRP 5-0 The Operations Process. Students should also familiarize themselves with the Joint Planning Process (JPP) and the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) as they will be required to not only participate in these processes but lead them.
Peer Leadership. Students are required to exercise peer leadership throughout the course. Many students are overly reliant on positional power (rank) to gain compliance. While this approach may have worked marginally well as a company commander, it will fail at the organizational level. Field grade officers must collaborate with peers, both at the CGSOC and beyond. Those who become brigade-level S3s or XOs, for example, will have to influence battalion commanders. Future students should reflect on their own leadership style and prepare themselves to lead outward and upward, not just downward.
Personal and Professional Planning. There are many personal and professional opportunities available to CGSC students. For example, students can earn an M.M.A.S., a civilian master’s degree, learn a language, earn an additional skill identifier (ASI), write for publication, compete for distinguished student awards, or just “take a knee” and spend time with family. There is a lot to choose from, but students must make these choices almost immediately upon arrival. Future students should research the available opportunities and plan before they arrive. Failure to do so may result in missed opportunities, or conversely, taking on too much.
The CGSOC is an important year which can be a professionally and intellectually rewarding. Your performance as a field grade officer in the years following the CGSOC will largely determine the course of the rest of your career. If you arrive prepared and with realistic expectations, along with a plan to develop yourself personally, professionally, and intellectually, you will have set the conditions for your own success.
Lieutenant Colonel Trent J. Lythgoe is a US Army aviation officer currently serving as an instructor at the US Army Command and General Staff College. He completed his key developmental time in 3rdCombat Aviation Brigade. LTC Lythgoe is currently pursuing a Political Science Ph.D. at the University of Kansas.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Command and General Staff