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Officers’ career path to be overhauled

A major overhaul of promotions, evaluations, professional development timelines and other key features of the Officer Personnel Management System will result from a review underway now.

Changes to the core components will be controversial because they will break with long-held traditions and practices, said Col. Chris Robertson, chief of the Officer Personnel Management System Task Force. The changes will take time, he said.

Personnel officials say that as the operating tempo and the press of deployments subside over the next couple of years, it’s almost certain officers will see major changes in the OPMS, particularly at the grades of captain through lieutenant colonel.

A key issue for the OPMS Task Force is injecting flexibility into a promotion system that has a rigid timeline, requiring officers to meet certain schooling and assignment gates on each rung of the promotion ladder.

“What we’re looking at is how to get off the treadmill of time and give officers opportunities for personal, educational and developmental goals that may not fit easily into the classic career tracks of the past,” Robertson said.

While there are some provisions of federal law that contribute to the rigidity of the current system, such as the requirement to manage by year-groups, there are few requirements for promotion.

For example, Title 10 of the U.S. Code requires officers to have a bachelor’s degree and complete a branch basic course for advancement to captain; have three years time-in-grade for promotion to major and lieutenant colonel, and complete Phases 1 and 2 of Joint Professional Military Education to attend a senior service college as a colonel and for promotion to brigadier general.

The Army sets other milestones for promotion, such as company command; Intermediate Level Education; S3 and executive officer assignments; battalion command and branch-specific developmental assignments, and these are extremely time-sensitive.

Robertson said any shift away from the lock-step career tracks of today will require the Army to modify the year-group management system in which officers are lumped together with their commissioning contemporaries throughout their careers.

A more flexible system

A shift will require a change in law, but will allow for a more flexible system by lifting rigid timelines.

“What we envision is something like earning a college degree, in which people have different timelines for achieving their goal,” Robertson said. “For example, one person may want to earn that degree in three years, another in four and yet another in five.”

Officers would be required to complete certain core requirements, like the Captains Career Course for captains vying for promotion, and a branch-specific developmental assignment and an “elective” assignment outside their branch.

However, in meeting those requirements, officers would not be on a tight timeline, and could qualify for promotion over a span of time, perhaps three to seven years.

While the tactical competency of today’s officer corps is widely recognized, Defense Department and Army leaders say increased educational opportunities and assignment experiences are needed to build a more agile and adaptive force.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed the service secretaries to look toward the development of more flexible promotion systems.

Sources note that because of the Army’s cultural mindset that “the more tactical experience the better,” some commanders have extended officers with tactical units at the expense of denying them schooling or career-broadening assignments.

Selection for promotion under this system will continue to be based on performance and potential, and probably will be supported by the fielding of a new officer evaluation reporting system.

The current OER was fielded in the late 1990s, and Army officials say it is beginning to show its age, and should be looked at for revision in early 2011, after Human Resources Command consolidates its various components at Fort Knox, Ky., Robertson said.