TRADOC chief: Leader development needs work

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TRADOC chief: Leader development needs work
By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Feb 28, 2009 10:31:41 EST

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Army needs to improve its leadership development, particularly the way it grows senior leaders, the top man at Training and Doctrine Command says.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, who has been at the helm at TRADOC for less than three months, says backlogs in officer education at every level indicate the Army’s Force Generation model is out of alignment with current assignment patterns.

Wartime demands that extend command tour lengths to match with deployment cycles cause 40-month tours in some cases. Captains and majors are being kept longer in S-3 or executive officer positions.

That means fewer officers are passing through command, but the long-term effect may not be fully understood yet, he said.

“We are literally developing fewer officers who then become the pool to compete to become the most senior officers because we’re not passing as many people through command to the extent that command is a key developmental experience,” Dempsey said. “We may come to the decision that’s ok, but I want to come to that decision understanding what is the long-term effect, how does someone become competitive to be the chairman of the joint chiefs.”


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/army_dempsey_022809w/%2e