Just Because the Army Says You Are a Career Field 59 (Strategic Plans and Policy) It Does Not Mean You Are a Strategist

Before anyone thinks I don’t know from whence I speak, when I retired in 2009 I was a Functional Area 59.  I was a good planner but I was not a Strategist.  I never pretended I was.

I hope this offends every Army Officer out there who indicates in their signature block they are Strategists.  I hate to break the news to you just because you work in the Career Field Strategic Plans and Policy does not make you a Strategist.  You might think that you two years of graduate school, ILE (aka CGSC), School of Advance Military Study (SAMS) and grand experience of ten years in the Army make you a strategist.  Guess what, not!

So who are strategists?  First, let’s begin by defining the term.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is defined as “a person skilled in planning action or policy, esp. in war or politics; or a person skilled in planning action or policy, esp. in war or politics.”

I sorry—but the majority of the Majors, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels working in Strategic Plans and Policy are not Strategists—they may think themselves as being Strategists, but the reality is at most they are well trained Action Officers, at worst they are great power point slides bitches.  They are great folks don’t get me wrong—but they aren’t Strategists.

There are very few strategists in the Army today.  There have been some notable Strategists in our past, Washington, Grant, Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Abrams, Nimitz, and Powell.  Notice absent from that list Lee—great Operational Commander, Patton ditto, Westmoreland Strategic and Operational failure.  Generals Petraeus and Dempsey, Mathis are Strategists; most of our other Generals and Admirals can work at the Strategic level, can proffer operational advice, but are not Strategists.

Do we need big thinkers who are Strategists, yeah; but we also need folks who know how to put together solid plans and orders; who know how to synchronize and integrate.  Unfortunately saying the career field they operate in is Strategic Plans and Policy creates a false expectation in the minds of those in the career field and outside they are strategists.  This is not only wrong; it is potentially dangerous as we may find young men and women proffering advice as a strategist that is shallow and dangerous to the nation.

I am sure that when Functional Area (FA) 59 was created no one realized the second and third order effects of calling it Strategic Plans and Policy.  So before we create big problems in the Army, let’s fix it once and for all times.

1.  Rename it Operations, Plans, and Policy

2.  Start all off as a 59A.  Initial assignments at the Brigade or Division.

3.  Based on efficiency reports assign some to 59B Operations—these are men and women who will work on developing Contingency Plans at the Brigade, Division, Corps, Theater Army, and at HQDA level.  Assign others 59C to Joint and Combined planning billets and Theater Army and HQDA Strategic Plans cells.

4.  Finally at the 16 to 20 year mark select Lieutenant Colonels will appear in person before a selection board to be an Army Strategist.

a.  Prior to appearing before the board those selected will take a written examination.

b.  The board will be composed of individuals selected by the Chief of Staff, will review the examination and then subject the candidates to an oral interview.

c.  Upon the conclusion the board will select a predetermined number to be moved to a new functional area Army Strategist.

d.  These individuals will then attend advance civil schooling and attend either a domestic or foreign war college.

e.  In return those selected to be Army Strategists will agree to remain in the Army until they have completed thirty years active service as a commissioned officer.  Army Strategists will be managed as determined by the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.