He recognized the glass ceiling artificially imposed by allowing women to serve in field artillery, but prohibiting them from critical developmental positions necessary for promotion. Ten years ago, my Brigade Commander took a leap of faith and assigned women as cannon platoon leaders before the Army authorized him to do so. This “combat arms only” policy not only limits the talent pool for this critical position, it also prevents women from serving as SMSIs until we grow combat arms women into senior noncommissioned officers. At the same time, a non-combat arms NCO– a truckmaster, for example– who spent the last decade serving in a variety of leadership positions with multiple combat tours lacks the qualifications to share his or her leadership and experience with future Army officers. Even though this NCO lacks current operational experience, their military occupational specialty and rank automatically qualifies them to serve in this important position. How does this policy look in action? An air defender who spent the last two years as a first sergeant in a unit that did not deploy and before that, served in recruiting for three years, qualifies to serve as SMSI. This policy also excludes other non-combat arms leaders who may have more relevant leadership and operational experience than their combat arms counterparts. The pipeline to produce women of sufficient rank and experience within combat arms is lengthy, which means combat arms women won’t fill these positions for nearly another decade. The policy prohibiting women from serving in combat arms branches was fully rescinded in 2016, just four years ago. However, the Army lacks senior women in these ranks due to our own policies that existed since the redcoats and colonial militia first exchanged gunfire at Lexington and Concord. However, we must allow non-combat arms NCOs to fill these critical leadership positions– which have high selection rates for promotion and US Army Sergeants Major Academy attendance– to ensure sufficient representation of senior women leaders to influence the next generation of Army officers.Īll 274 of these positions at universities and colleges throughout the United States are coded combat arms.
The scarcity of senior NCO women currently available to fill these positions is due to the nascent policy permitting their service in combat arms.
This prohibition stems from the codification of combat-arms MOS for all SMSI positions within USACC. The views represented herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the DoD or its components.īy Cassie Crosby Due to selection bias for combat-arms noncommissioned officers, women are functionally prohibited from serving as Senior Military Science Instructors (SMSI), the senior noncommissioned officer position in an Army ROTC battalion within US Army Cadet Command (USACC).
0 kommentar(er)
