Category Archives: Branching

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Field Artillery – Beyond the Howizter

A #BranchSeries Piece

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The Field Artillery (FA) Branch is a great branch for junior officers to develop personally and professionally. The FA branch offers assignment diversity from the typical staff job or platoon leader position, as compared to other branches. It also offers lieutenants the ability to serve in positions that have effects at echelons above their peers. The FA branch is only growing as the U.S. Army focuses more on the importance of fires on the battlefield.

Soldiers conduct field artillery certifications at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Dec. 8, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Beggs)
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Confessions of an Indecisive Cadet

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Branching is a ridiculously difficult decision for any cadet. As a rising senior in Army ROTC combatting an admittedly limited point of view, I am conflicted. So, I tweeted a thread of thoughts to better understand my own thinking and perhaps receive some feedback. The response from #MilTwitter was fantastic. 

Able Company, 1-506 ‘Red Currahee’ finished Company STX strong and went right into Platoon Live Fire. (U.S. Army Photo)
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Regardless of Branch

Trends Across #BranchSeries

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Over the past few weeks we re-ran #BranchSeries that originally published last summer (2018). Each post was unique in its own way and highlighted the individual leader’s, purposefully focused and tailored, take on their branch. Every branch, in the original series, was accompanied by an interview with a senior officer at the U.S. Army War College by Lopez on Leadership. While #BranchSeries intentionally focused on each branch as separate from the whole, there were some clear trends. Here is a look at a few expectations of a junior leader that transcend any one individual branch.

B Co, 1-21 IN soldier conducting day and night live fire exercises. U.S. Army photo by Specialist Cooper.
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Securing Victory…Or Maybe Just Embracing Chaos

#BranchSeries - Civil Affairs

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In the Spring of 2007 I was a cadet at a small military school tucked away in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont. I was much more interested in being anywhere aside from the mandatory “rented crowd” at a military writer’s symposium. I was likely thinking of just about anything other than the topics being discussed. What could I learn from authors discussing topics that bore no relation to my future job as a Platoon Leader? The irony of how naïve I was then is quite comical. Finally, a guest speaker started to discuss his experiences in Iraq. He talked about how his Soldiers used diplomacy, negotiation, and relationships to target threat networks to win over the populace. I was hooked.

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To Conserve Fighting Strength

#BranchSeries - Medical Service Corps

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Three years of grueling effort in ROTC came down to this one decision – my branch. Up to that point, my experience was solely in small unit, infantry tactics. Since Infantry was not an option for females at that time, I felt a bit lost. The lack of tangible experience, and basic knowledge, about other branches made this decision more difficult. The idea of making an uninformed decision, one that would impact my entire career in the Army, was daunting. For whatever reason, I ended up selecting Medical Service Corps and embarked on an adventure unknown.

Soldiers of A Co, 2-502D IN, 101st ABN DIV (AASLT) provide light for medics and the BN Surgeon to treat a Soldier wounded by an IED while the MEDEVAC helicopter lands in the background. Picture taken on 08 OCT 2010 by American Photo Journalist Erin Trieb. See her other work at http://www.erintrieb.com.
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Can You Hear Me Now?

#BranchSeries - Signal Corps

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A Signal Corps officer’s success, much like any leader, depends greatly on his or her ability to create effective teams. Bending an organization to the will of the leader stifles junior leader initiative. It fails to maximize the positive and dynamic impact of junior and senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs). These leaders, when actively engaged, create forward organizational momentum. Leaders do this by creating a family-centric team and engaging individuals on a personal level. As a young Lieutenant (1st Lt.) serving at Fort Bragg as the 519th MI BN S6, this is the greatest lesson I had the privilege of learning from my Battalion Commander. Then Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.) Joshua Fulmer created a robust team that was able to push the organization into new heights by making subordinate leaders feel necessary.

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Money, Money, Money…MONEY!

#BranchSeries - Finance

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If your ROTC experience was anything like mine, by the time you leave college you could consider yourself a “T” [trained] at packing a ruck sack, taking a PT test, and performing a squad attack. You may also have had a majority of combat arms instructors tell you all about leading Soldiers and the “Real Army”. If you can relate to that experience, do not worry, you are not alone. As you skim through the list of branches available to rank order (or have already been chosen for you), there may be some less obvious branches listed. By the time I was a junior I had figured out what the S1 through S6 shops did, but Finance wasn’t one of my battalion’s “S Shops”. So, when Finance came up as my basic branch assignment, my first question was, what does a finance lieutenant do?

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It Chose Me

#BranchSeries - Adjutant General Corps

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My journey to becoming an officer is a little different from most. I was an enlisted Soldier, reaching the rank of Sergeant First Class before I made the decision to commission. I had numerous leaders over the course of this time that tried to encourage me to go Green to Gold, but I was dead set on becoming a Drill Sergeant (DS). At 10 years of service, my dream of becoming a DS finally became a reality in Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Shortly after arriving to DS assignment at Fort Sam Houston Texas, the Army made the decision to discontinue the DS program in AIT. So there I was, DS Washington, finally doing the one thing I had dreamed of since joining the military, and it was getting stripped away from me!

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X Factor: The Force Multiplier

#BranchSeries - Chemical Corps

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Congratulations, you have been selected to serve in the Chemical Branch. That is great news for leaders with science degrees that listed the Chemical Corps in their top preferred branches. To Bachelors of Arts leaders, getting this news can be intimidating. Newly selected Chemical officers will immediately reflect back to how they felt after their last mask-confidence (“gas”) chamber or after their last chemistry exam. But, fear not! There is good news. There is a lot more leadership than science when becoming the X Factor for your unit.

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Not Quite James Bond…But Close

#BranchSeries - Military Intelligence

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There is a misconception about “Military Intelligence” (MI) by those outside the military. They often imagine a scene from a spy movie. Instead of picturing the action-packed climax of a spy movie, rewind to where the field agent receives the mission brief. In addition to the agent, there is usually a reliable handler, know-it-all analyst, and aggressive chief. Don’t be fooled! An MI Officer can be any of these roles, but most often would be the know-it-all analyst. Being MI means that you utilize all intelligence assets to provide an assessment that guides action to achieve an objective. These skills allow you to save lives and be relevant at any scale. If you want a career that is purposeful, pivotal, and challenging, MI is the right choice for you.