So @
jhungary seeing that you've served as an APC Commander & then an Infantry Platoon Commander & later as a Ranger so a question if I may :
In the Pakistan Army the Officers appear to be circulated between different arms within the Army especially at higher posts for example you might find a career Special Services Operative heading a Paramilitary Arm of the Pakistan Army as its Director General as a Major General likewise you may find a Cavalry Commander serving as the Director General of the Intelligence Agency again as a Major General & there are other such examples too !
My question is - How prudent is that ? Isn't it better for those Arms to be headed by men who've (a) had the opportunity of serving between different Arms to get a deeper understanding of the Army as a whole till say the rank of a Colonel & then later on (b) they get to pick & stick with one single Arm so that when the time & the opportunity comes to be the head of that particular Arm (say the Armoured Corp) at the rank of a Major General they had the opportunity of understanding the ins & outs, the nuances, the dynamics (everything) of the particular Arm over a 10-15 year period as a dedicated (say !) Cavalry Commander !
Likewise for anyone aspiring to be the Chief of the Army or the Vice Chief of the Army or Chairman Joint Chief of Staff - They are thoroughly grilled & groomed for the job so that we don't end up with a Chief whose a Cavalry Commander or a Special Services Commander or an Artillery Commander first & then a Chief of the Army as a whole which is to say hes not skewed towards one side in terms of his understanding & appreciation of how & where every Arm of the Army fits in the grand scheme of War !
What do you think ?
Thanks, much obliged if you could answer it for me !
You too @
Joe Shearer if you can I'd appreciate it !
Usually when you are talking about position above Colonel, they are straightly Administation position, they do not require as much ins and outs of actually performing those task, most likely they are only for show.
Leadership on that field is no where as important as management skill to put it.
However, commander like this are usually groomed, by groomed i mean they are traditionally connect to the higher up on the generation before. Most of them have similar background, they almost always attended USMA. There are two reason behind this, 1.) You have to be really motivated to get in USMA instead of OCS in the first place. 2.) They taught a different course in USMA then in other institution.
And basically, the higher in rank you go, you are doing pretty much the same job with everybody. In the Military we have an old saying, as you progress in rank, you do less with better pay. Say if you command an infantry platoon, the different is larger and easier to see if you have a different background. Say the different between a Cavalrymen and an Infantrymen background. They taught you different tactics and different stragety in both course. Then when you progress thryu the rank, to Captain and command a whole commany,yes, maybe the different is still large enough to see, but when you talk about in Battalion level, Division level, Corp level or Command Level. The actual contribution is not as much as you as a platoon leader or Company commander. By then you need to widen your vision and you can no longer focus on a single thing yet.
That is why you are seeing command structure have commander coming from all over the place.
Of course you can say yeah commander with local background have advantage with commander who was transferred from another branch, but as the rank goes up and responsibility goes up, the different is actually going down.
Fact to the point is, places are limited, you need to know someone to get in, it does not matter how you do what you do, important things is you know someone.
By the way, i was never Army Ranger, i passed the course but they decided to send me else where. indeed I got a ranger tab but those bastard think i am better serve running erran for a female general. I thought i must have pissed off somebody, i don't know.
But man, you got to love the way you salute a woman everyday when you bring her the morning coffee, wait, i did that everyday with my wife......
