Mentorship: The Strategic Cost of Growing the Brigade Combat Team.

摘要

The current budgetary constraints on the Department of Defense only exacerbate an increasing concern over long-term officer professional development in this era of persistent conflict. Looming budget shortfalls are forcing the Army to reduce overall force structure. Concern has been raised over how to conduct this force reduction without losing the resiliency of the combat-tested officer corps. One of the proposals in the current debate over how to reduce Brigade Combat Team numbers in the Army is to cross-level maneuver battalions from deactivating brigades to give each Brigade Combat Team an additional maneuver battalion, in essence increasing the size of the remaining brigades to seven organic battalions. However, this monograph contends that adding a maneuver battalion could have an adverse effect on the long-term professional development of the junior officers within the Brigade Combat Team. The high operational pace of the Brigade Combat Team, coupled with the increased span of control placed on the brigade commander who now employs six organic battalions, could be further strained with an additional maneuver battalion made up of four companies. The commander will have to stretch the most important element in leader development, time, to meet the new demands on the enhanced brigade. The monograph establishes the importance that mentorship had in the professional development of Army strategic leaders of the past, and the continued importance it has in developing today's leaders, primarily junior officers in the position of company commander. The first part of the monograph focuses on the following historical military leaders: Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, George C. Marshall, and George Patton. The second part of the monograph focuses on the implications of leader development through mentorship if the Army adds an additional maneuver battalion to the existing force structure of the Brigade Combat Team.