OPMS XXI changes officer career paths

Army, Jul 1997

Under Officer Personnel Management System (OPMS) XXI, scheduled to become effective October 1, fieldgrade officers will compete for advancement within a career field created by the new system instead of within their year group, according to Army officials.

For officers on a single track in a functional area outside their branch, the new system will allow them "a reasonable opportunity" to be promoted to colonel or even general without battalion command time, according to Maj. Gen. David H. Ohle, director of the OPMS XXI task force, who said such officers currently have little chance of making colonel without coming up through the command track.

Although some senior officers will be "grandfathered" into the current system, the OPMS XXI plan calls for officers to be selected for a career track in one of four groups after their selection for promotion to major.

Army officials said that OPMS XXI also will create seven new functional areas: space operations, Army science, simulations, information operations, strategic intelligence, force development and human resource management. The largest of the four career fields created by OPMS XXI will be the operational career field, which will consist of officers who remain in branch assignments, regardless of whether the assignment is in combat arms, combat support or combat service support, and which Army officials said will be virtually the only career field in which officers will have the chance for battalion or brigade command. Officials said that about 65 percent of the Army's officers will go into the operational career field; the rest will be tracked in one of the other three career fields:

Information operations, which includes space operations, information systems officers, automation system engineers, simulations officers, public affairs officers, information operations officers and strategic intelligence officers.

Operational support, which includes foreign area officers and Army Acquisition Corps officers.

Army management, which includes comptrollers, human resource managers, operations research and systems analysis officers, permanent military academy professors, Army scientists, strategy and force development officers and nuclear weapons officers.

Officers will still choose a functional area as captains at the five-year mark under OPMS XXI, according to Gen. Ohle, who said that about 90 percent of all captains will command a company under the new system.

Advanced schooling also will change under OPMS XXI.

According to Gen. Ohle, plans are for all officers to attend a residence Command and General Staff College (CGSC) course at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., because officers who take the nonresidence CGSC feel they are at a career disadvantage. Gen. Ohle said he has recommended that the Army Management Staff College be moved from Fort Belvoir, Va., to be collocated with the CGSC. He added that within the next three or four years, the Combined Arms and Services Staff School will be discontinued and its material included in the Officer Advanced Course.

Gen. Ohle told Army officials that the downside to the new system will be that fewer battalion commanders could be promoted; however, the idea of the new system is to select the right officer for the right job.

According to Army officials, under OPMS XXI, the top officer in each functional area should ideally come up through the ranks in that functional area. For example, the director of the Army budget should be a comptroller. "We are trying to build that base of experience in all functional areas that need it," Gen. Ohle said. Career field-based professional development is one of the many changes to be instituted under OPMS XXI, and briefing teams are currently visiting Army units and installations worldwide to explain the new system.

Bosnia Troop Strength Could Increase.

Gen. George A. Joulwan, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, said NATO could increase its Operation Joint Guard force in Bosnia by up to 3,000 troops during the elections scheduled for September. As of this writing, it was not yet determined whether more American troops would be part of the operation's reinforcements. The United States has set a ceiling of 8,500 troops in Bosnia. Gen. Joulwan said the 34 nations participating in the operation have been informed that 2,000 to 3,000 additional soldiers could be needed for the election period. Decisions will be made during a NATO six-month review of the operation.

MPs Set Million-Mile Mark in Bosnia.

The 519th Military Police (MP) Battalion task force (Task Force 519) currently serving Bosnia has rolled up a million miles of driving since it deployed to support Operation Joint Endeavor/Joint Guard in August 1996. The task force is based at Camp Colt in Bosnia.

Mileage is recorded on computers for dispatch purposes, and the unit kept close watch as the million-mile mark approached. Battalion coins were given to the driver and team that put the task force over the mark. The MPs patrol the zone of separation in Bosnia. During the task force's deployment, only one of its vehicles has been heavily damaged, hitting a mine in February. No Task Force 519 soldiers thus far have been seriously injured.