Turning logistics lieutenants into multifunctional leaders

Signing into a new unit as a second lieutenant is a challenging and exciting time for a leader. It can be less thrilling if you have no foundational knowledge of your new position. Unfortunately, this has been the case for many lieutenants who have completed basic officer leader courses (BOLCs) at Fort Lee, Virginia.

According to its chairman, the Basic Officer Leader Department (BOLD) trains about 1,900 lieutenants every year. It focuses on preparing junior officers for their first assignments. Before the implementation of BOLC Common Logistics (Common Log) at the Army Logistics University (ALU), lieutenants were not prepared for the realities that they experienced during their first four years in the Army, which is when many junior officers work outside of their basic branches.

To overcome the first assignment hurdle faced by new quartermaster (QM), ordnance (OD), and transportation (TC) lieutenants, the commanding general of the Combined Arms Support Command directed that each logistics BOLC teach the basics of all logistics branches. Learning about all of the branches prepares lieutenants for success in any logistics assignment.

BOLC COMMON CORE

BOLC classes prepare junior officers to adapt to any leadership positions they will hold. The first week encompasses oral communication skills, a sustainment overview, convoy operations, ethics, and other professional topics.

Following the initial common core week, the students enter the three-week BOLD tactics segment of the course. Once the lieutenants finish BOLD tactics, they continue with common core lessons on written communications, cultural awareness, and other officership topics. Students are also introduced to Blue Force Tracking, the Global Combat Support System-Army, and the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

The next two weeks, called Common Log, focus on learning about the other logistics branches. OD and TC BOLCs include a week on Common Log QM, which focuses on property accountability and culminates with a practical exercise on conducting a platoon-level inventory of general mechanic toolboxes, camouflage nets, radio antennas, humvees, and generator sets. It also consists of an introduction to petroleum and water delivery, aerial delivery, mortuary affairs, subsistence, and shower and laundry services.

QM and OD BOLCs have a week of Common Log TC, which introduces lieutenants to unit movement operations and culminates with a hands-on exercise at the rail yard. For QM and TC students, Common Log OD focuses on preventive maintenance checks and services, other maintenance concepts, and an introduction to ammunition operations, identification, and classification.

FUNCTIONAL TRAINING

At the end of Common Log, all of the branches dive deep into their own functional skills. OD students have a week of instruction on maintenance, a week on the use of Global Combat Support System--Army in maintenance operations, a week on ammunition, and a week on ammunition supply point site selection.

The students also have a two-week exercise known as Operation Decisive Action and two weeks of additional officership classes and graduation preparation. QM BOLC has instruction on all QM functions and concludes with an end-of-course capstone exercise in which each lieutenant acts as a platoon leader for a forward support company in a decisive action training environment. The lieutenants have to support their assigned units for a three-phased operation.

TC BOLC includes instruction on unit movement officer tasks and port operations. The students go to Fort Eustis, Virginia, for an Army boat tour. The course caps off its functional training by testing students in a comprehensive field exercise called Operation Overland.

BOLD TACTICS

To streamline training for QM, OD, and TC lieutenants, BOLD discontinued BOLC II courses at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Fort Benning, Georgia, in early 2010. The department made BOLD tactics three weeks long and moved unit-specific platoon leader tasks to the lieutenants' first assigned unit. BOLD tactics rotations usually include one BOLC class from each branch (QM, OD, and TC).

The first week of BOLD tactics focuses on weapons qualification, grenade familiarization, and land navigation. The second week focuses on warrior tasks and battle drills such as the virtual convoy trainer, radio operations, troop leading procedures in operations planning, evaluation and evacuation of a casualty, and other tasks.

The final week includes a comprehensive field training exercise with multiple logistics operations, such as route reconnaissance, site selection for helicopter landing zones and reverse osmosis water purification units, and sling-load and medical evacuation operations.

ALU instructors have deliberately focused on revamping BOLD tactics to mirror the National Training Center's (NTC's) decisive action training environment scenarios that employ the field trains and combat trains concepts. The addition of two former NTC observer-coach/trainers to BOLD has significantly enhanced the instructors' ability to synchronize training with what lieutenants will encounter at the combat training centers.

EMPLOYING NTC LESSONS LEARNED

At NTC, most lieutenants lack proficiency in applying troop leading procedures in decisive action. They lack the tactical intuition necessary to solve complex problems while operating in field trains, combat trains, or tactical convoy operations. Distribution platoon leaders struggle to manage their time as they react to ever-changing requirements.

In order to take care of Soldiers, manage time effectively, plan through contingencies, and rehearse battle drills, leaders must anticipate requirements. In order to anticipate, they have to understand how the supply system and logistics processes are connected.

In order to extend the reach of support and enable the lethality of the warfighter, lieutenants have to understand the operation that they are supporting, the purpose behind the support operations, and the sustainment nodes at each echelon. The more echelons that are used, the more synchronization is required.

Today's complex environments require lieutenants who know how everything is connected and understand how to anticipate and build resupply packages, how to analyze maintenance trends in order to keep equipment in the fight, and how best to distribute supplies to the warfighter. We need to start building and developing these leaders at BOLC.

BUILDING LEADERS

During the 16-week course, BOLC students engage in multiple practical exercises to practice critical thinking and develop as adaptive leaders. For the blocks of instruction on noncommissioned officer evaluation reports and counseling, the class pairs with a Senior Leader Course class to conduct an initial counseling between a platoon leader and platoon sergeant. Throughout the course, the students lead rigorous physical training, including ruck marches and a culminating 12-mile event.

BOLD has made many progressive strides to maximize the effectiveness of its resources while creating an environment to develop creative, critically thinking, and adaptive leaders that can accomplish any task. An OD lieutenant, for example, may not always be a maintenance platoon leader or maintenance control officer; he or she might be a distribution platoon leader or part of a TC or QM company.

Our Army does not need lieutenants who are experienced in only one branch. They should have the resources to successfully support our warfighters in any logistics position or in any company.

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Capt. Alan M. Strange is a BOLC instructor at ALU at Fort Lee, Virginia. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. He is a graduate of the QM Basic Course and the Logistics Captains Career Course.

Capt. Samantha L. Smay is a BOLC instructor at ALU. She holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the United States Military Academy. She is a graduate of the OD Basic Course and the Logistics Captains Career Course.

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This article was published in the March-April 2017 issue of Army Sustainment magazine.

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