Staff rides are a unique and powerful way for leaders to gain insight and wisdom from past events and apply that information to modern situations. Participants of this event exercise their critical thinking, creativity, and decision making skills to execute the staff ride.
The staff ride is a lesson that is part of the Sergeant Majors Academy curriculum. The first segment of the staff ride lesson focuses on methodology and the different ways there are to conduct a staff ride. The second segment is the execution of the virtual staff ride. Students learn about how the event can be used as a persuasive method for conveying training and education. Through staff rides, lessons from the past can be applied to present-day to military leadership challenges.
One of the students who took part in the most recent staff ride was Master Sgt. Salvador Montenegro. He described the staff ride as “a way to learn from past mistakes.”
He further elaborated on the value of the lesson by saying “the staff ride allows us to use the material as a case study with visual aids and opens up a different perspective and knowledge. I saw all the details and thought processes behind why and how to conduct a staff ride.”
Every staff ride experience provides examples of leadership, tactics, operations, strategy, communications, use of the physical terrain, and perhaps most importantly, the psychology of people in combat and other crises. By the end of the lesson students have conducted a virtual staff ride and have the knowledge to conduct staff rides in other scenarios.
Previously, the staff ride was conducted in Columbus, N.M. on the very grounds of Poncho Villa’s 1916 incursion into the United States. Due to budget constraints and the desire to use a more current event in the methodology, the rides were made virtual. The historical focus shifted forward 80 years to the Second Battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury or Operation Al-Fajr) which took place in Iraq over a six-week period starting in November 2004. Class 75 was the first academic year to conduct the more modern staff ride.
According to instructors, the focus of this lesson is to show the students how to conduct staff rides and the benefit of conducting them when they return to the operational force.
“Historically staff rides have been seen as leadership development. You could develop any organizational member using a staff ride,” said Jesús DeGracia an instructor in the Department of Professional Studies.
“By studying events throughout history and how they relate to the profession of arms, such as how we did things back then and also looking to see if that event had anything to do with changes in operational environment. All those factors get us to where we are today and build a deeper understanding.”
The staff rides sole purpose is to further the professional development of leaders in the Profession of Arms. With some knowledge of the process and the ability to conduct research on their own. Class members can design their own insightful and engaging staff ride to achieve various objectives, depending upon the needs of their situation and their teammates.
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