The Impact of MOOTW-based Unit Training on Leader Development

The end of the Cold War has dramatically changed the strategic environment within which the United States Army must operate. The threat of an attack by the Soviet Union into Western Europe no longer exists. The change in strategic environment has resulted in a change in the force structure of the United States Army. The Army has reduced its size by almost 40 in the last ten years, and whereas the Army used to rely on forward deployed forces to deter an attack by the Soviet Union, the Army now relies on force projection of forces from the United States to a crisis area. In addition to the change in force structure, the end of the Cold War has brought about a change in the types of operations that the Army are most likely to participate in. In the past, the Army primarily concerned itself with preparing for operations such as JUST CAUSE and DESERT STORM. Increasingly however, the Army in recent years, had to primarily respond to stability operations in places such as Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. This monograph looks at the impact that a shift from a war fighting-based METL to a MOOTW-based METL would have on the development of a company grade, combat arms officer. In order to evaluate this impact, this monograph first reviews the goals of the officer development process and focus on one pillar of the officer development process - operational assignments. Next, this monograph determines the skills required of a company grade officer and compares these skills against the skills developed if the officer trained in a unit using a war fighting-based METL and compares these skills against those he would develop in a unit using a MOOTW-based METL. This monograph then compares the two strategies using the criteria of responsiveness, preparedness for future assignment and readiness.