The Army is looking to fill 108 seats in the School of Advanced Miliary Studies (SAMS) Advanced Military Studies Program (AMSP) for the resident course that begins in June 2016.
Another Broadening Opportunity for Warrants
Warrant Officer Broadening Assignments
The Army is currently looking to fill a number of broadening assignments and this year a number of them are open to warrant officers. Broadening assignments give us an opportunity to spend a period of time (sometimes a few weeks, sometimes a couple of years) away from our normal duties and expand our personal knowledge and help contribute to the Army in a strategic way vs our normal technical way.
FY16 Warrant Officer Selection Board
Recruiting Command released the warrant officer board schedule for FY16 last week (minus Sept for some reason). As of right now, there are two boards that will look at 255A/N (although I expect that Sept will as well once it gets released).
Finding Your Replacement
The Army Warrant Officer is a highly trained and specialized technical expert in their particular field. This has been true since its creation on July 9, 1918, but what a warrant officer is today has changed. Today we are no longer expected to just be the crusty old guy in the corner that drinks coffee and magically fixes things (although that is still true), we are also expected to be part “officer” as well. That means that we are leaders, we are staff officers, we are planners, and still, we are experts. This is a tall task to fill and requires that we continually replenish our ranks with only the most qualified and talented individuals available.
Cyber is Here
For anyone who doesn’t regularly check the MILPER message site you may have missed three separate messages that were released last week that directly affect signal warrants and our Soldiers. As you probably know, the Army is in the process of manning its new Cyber Branch. The officers got their chance to cross over earlier this year and it looks like the same is finally true for the warrants and Soldiers.
Translating Geek to Grunt
“The Linkway attached to the STT for the JNN is has a high BER from the RHN because the PVCs weren’t built correctly.” How many times have we said something like this to the Commander only to watch their eyes glaze over, get pissed off, and walk away mumbling something about “FIX IT”? Signal folks have a language of their own that few people outside of their own group are able to speak or understand. We understand the language of “geek”, but when we walk outside and talk to the people around us, they don’t understand it because they only speak “grunt”.
May Warrant Officer Selection Results
Congrats to all of the NCO’s who were selected to join the warrant officer ranks.
5 Router Commands That Saved My Life
We have all learned an important lesson in life the hard way. When it comes to working on the router or switch, there is often a couple of commands that you discovered after beating your head against the wall for a while that if you had known about them earlier, would have made your life so much easier. These are those commands for me.
Orders, Suggestions, and Good Ideas
Have you ever told a unit that you needed them to do something, only for them to completely blow you off? Since its formation, the Army has operated under as an organization of order. We as warrant officers have to learn to utilize the orders process to enable us to successfully manage the network.
JNN Team Integration
Do you have everyone that you need (or would like) to complete your mission? If you are like pretty much everyone in the Army, the answer to that question is no. Rarely does a unit have everyone assigned to it that they are authorized and even in the case that they do, you still have people pulling guard, on profile, or whatever. The short answer is that we never have enough people to take care of all of the tasks that need to be completed which is why it is critical that we effectively manage how we use our personnel.