Major Jennifer Fadare, a U.S. Army Signal Corps officer, writes our latest post. In it she shares some specific details about her branch and career field, sharing lessons learned that are hard earned. She proffers that mentorship is the answer to some of her fellow officer's woes, and she wants to offer some insights to other Signaleers.
After 12 years of service (11 years active, one year reserves), I’ve experienced my fair share of failures as a company grade signal officer and recognize the same mistakes in others. Now that the Signal Regiment is shrinking due to force modification within the Regiment and giving up some slots to Cyber branch, the pressure for a 25A to receive the grades to remain competitive is higher than before, specifically regarding promotions from captain to major. Although the Signal Captains Career Course (SCCC) may improve or change in curriculum over time, formal education usually gets overwritten with on-the-job experiences the closer the signal officer gets to their primary zone for promotion. I believe the things that dictate success for today’s messengers are intangible skills that the school house can’t teach: building and leveraging working relationships with other staff members, clearly articulating risk and communication shortfalls, and assessing where they stand against their peers. Improving mentorship in the Signal Regiment is the key to seeing our signal officers master these intangible skills.
The battalion and brigade S6 today relies heavily on all other primary staff members to perform effectively. The S6 section is supposed to manage a help desk while simultaneously trying to support current operations, all while also anticipating future operations... and none of these tasks are done without assistance from outside the section. To run our help desk we depend on the S1 to get us the Soldiers with the right specialty. We depend on the S2 to sign off on account requests as the security manager, assist us with physical security standards to prepare for the Command Cyber Readiness Inspections, and provide intelligence on enemy cyber activity. We depend on the S4 to assist with acquisition of equipment and radio maintenance. Before we nest with the S3’s plan, we depend on the operations team to define the courses of actions for a mission. Although all the staff sections depend on the S6 (commonly referred to as the "Sigo", short for signal officer) for automations assistance and communications security support, Signaleers cannot perform without assistance from the other staff sections.
Signaleers have to establish a relationship and work hand-in-hand on some cases to make it easier to get what the resources for the Soldiers to do what they need to do. S6s typically don’t take part in team building and find themselves on the outside. The consequences of not being in “the room where it happens” is the Soldiers aren’t being jerked around on last minute taskings and have to do short notice execution where an OIC or NCOIC participation could’ve helped with expectation management from the team or re-prioritization of tasks to ensure the mission continues. The leader of the section, just like any other section, has to look out for anticipated changes in missions and requirements. I believe that a battalion commander would be more concerned with improving tactical communication capability and forecasting requirements than whether or not the Sigo knows how to build the TSI stacks. It’s important to remember that the people that benefit from these developed relationships are the Soldiers in the section because they can plan more affectively.
Next, an S6 needs to be able to articulate capabilities in risk in a language others can understand. Commanders and staff are more apt to understand “We have SIPR voice, but are troubleshooting other capabilities” with either an estimated time of completion (always hard) or the next time we’ll be able to give a status update. Usually we’re limited because of lack of training rather than “We have a good lock on the satellite and Regional Hub Node, but need to do a trace route from the Joint Network Node to the supporting unit”. Sigos are always hesitant to attach a date-time-group on time of completion, but they need to at least be able to anticipate an update. From my experience, the struggle always seems to be the signal officer assuming others have basic knowledge of automations, but its our job to communicate DoD and NETCOM policy and explain limitations and risks of those policies while also providing a solution. It doesn’t mean being the “YES” member of the staff, but keep in mind as a staff member you only have so many “NOs" to give... words matter. The breakdown can be fairly simple— Can we talk on Voice (yes or no). If no, why? (The equipment is faulty, the Soldiers encountered an error they aren’t familiar with, we don’t have the frequencies required). When can we anticipate a status change? (We brought a spare, can anticipate another update in an hour). We also don’t do a good job painting the picture. We have to be good at taking the S3s product and overlaying the signal plan on top of it. I’m not sure if we use SPEED as a tool for Line Of Sight analysis but that would assist with showing a commander where he can’t talk, where he can talk, and that we’ve done some analysis on if our Tactical Operations Center (TOC) can talk from here to somewhere else. The harder part of putting the analysis together is to actually test out the theory. Often the S3 doesn’t pull in the S6 when they recon a site to put the TOC.
The last part of being a signal officer doesn’t differ from any other staff section and that’s learning your craft. You have to continue to read, especially now with how the cyber battle space continues to change. Certifications aren’t a must, but it demonstrates your motivation in continuing your understanding as a signal officer. Keeping up with doctrine and understanding how your organization fights is what will bring the most success to the unit and your team. The glory isn’t just yours when you win.
So how do we get Signaleers to improve in these intangible skills needed to succeed? The answer is mentorship. There are increasingly more mentorship organizations, but its up to the field grades to provide the feedback needed. It requires honesty and an action plan. If there is a senior field grade not providing mentorship to a junior officer, then I challenge you to find one. If there is a company grade officer that doesn’t have a field grade to bounce ideas off of, I challenge you to seek one out. Additionally, I believe the rater of the signal officer owes clear feedback early. We often sugar coat our words when we give feedback, but if you can plainly complain about your signal officer to your boss or your friends you are definitely capable of packaging that feedback to your subordinates. Some people have talent and others don’t but that doesn’t mean we hang the people who aren’t capable out to dry. It means we help them find a mentor or introduce them to someone who can be helpful. If we don’t do this, we’ll always have signal officers who are behind the curve and it could take 10 years for them to discover what they should’ve done. And by then its too late. What I’m describing is not necessarily “hold my hand” mentorship. Its coaching and ensuring they have the resources to do the job and do it well. Trash talking staff officers and leaders behind their backs doesn’t solve the problem - mentor them.
In conclusion, improved mentorship across the Signal Regiment will help our junior signal officers with assessing how to establish working relationships with the other staff members of the team, test them on their ability to articulate signal-related problems, and to challenge them in learning something to enhance your capability as a signal officer. This will result in a future signal leaders ready to perform at a level needed to be competitive for O4 promotions and capable of filling the roles of a signal officer as needed.