Anyone have any experience with it?

To be an aide in the Army (almost always and most certainly 3-4 star), once has to be nominated. While many people do not want those type jobs because they want to stay with troops, or whatever...those Aides see more across the Army, formations, and between services than their peers do.

As a result, when these Aides return to the line, staff, or in charge of more troops, their perspective matters and helps them in their decision making - in my opinion value added for the Soldier and organization.

There are sure exceptions to the rule as in any case...my two cents, depends where you are in your career.

First the good. It is an awesome job and great experience that exposes you to a lot of stuff you would most likely never get to see/do. You will network like nobody's business and normally (assuming you do a good job) you are taken care of on the back end with jobs/promotion.

Now the bad. You don't have a life. Your life is the life of the general you serve. Your family life will suffer (if you have one) and you will work your butt off. You will be on the road a lot and your work hours will most likely be very long. By the end of a 12 month tour you will be ready to hand it over to the next guy.

I speak from experience having been an aide for a 1 star. Also something to mention, the more stars the tougher the gig (normally). Also every GO is different. My guy was awesome and made sure I got home at a decent enough hour when possible. He also made sure I could have leave over the holidays and he was a very low maintenance boss. Some of my peers were not so lucky and I could tell you some stories. Just be sure that you understand what you may be walking in to and that you can do it for a year. If you can talk to the current aide and get a no kidding assessment from them it will help.

Just my 2 cents.

The family thing would be an issue.

I feel better about it for two reasons, it'd be temporary and I've been in a job for three years that has afforded plenty of family time.

My options right now are OpsO or ADC, and either one results in ridiculously long hours. The advantage of ADC is the opportunities.

I'm going to explore some opportunities, talk to some mentors here in the near future and see if what happens.

If it works. It works. Otherwise OpsO is a good option.

If I could do it again I would. Just wanted to make sure I gave you as realistic a picture as possible.

There are about 20 aides that I see on a daily basis. The 1/2 star aides are pretty laid back. They pretty much work normal hours, etc.

The 3 star aides and the 4 star's aide have brutal jobs. There jobs are incomparable to the 1/2 star aides because the 3 and 4 stars have entire personal staffs, so the aide isn't doing the schedule, the ideas, the trip planning, etc. The 3-star aides are normally sitting around for hours when they should have already been gone waiting for the boss to finish checking emails. I've heard the 3-star aides say they've had to bail on picking up the kids from soccer practice because their boss "got busy". The 4-star's aide is not jerked around like that though, and he seems to work pretty normal schedule, with the exception that he's on the road an average of 3-4 days per week (day trips, they rarely stay anywhere overnight).

All the 3 and 4-star aides have been in their jobs at least 2 years. The 4-star's aide has been there for over 3 years now.

1/2 star aides look like busy guys doing schedules, etc. 3/4 star aides look like busy dudes on the road.

TM, the opportunities I'm looking for are in the 3/4* range.

I'll let you guys know if it works out.

this level of the Army (are you in the Army or USMC?) is a completely different animal. I could never have imagined what went on in this part of the world. The atmosphere is pretty enjoyable, honestly.

AF.

I work at a cocom currently in an absurdly high profile role as an O-3 and am hoping to leverage it into something more.

i seriously would have a hard time coming up with any single job that i would want less than general's aide.

Mameluke, I'm with you on this. Why would anyone really want to be someones Dog Robber.

From the outside, it would appear to be a really crappy short term job, but would have immense payout down the line for someone who is shooting for high rank and a long military career.

Or am I missing something?

probably not. i am shooting for neither.

I'm not an aide, and I have no desire to ever be an aide, but an opportunity to see the 4-star level as a junior officer is eye-opening.

I have no interest in a full career, but at the 4-star level you get to network with academia, industry, policy, and international experts about topics that seem foreign to the tactical level military (decision modeling, quantum computing, statistical process control, industrial engineering, social pyschology, and economics just to name a few). I've been able to leverage some great contacts to get some ideas published in peer-reviewed journals that I wouldn't otherwise have had.

Good post, Tango Mike. Totally agree. My next door neighbor/friend at Andrews AFB back in the mid to late 80's was Aide to Lt Gen Abrahamson, who was the Strategic Defense Initiative Director. (He was nominated for a fourth star, but never confirmed by the Dem Senate. I thought only Republicans did things like that?)

My buddy had been the Exec for the one star we both worked for before he got the three star gig.

He had lots of great adventures, but the one he cherished the most was getting to meet Margaret Thatcher when his boss visited her at 10 Downing Street.

His wife was an OK gal before he got the job, but became insufferable afterwards. My buddy stayed cool though.



[This message has been edited by NormanAg (edited 2/7/2014 6:44p).]

Seems to me that it's an easy decision.
If for no other reason, it's a good resume item. Building a resume is good in any line of work.

I'm keeping my eye open for the right ADC or CAG job. It'll suck but they pay off (IDE In-Res/strat's) are worth it.

We'll see what happens...

CIG/CPG/CAG/SPG/SIG/SAG jobs do not suck, they are amazing. An academic environment where you can imagine ways to solve complex problems without bureaucracy. There is nothing bad about them.

quote:

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CIG/CPG/CAG/SPG/SIG/SAG

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i literally do not know what one single of those acronyms stands for.

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CIG/CPG/CAG/SPG/SIG/SAG

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CAG - Commanders Action Group
SPG - Staff Planning Group
CPG - Commanders Planning Group

Don't know CIG...Commanders I**** Group...?

Commander's/Strategic Action/Planning/Initiatives Groups

enclaves of 4-5 smart people on 3- and 4-star personal staffs that research, write, analyze data, and prepare engagements for the boss

Much like TM above, I worked with these guys or nominated them to work on such staffs. There was this one dude who was a DIV CDR's aide. Every time there was a DIV level mission to rehearse, a BDE concept of OP to knock out, or (insert any number of actions conducted by BDE/BN CDRs and their teams), this guy was a fly on the wall watching how they call conducted business and what the CDR wanted from his units. Much like an NTC O/C he has seen how so many folks do business and can take away the best from his experience and also what not to do even from those who are on top of their game.

Bottom line, he was already squared away when he got the job. He will be an asset to his Soldiers and boss when he is a BN S3/XO in a year or two.

Excellent post! The best senior officers I served under in my 21 year AF career had the same thing in common.

They had a breadth of knowledge across a wide spectrum of disciplines important to running an AF operational unit.

It wasn't by accident that they picked up that knowledge as they advanced in rank.





[This message has been edited by NormanAg (edited 2/11/2014 8:17p).]

quote:

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quote:

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CIG/CPG/CAG/SPG/SIG/SAG

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CAG - Commanders Action Group
SPG - Staff Planning Group
CPG - Commanders Planning Group

Don't know CIG...Commanders I**** Group...?

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Commanders Initiative Group...think tank on steroids...it is where the good idea fairy lives.