This paper explores the complex tasks involved in keeping the United States Army the most trained and proficient military force in the world. It will look in-depth at which training is identified for Unit Commanders to train their personnel on. Training is a double edged sword in that all Soldiers must be proficient in not only the identified Basic Soldier Skills, but the critical tasks of their Military Occupation Specialty (MOS). Set rules and regulations such as the Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks (SMCT) or Soldier's Manual and Trainer's Guide (SMTG) can assist unit training personnel in identifying exactly which tasks are critical to the success of the various missions. This paper will discuss how decisions are made on determining primary and alternate tasks for completion based upon the identified mission. Balancing the basic skills for Soldiers for survival in wartime situations as well as performing a specific job as efficiently as possible while keeping the ever changing mission in mind is a challenging task. However, upon identification of the critical tasks, a list called the Mission-Essential Task List (METL) can be produced.
Keywords: Military Occupation Specialty, Soldier's Manual and Trainer's Guide, Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks, Mission-Essential Task List
MOS Proficiency vs. Soldier
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With the 205 annual basic Soldier skills along with the MOS tasks in any career field there is simply not enough days in a year to become proficient at all tasks. Add to this fact other training holidays and time is extremely limited. Commanders at all levels with their respective NCOs need to be able to adapt the training schedule to provide the most critical training to the most Soldiers possible. Once filtration and verification of tasks is complete, they must be put on the METL for all unit personnel to make efficient progress in preparation for any worldwide