Impact of Operations Other Than War on the Midgrade (O-3/4) Army Officer

This study examines attitudes of midgrade US Army officers. Attention is given to the most recently conducted operations other than war (OOTW) in Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia. The goal of this research is to understand how participation in these events has affected officers' attitudes, and the implications of these experiences for the future. This study examines relevant literature and includes a survey of midgrade army officers in the CGSOC AY 1997 class. Findings suggest that 65% of the officers would like to see a decrease in the frequency of OOTW, although declining benefits were more likely to make them separate from the Army. Of the 113 officers surveyed forty (35 %) had participated in at least one OOTW mission. Ninety percent of those officers report that their participation in an OOTW has not changed their propensity toward using lethal force in the future. Nineteen percent of the officers rated the missions as not appropriate for their unit. The attitudes of midgrade officers in this study are compared to results of previous studies of lAFO deployments by an airborne infantry battalion in 1984 and a light infantry battalion in 1990 and the 6-502nd's UN deployment to Macedonia in 1992.