Military Review English Edition March-April 2015 | Page 36

only associated with four-star headquarters, these ad
hoc teams have proliferated down to staff directors at
three- and two-star-officer level or equivalent civilian
levels in response to requirements. In my observations,
senior field grade officers are frequently called upon to
join CAGs without a clear understanding of what the
role entails beyond being ready to provide “whatever
the boss needs.”1 Moreover, some SAs are transients,
temporarily assigned for a year or less to gain exposure
to the senior leadership environment while awaiting
their next assignment, potentially as battalion or brigade
commanders. Thus, many SAs learn enough about their
particular responsibilities to succeed but do not always
gain the broader perspective of what capabilities CAGs
can offer to Army leaders.
I served as an SA to various commanders of service
component, joint, and combined commands for 10
years, and led action groups for five of those years. Those
assignments were tremendously rewarding and allowed
me to see first-hand how several general officers and
equivalent-level civilians perceived their environment,
engaged with stakeholders, made decisions, formulated
and communicated their vision, and ultimately accomplished their missions (with varied levels of success). It
was eye-opening how differently each commander operated, including the degree to which things at the senior
levels got done through informal means—for instance,
through collaboration and negotiation—rather than
formally through the military bureaucracy.
Performing the duties of an SA can sometimes have
the feel of walking on eggshells. The job has a learning
curve that is uncomfortably steep. Tasks like speechwriting, ghostwriting, special projects, and internal consulting are generally highly sensitive and fraught with procedural and cultural challenges that could put unwary
SAs in untenable positions within the headquarters.
Completing assigned tasks is always the easy part. The
hard part is ensuring that CAGs remain helpful conduits
of information and are effective in getting nonroutine
things done between staffs and leadership while not being viewed as duplicating staff responsibilities and roles.
The purpose of this article is to introduce and summarize four common duties that SAs perform. These
are, based on my experiences as a speechwriter, ghostwriter, special projects officer, internal consultant, and
commander’s archivist. I offer these perspectives for both
SAs and the leaders they will serve. I present these views
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knowing the sensitivities involved in even defining the
roles of CAGs and SAs, but I have become convinced
that it is better to be more transparent about the expectations rather than less.2 After all, CAGs are emerging as
commonplace within U.S. military organizations.

Special Assistant as Speechwriter
When asked by nonmilitary people what I did as
an SA, I usually responded “speechwriter,” as it is the
one duty that requires the least amount of explanation. Commanders spend a lot of time communicating
orally and in writing with a wide range of internal
and external stakeholders through speeches, papers,
presentations, and video (such as scripted messages
for American Forces Network spots). Only a portion
of these engagements fall into the purview of public
affairs, hence speechwriters tend to be needed.
Very little in the way of one’s standard career path
prepares officers to serve in the capacity of speechwriter. The style of writing is different—from technical
to narrative—but that is largely a matter of skill and
practice, a competency that can be developed and improved. Being successful as a military speechwriter involves being able to write in the voice of the commander. Consequently, a relationship must exist between the
leader and the speechwriter that fosters success.
Relationships should be direct, and empathy
is critical. A successful speechwriter develops and
sustains a strong and direct one-on-one relationship
with his or her senior leader built on empathy, which
is defined as “the action of understanding, being aware
of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the
feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.”3 The SA
and leader must be synchronized with each other if
the former is to be effective in providing speeches and
products that are in the voi