Page 16 - LBV 2023

The One-Star Command Assessment (OSCA),
a Unique Experience
Robertson House is the British Army’s revered nerve centre and is known for many things: including as a spiritual home of the officer corps and the
army’s intellectual nucleus and literal Centre for Army Leadership. Most recently in May of 2023, it was where
six officer cadets found themselves
on a weeklong exercise assisting the one-star command assessment (OSCA). Invited to be one of those OCdts supporting the OSCA, I (SUO Miles) was eager to accept. It was fair to say that
I was comprehensively ignorant of the process; however, this was a commonly shared approach from across the OCdt support team. The week provided an unparalleled insight into British Army’s senior echelons and the selection process that selects the general staff.
Implemented just two years ago, the OSCA is still a novel process developed to examine the behaviours of those officers wishing to promote from colonel to brigadier and take on an equivalent command. This assessment cadre saw officers move into a brigade commander role or other senior positions within Field and Home Command. Through several tests, which were carefully designed
by psychologists to antagonise the participant, hopeful colonels and some recently promoted brigadiers were put through their paces. Naturally, when
presented with the task to antagonise experienced and resilient officers,
one struggles to think of a better demographic than officer cadets – and Robertson House seemed to agree.
The exercise was fast-paced from day one and our arrival at RMAS Sandhurst, the carefully constructed OSCA team, constituted of psychologists, senior officers and a troupe of civil servants, wasted no time analysing our psyches.
A process we were later told was to identify who was best for antagonising and who was best for hosting. Having separated the annoying from the amicable, we received a group brief outlining the week’s likely tasks. For us the exercise would be relatively simple, those identified by the psychologists to be ideal antagonists would fulfil various roles within the different tasks. Those not chosen for the tasks would act as chaperones around Robertson House, as well as the occasional confidante.
Whilst the office-based exercise may not have provided the usual thrills of fieldwork – launching attacks, scrambling to LDs or fight-throughs – it provided
a holistically unique experience. Daily,
we would have an unrivalled exposure
to almost every cap badge in the army and the cocktail of regimental cultures that makes the organisation a society apart. In the brief moments between
intensity, we had a rare opportunity to have candid conversations with COs, directors of MoD departments and other senior positions. The abundance of knowledge cannot be overstated. Many of their comments, observations and anecdotes remain in my mind today, and will undoubtedly do so for many years after my time in the OTC.
For me, the OSCA will remain a defining experience, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank Cambridge UOTC, and particularly the adjutant, for providing officer cadets with this truly rewarding experience. Furthermore,
I wish to pay acknowledgements to
the professionalism, humour and competence of my fellow officer cadets, who championed CUOTC throughout.
SUO M Miles
16 THE LIGHT BLUE VOLUNTEER