Behavioral Health Specialist

You are the newest behavioral health specialist in the clinic or the BCT. The licensed officer above you is the clinician; you are the force multiplier that keeps the workflow moving and the soldiers walking through the door.

You graduate from the Behavioral Health Specialist course at METC Fort Sam Houston and land in a Medical Treatment Facility (MTF) behavioral health clinic or a brigade combat team embedded with a behavioral health officer (BHO) or social work officer. Your days are a mix of scheduling and intake coordination, administering validated screening tools (PHQ-9, PCL-5, AUDIT-C), running psychoeducational groups under supervision, documenting patient contacts in AHLTA or MHS GENESIS, and doing the administrative work that keeps the caseload from burying the officer. You will also do things no clinical school prepared you for: tracking down a soldier who missed his appointment, calling the CQ desk at 2100 to confirm a safety check happened, walking a resistant junior soldier into the clinic door the first time. The mission is reducing barriers to care. You are a barrier-reducer, not a clinician.

• 01Administer and score the PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5, AUDIT-C, and DAST-10 accurately — know the clinical cut-points and flag thresholds before the officer sees the chart.
• 02Document a patient contact note in AHLTA / MHS GENESIS that the BHO can co-sign without rewriting — subjective, objective, assessment plan in the right format, nothing missing.
• 03Run a psychoeducational group session on stress management, sleep hygiene, or anger management under licensed supervision — follow the curriculum, take attendance, document outcomes.
• 04Execute a safety check and document it correctly — know the difference between a wellness check and a behavioral health crisis response, and know who you call at every hour.
• 05Conduct a suicide risk screening using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) and report results to the BHO with accurate risk stratification.
• 06Operate the clinic scheduling system and manage a provider's appointment book — cancellations, no-shows, walk-ins, urgent-same-day slots — without losing track of high-risk patients.

• —AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management in the MTF (your documentation and clinical support standards).
• —DoDI 6490.04 — Mental Health Evaluations of Members of the Military Services (the referral and safety evaluation framework).
• —ATP 4-02.15 — Medical Support to Stability Operations (field behavioral health context).
• —AR 600-20, Chapter 4 — SHARP; Chapter 6 — Suicide Prevention (you support both programs at unit level).
• —MHS GENESIS / AHLTA user guides and your MTF's local clinical SOPs — the working documentation standard.
• —DA PAM 40-502 — Medical Readiness Procedures (MEDPROS reporting is part of your shop's accountability).

• —AIT graduate from the Behavioral Health Specialist course at METC Fort Sam Houston — approximately 16 weeks.
• —ACFT 500+ — you wear the uniform, the command reads the slide.
• —Documentation turned over to supervising officer within the same duty day — no unsigned contacts sitting in draft at end of shift.
• —Zero missed safety-check documentation. Every wellness contact logged, every outcome recorded, every high-risk patient handed off in writing.
• —CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) or National Health Science credentials offered through Army Credentialing Assistance — take them early, they count toward the civilian LCSW/LPC pathway.

• —Sharing patient information with the soldier's chain of command without a privacy act waiver or a legitimate duty-limiting condition. HIPAA is real; a Privacy Act violation as a junior specialist follows you into the civilian licensing process.
• —Treating no-shows as administrative failures instead of clinical signals. A high-risk patient who misses an appointment is a high-risk patient the officer needs to know about before noon.
• —Counseling soldiers beyond your scope. You facilitate and support; you do not diagnose, interpret test results to patients, or offer therapeutic opinion without the BHO in the loop.
• —Letting the documentation backlog build because the clinic was busy. An incomplete chart is an incomplete patient record; the BHO cannot co-sign what is not there.
• —Assuming the BHO will catch everything. You are the eyes and ears of the clinic when the officer is in session. If something feels wrong about a patient in the waiting room, say it immediately.

The good junior 68X is the one the BHO trusts with the intake stack unsupervised by month six. Their documentation is clean, their screening scores are accurate, their safety-check logs are current, and the soldiers in the BCT know them by name — which means soldiers actually show up instead of canceling. By month twelve the officer is sending them to run the unit ministry team psychoeducation block and by month eighteen the clinic NCOIC is building their BLC packet.

You are the proficiency floor of the behavioral health section. The new specialists copy how you document, how you handle a distressed soldier at the front desk, how you run the group curriculum without the officer in the room.

You are the technical anchor of a behavioral health section — at an MTF clinic, a BCT embedded element, or a combat stress control (CSC) company. You run the group therapy curriculum as a solo facilitator for psychoeducational groups. You manage the clinic's high-risk patient tracker — knowing which soldiers are on what level of safety monitoring and what is due today. You mentor the incoming junior specialists on documentation standards, screening tool administration, and the practical realities of working in a behavioral health environment. You also carry a portion of the community outreach mission: coordinating with the unit chaplain, the brigade surgeon, and the Army Community Service (ACS) counselors to ensure soldiers who are not ready for formal treatment still have a warm hand-off.

• 01Facilitate a full psychoeducational group session — anger management, combat operational stress, relationship skills, substance abuse education — without a licensed officer in the room, to the curriculum standard.
• 02Manage the clinic's safety monitoring roster: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 safety plans, daily check-ins, no missed contacts, every communication documented.
• 03Run an outreach event at a company or battalion formation — behavioral health resource brief, stigma-reduction engagement, warm referral to clinic — without making the chain feel like a compliance exercise.
• 04Coordinate with chaplains and ACS counselors on shared cases under the supervision of the BHO — know who can see what and document the coordination correctly.
• 05Administer the ANAM (Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics) for pre/post-deployment cognitive screening — troubleshoot station issues, document anomalies, report to officer.
• 06Train a new specialist on AHLTA / MHS GENESIS documentation, C-SSRS administration, and clinic safety SOP — in writing, with a sign-off checklist.

• —AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management.
• —DoDI 6490.04 — Mental Health Evaluations of Members of the Military Services.
• —FM 4-02.51 — Combat and Operational Stress Control (the field CSC mission doctrine).
• —AR 600-85 — Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) — you support ASAP referrals and education.
• —AR 600-20, Chapter 6 — Army Suicide Prevention Program; AR 608-18 — Army Family Advocacy Program.
• —BLC curriculum and Army Leader Book — you are building toward NCO duties now.

• —BLC in-slot or completed before the sergeant board.
• —High-risk patient tracker current within the same duty day — no gaps, no undocumented contacts.
• —Group facilitation evaluated by the BHO at least quarterly — written feedback, measurable improvement tracked.
• —Army Credentialing Assistance: pursue CNA, psychiatric technician, or substance abuse counselor aide credentials — direct hours toward future state licensure (LCSW, LPC, LADC).
• —Promotion points stacked through credentials and DLC / structured self-development. The civilian behavioral health field has a credential for every level; collect them while the Army pays.

• —Running a group session without a co-facilitator or documented supervision plan when a patient is on an elevated safety monitoring level. The officer needs to know the composition of the group before you start.
• —Treating the outreach mission as a briefing exercise. If the formation gets a PowerPoint and no warm handoffs result, the outreach failed.
• —Letting the high-risk tracker lag by even one day. A missed check-in with a Level 2 patient is a potential sentinel event — the clinic chief will reconstruct the timeline and your name is in every row.
• —Sharing clinical information with the soldier's squad leader without the BHO's explicit guidance on duty-limiting conditions. The chain gets what AR 40-68 and the BHO authorize, nothing more.
• —Skipping the credential pipeline because "I'm getting out eventually." Psychiatric technician hours and CNA credentials are the bridge from your Army experience to state licensure. Every semester you defer costs money and time post-ETS.

The good SPC 68X is the one the BHO leaves in charge of the clinic morning without a second thought. Their tracker is current, their groups run clean, the new specialists are documenting correctly, and the unit chaplains are calling them by name to coordinate on shared cases. They have BLC done, a credentialing-assistance transcript building, and a realistic conversation with the BHO about whether the LCSW or LPC path makes sense for their post-service plan.

You are an NCO and you own the enlisted side of a behavioral health section. The BHO runs the clinical work; you run the soldiers, the documentation standards, and the operational readiness of the team.

You run the enlisted behavioral health team — at a brigade embedded element, an MTF behavioral health clinic, or a combat stress control (CSC) company detachment. You write counseling statements for your specialists, you sign the clinic's operational readiness inputs, and you run the section's quality-assurance checks on documentation, screening compliance, and safety monitoring logs. On a CTC rotation or deployment, you are the senior 68X running the forward behavioral health element under the BHO — coordinating with the brigade surgeon, the chaplain, and the combat medic network to surface at-risk soldiers before they reach crisis. You also own the section's MEDPROS tracking and the SRP (Soldier Readiness Processing) behavioral health station.

• 01Run a CTC or deployed behavioral health element — daily PERSTAT to the brigade surgeon, safety monitoring current, outreach coordination with chaplain and medic network, group programming sustained in the field.
• 02Conduct a quality-assurance review of the section's documentation — random chart audits against the MTF's clinical quality standards, findings briefed to BHO, corrective training assigned.
• 03Run the SRP behavioral health station — PHQ-9/PCL-5 screening, C-SSRS for positive screens, referral workflow, no soldier falling through the gap between the screening tent and the clinic.
• 04Write a clean DA 4856 counseling and a clean NCOER support form for your specialists — action-result-impact format, measurable outcomes, no boilerplate.
• 05Coordinate the section's community behavioral health outreach calendar — unit engagements, ASAP referral network, ACS/Family Advocacy integration — with a written plan the BHO can brief to the brigade surgeon.
• 06Mentor a SPC on the credential and education pipeline: CNA, psychiatric technician, LADC, and the realistic path to state licensure post-ETS.

• —AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management (the quality-assurance standard for your chart audits).
• —FM 4-02.51 — Combat and Operational Stress Control (your deployed doctrine).
• —DoDI 6490.04 — Mental Health Evaluations of Members of the Military Services.
• —AR 600-85 — Army Substance Abuse Program.
• —AR 600-20, Chapter 6 — Army Suicide Prevention Program; AR 638-8 — Army Casualty Program.
• —TC 7-22.7 — The Army NCO Guide; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership; ATP 6-22.1 — The Counseling Process.

• —BLC graduate; ALC packet built and ready when the slot opens.
• —Section documentation audit pass rate at or above the MTF benchmark — every quarter, in writing, briefed to BHO.
• —Zero undocumented safety contacts in any duty period. The senior rater reads the sentinel event review and your name is in it.
• —ACFT 560+ — your specialists watch whether you take the same standard you enforce.
• —Counseling on the 14th of every month for every soldier you rate, in writing, signed, in iPERMS before the soldier leaves the office.

• —Conducting verbal counseling. If it is not in writing it does not exist, and the clinic chief cannot defend you when the soldier files an IG complaint about a missed safety check.
• —Running the deployed behavioral health element as a walk-in clinic with no proactive outreach. Soldiers at CTC or in theater do not walk in — you have to go to them. If your contact numbers are low, the mission is failing.
• —Letting a junior specialist run a high-risk patient contact unsupervised without documented authorization from the BHO. The officer is the accountable clinician; you are responsible for making sure the right supervision level is in place.
• —Treating the ASAP referral as the end of your involvement. Following the soldier through the referral-to-treatment pipeline is part of the embedded mission, not optional.
• —Missing the credential-pipeline conversation with your specialists. Your specialists are accumulating supervised clinical hours that count toward state licensure. If they ETS without a plan to use those hours, you left money and career capital on the table.

The good SGT 68X is the one the BHO trusts to run the forward element on a CTC rotation without daily check-ins. Their documentation audits are clean, their safety logs have zero gaps, the soldiers in the BCT know how to find the behavioral health team without being told by the chain, and their specialists are building credential transcripts. They have ALC ready and a realistic post-service plan — LCSW, LPC, or master's in social work — on paper.

You are the senior 68X in a battalion behavioral health element or a combat stress control company section. The BHO sets clinical direction; you run the enlisted force, the operational readiness, and the quality of behavioral health support across the formation.

You manage the enlisted behavioral health workforce for a BCT behavioral health section, a CSC company team, or a large MTF behavioral health department. You build the section's quarterly training plan — clinical skills sustainment, documentation standards, SRP station operations, outreach curriculum — and you brief it to the medical company commander or the brigade surgeon. You write NCOERs for your section NCOs, run the chart-audit program, and sit at the brigade Medical BUB to brief behavioral health readiness: contact numbers, high-risk census, group attendance, and the referral pipeline. You also run the command-directed mental health evaluation (CDMHE) workflow — tracking initiation, processing, completion, and command notification — without letting a single evaluation fall outside the DoDI 6490.04 timeline.

• 01Defend the brigade's behavioral health readiness posture at the Medical BUB — contact numbers, high-risk census, outreach coverage, referral closure rate — with every number sourced and no surprises.
• 02Run a command-directed mental health evaluation (CDMHE) workflow from initiation to command notification, within DoDI 6490.04 timelines, with complete documentation.
• 03Build and execute a quarterly clinical skills sustainment plan for the section — group facilitation, C-SSRS administration, SRP station operations, trauma-informed care concepts — evaluated and documented.
• 04Write NCOERs for your section SGTs in action-result-impact format — measurable clinical outcomes (contact numbers, audit pass rates, outreach events, referral throughput), not narrative generalizations.
• 05Manage the section's credential and education pipeline — Credentialing Assistance applications, supervised clinical hours toward state licensure, Tuition Assistance for bachelor's or master's-level coursework.
• 06Run the post-deployment behavioral health screening (PDHRA) station for a brigade redeployment — screening throughput, referral workflow, no soldier discharged without a completed screening documented.

• —AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management; DoDI 6490.04 — Mental Health Evaluations.
• —FM 4-02.51 — Combat and Operational Stress Control; ATP 4-02.1 — Medical Support (the operational medical framework).
• —AR 600-85 — ASAP; AR 600-20, Chapter 6 — Army Suicide Prevention; AR 608-18 — Family Advocacy.
• —AR 623-3 + DA PAM 623-3 — Evaluation Reporting System (you write NCOERs now).
• —DA PAM 600-25 — NCO Professional Development Guide; TC 7-22.7 — The Army NCO Guide.
• —NASW, AMHCA, and NAADAC credentialing body standards — civilian licensure pathway reference for your specialists.

• —ALC graduate; SLC packet built; consider the Medical NCO Advanced Course or the Health Services Specialist Functional Course as the differentiator on the SFC board.
• —Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) exam eligibility or Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) associate status — the senior 68X who is pursuing licensure sets the credential standard for the section.
• —Chart audit pass rate at or above MTF benchmark across all sections you supervise — quarterly, in writing, briefed to clinic chief.
• —CDMHE workflow: zero evaluations outside DoDI 6490.04 timeline in your tenure.
• —NCOER bullets in real action-result-impact format — contact rates, audit pass rates, outreach events, credential completions.

• —Letting one section's documentation quality drift because the SGT is "your guy." The MTF accreditation team visits the whole clinic; the section NCOIC and you own every chart.
• —Treating the CDMHE workflow as administrative routing. A command-directed evaluation is a protected due-process event — a missed timeline or an improperly documented notification is a JAG issue, not a paperwork glitch.
• —Writing vague NCOER bullets for your section NCOs. "Facilitated exceptional behavioral health support" is not defensible at a promotion board; "maintained 97% documentation audit pass rate across 847 patient contacts" is.
• —Skipping the post-deployment behavioral health screening station debrief. The PDHRA is the last safety net before soldiers go home. A gap in the throughput is a gap in the safety net.
• —Not pushing the credential pipeline aggressively for your specialists. Every month of supervised clinical hours under a licensed officer is licensure-eligible experience. If your soldiers ETS without tracking those hours, you left a real career asset abandoned.

The good SSG 68X runs a section the brigade surgeon names in the Medical BUB as "behavioral health is solid." Their CDMHEs close on time, their chart audits are green, the section's outreach numbers are above the BCT average, and their NCOs are building credential transcripts with a realistic post-service plan. They have ALC done, SHRM or NASW associate-level credential on the wall, and a SLC packet ready when the SFC board discussion starts.

You are the senior behavioral health NCO at a CSC company or a large MTF behavioral health department. The clinical officer team runs treatment; you run the enlisted force, the operational readiness of the section, and the quality of behavioral health support across the formation.

You sit at the CSC company operations level or the MTF behavioral health department senior NCO level. You build the enlisted workforce plan — section assignments, training calendars, deployment cycle readiness, credential pipelines — and brief it to the company commander or the MTF behavioral health chief. You write NCOERs for your section chiefs (SSGs), run the company's quality-assurance program, and represent the enlisted behavioral health force at the division or installation behavioral health council. You also run the company's combat stress training mission to supported units — coordinating the embedded team schedule, the outreach calendar, and the SRP station staffing across multiple BCTs simultaneously.

• 01Build and defend the CSC company's deployment readiness posture — personnel readiness, equipment readiness (biofeedback, ANAM, screening materials), and clinical skills sustainment — for a CTC rotation or theater commitment.
• 02Run the company's quality-assurance program — chart audit sampling design, corrective-action tracking, findings briefed to commander and clinical director, documented improvement over time.
• 03Brief the division or installation behavioral health council on enlisted workforce readiness — credential pipeline status, licensed-officer coverage ratios, high-risk patient census, outreach coverage.
• 04Mentor SSG section chiefs on NCOER writing, ALC / SLC board prep, and the licensed clinical credential pathway (LCSW, LPC, LADC, CADC) honestly.
• 05Run the company's SRP station staffing plan for a brigade-level deployment cycle — personnel, equipment, rehearsal, documentation workflow — no soldier falls through the screening gap.
• 06Coordinate the embedded behavioral health team schedule across multiple BCTs — conflict resolution between supported unit requests, team rotations, surge coverage for CTC rotations.

• —AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management; DoDI 6490.04 — Mental Health Evaluations.
• —FM 4-02.51 — Combat and Operational Stress Control; ATP 4-02.3 — Brigade Combat Team Medical Operations.
• —AR 600-85 — ASAP; AR 600-20, Chapter 6 — Suicide Prevention; AR 638-8 — Casualty Program.
• —AR 623-3 + DA PAM 623-3 — Evaluation Reporting System; AR 350-1 — Army Training.
• —TC 7-22.7 — The Army NCO Guide; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership; ADP 5-0 — The Operations Process.
• —NASW, AMHCA, NAADAC credentialing standards; SAMHSA TIP publications for clinical-practice reference.

• —SLC graduate; MLC packet built if SGM-track.
• —LCSW associate status or LPC associate status — the SFC 68X pursuing licensure sets the bar for every specialist watching.
• —Company QA program producing documented improvement in chart-audit pass rates quarter over quarter.
• —Platoon ACFT pass rate at or above 95%; zero relievable incidents in your tenure — no HIPAA breaches, no missed CDMHE timelines, no undocumented safety contacts.
• —NCOER profile clean — section chief NCOERs you write pick the next SSG-board slate and the brigade behavioral health officer reads them.

• —Letting the quality-assurance program become a paper exercise. If the chart audit findings are not producing corrective training that is documented and re-audited, the accreditation team will find the gap that your program missed.
• —Confusing being aligned with the clinical director with deferring to the clinical director on enlisted-force decisions. The officer runs clinical care; you run the workforce. If your NCOs are burning out or not building credentials, that is your problem to surface and fix.
• —Carrying a personnel grudge from one rotation into the next duty station assignment cycle. The behavioral health community inside the Army is small; the BSC and clinical director community is smaller.
• —Skipping the SGM-A or warrant officer (66F — Psychiatric Nurse, or 73A — Medical Service corps) conversation if the talent is in your section. Telling a specialist they are not competitive when they are costs the Army a future licensed clinician.
• —Treating the deployed embedded team schedule as a logistics problem. The team assigned to the BCT is the unit's only behavioral health resource; matching the right team to the right unit is a clinical judgment call, not just a headcount.

The good SFC 68X is the one the division behavioral health officer names when the IG asks who runs the best enlisted program in the formation. Their QA program is producing documented improvement, their specialists are accumulating supervised clinical hours, their section chiefs are SFC-board ready, and the CSC company commander trusts them with the deployment readiness brief at the division surgeon's conference. They are on the short list for the Sergeant Major of a medical battalion before they sit the MLC seat.

You are the senior enlisted behavioral health voice in the Army Medical Department. Soldiers know whether the behavioral health enterprise is real or a compliance exercise by what you defend in the room when the CG asks.

As 1SG of a CSC company or a behavioral health company, you run the orderly room, the supply room, the training calendar, and the boundary between what the commander needs and what the formation can sustain. As SGM or CSM at a medical brigade, medical center, or HQDA medical level, you set the enlisted standard for the entire behavioral health and social work specialist force — MOS qualification, credential pipelines, deployment readiness, quality-assurance posture, and the advocacy for behavioral health access that senior soldiers need someone to say out loud in the room when the command team is focused on combat power. You brief CGs. You sit on enlisted talent management panels. You tell the Army what it is getting right and wrong about behavioral health access — and you do it in writing.

• 01Run a CSC company 1SG's call that produces actions — accountability, training, credential pipeline, deployment readiness, family readiness — in 30 minutes, without anxiety in the room.
• 02Brief the medical brigade or installation commander on behavioral health enlisted workforce readiness: personnel, credential pipeline, deployment exposure, re-enlistment rate, the things the commander cannot see from the conference room.
• 03Mentor four SFC behavioral health NCOs as the next 1SG / SGM cohort — NCOER writing, MLC packet, licensed-credential pathway, the honest conversation about whether the warrant officer (66F / medical) or SGM path fits.
• 04Represent the 68X MOS at the AMEDD NCO Corps Senior Leader Symposium, the Proponent school input, and the HQDA G-1 enlisted talent management panel.
• 05Walk the deployed forward behavioral health elements and identify the system failures before the IG does — documentation gaps, supervision breakdowns, outreach mission shortfalls.
• 06Translate Army Suicide Prevention Program (ASPP) and Defense Suicide Prevention Office (DSPO) policy into enlisted-force actions at the unit level — not slides, actions.

• —AR 40-68 — Clinical Quality Management; DoDI 6490.04; FM 4-02.51 — Combat and Operational Stress Control.
• —AR 600-20, Chapter 6 — Army Suicide Prevention Program; DSPO policy publications.
• —AR 600-85 — ASAP; AR 608-18 — Family Advocacy; AR 638-8 — Casualty Program.
• —AR 350-1 — Army Training and Leader Development; DA PAM 600-25 — NCO Professional Development Guide.
• —TC 7-22.7 — The Army NCO Guide; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership.
• —AMEDD Enlisted Corps publications; NASW, AMHCA, NAADAC credentialing standards for the MOS civilian pathway.

• —MLC graduate; U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy if SGM-track.
• —LCSW or LPC licensed — the senior 68X who is licensed sets the credential ceiling for the entire enlisted force.
• —Company / brigade behavioral health readiness in the top tier of the formation — quality-assurance, credential pipeline, deployment posture, access-to-care metrics.
• —Zero CAT-1 quality-management findings in your tenure — no undocumented CDMHEs, no HIPAA breaches, no missed sentinel event timelines.
• —Enlisted behavioral health workforce credential pipeline producing licensed-eligible NCOs at a rate above Army average.

• —Hiding a behavioral health access-to-care gap from the commanding general to "fix it before the report." The IG visits and the relief happens at your level.
• —Letting the enlisted credential pipeline become a resume bullet instead of a real workforce development program. If your specialists are not accumulating supervised hours toward licensure, the pipeline is a PowerPoint.
• —Treating the Army Suicide Prevention Program as a compliance check. The soldier the command missed is the one who comes back to the formation in a casket. Your job is to make sure the system works before that moment, not to document that training was conducted after.
• —Confusing administrative seniority in the AMEDD with operational behavioral health expertise. The CG needs you to know FM 4-02.51 and the combat stress control mission, not just the personnel management system.
• —Skipping the licensed-credential conversation honestly with your bench. The 66F (Psychiatric Nurse) warrant path, the social work officer (73A) path, and the civilian LCSW pathway all compete for the same talent. Lying about the odds to keep talent in the enlisted 68X lane is a betrayal.

The good senior 68X NCO is the one the AMEDD CSM names in the slide and the DSPO knows by phone. Their behavioral health workforce is credentialing above the Army average, their forward elements are documenting correctly, the soldiers in the formation know how to access behavioral health without being ordered to, and the Army Surgeon General's office is calling them to contribute to the next behavioral health access policy memo. They are the reason the next generation of 68X specialists will have a real civilian career when they take off the uniform.