174: Direct Commissions with Heater Cotter

Assad Raza hosts Heather Cotter, who recently gained a direct commission into the Army and Civil Affairs. In this episode, she talks about what it's like to go through the process and her first impressions of the Army. 

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One CA is a product of the civil affairs association 

and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on the ground with a partner nation's people and leadership.

We aim to inspire anyone interested in working in the "last three feet" of U.S. foreign relations. 

To contact the show, email us at CApodcasting@gmail dot com

or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www civilaffairsassoc.org

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Special Thanks to KaraokeMedia

for sharing Manu Chao's "Me Gustas Tu," instrumental version.

Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZsSs9aIDqM

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Credits

Sponsor: Civil Affairs Association

Host: Assad Raza

Showrunner / editor: Jack Gaines

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00:00:03    Introduction
Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. This is your host, Jack Gaines. 1CA is a product of the Civil Affairs Association and brings in people who are current or former military, diplomats, development officers, and field agents to discuss their experiences on ground with the partner nation's people and leadership. Our goal is to inspire anyone interested in working the last three feet of foreign relations. To contact the show, email us at capodcasting at gmail .com. or look us up on the Civil Affairs Association website at www .civilaffairsassos .org. I'll have those in the show notes.

00:00:42    ASSAD RAZA
Welcome to the 1CA Podcast. I'm your host, Asad Raza, and today we have a very special guest with us, Captain Heather Cotter. Heather has a unique and inspiring story about her journey into the civil affairs branch, and she's here to share that with us today. Heather, welcome to the show.

00:00:58    HEATHER COTTER
Thank you, Roz. Great to be here.

00:01:01    ASSAD RAZA
Oh, we're thrilled to have you. Can you start telling us a little bit about yourself?

00:01:05    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, absolutely. Well, professionally, for the last 20 years, I've been working alongside law enforcement and allied emergency responders like firefighters, emergency management professionals,

00:01:19    HEATHER COTTER
paramedics, and most of my career, I expect working at nonprofits that support the advancement of this idea of an integrated public safety community. And in 2020, about three months into the COVID -19 pandemic, I received an email about the 38 Gulf direct commission program. And I was immediately intrigued by this opportunity. After a couple conversations with Lieutenant Colonel Koyanda, I decided to prepare a packet for the commissioning board to consider. All my life, I've been behind the scenes supporting first responders, whether it was through research. training, policy development, or other supportive roles, but I've never been on the other side in the field. And I thought this was a great opportunity to grow as well as serve my country.

00:02:10    ASSAD RAZA
That sounds great. So welcome to the other side. So moving on to your decision of joining the civil affairs branch, could you explain to us what the 38 Golf does and what attracted you specifically to become a 38 Golf within the Army Reserves?

00:02:24    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, you bet. So where do you go? They're also known as military government specialists. The expertise that 38 Gulf brings, specifically, there are currently 18 unique still identifiers for 38 Gulf,

00:02:39    HEATHER COTTER
identifiers for 38 Gulf, and each 38 Gulf carries at least one of them. Some of them carry multiple. For example, I carry the one still identifier of a six hotel, which happens to be Long Order Enforcement. And there are, like I said, 18 total. A few others include four Delta, which are laws, regulations, and policies. Six Charlie, which is finance, money, and banking. Six Delta, which is education. And six Victor, which is heritage and preservation.

00:03:15    ASSAD RAZA
Man, so you said there's 18? Yes,

00:03:17    HEATHER COTTER
there are 18 of them. And every unit across the United States Army Reserve. and doing their best to fill the billet with a diverse group of agency leaders who carry these different types of expertise.

00:03:31    ASSAD RAZA
carry these different types of expertise. Can you kind of explain what the process was like for you from submitting your application to taking your oath to office?

00:03:39    HEATHER COTTER
It's a lengthy process, to be honest, on receiving a direct commission. But from my understanding, this isn't unique to civil affairs either. Some of the other branches also have a lengthy direct commission process. But specific to my experience, it was pretty long. It took me about two years from the time I submitted my packet until I took my oath of office. And there was a lot of paperwork in between that time. So essentially, from the time I submitted my packet back in July of 2020 until my board met, there was really little communication about my status as a candidate. I focused my waiting time on learning more about civil affairs, scanning my civil affairs network by reaching out to people like you, learning about our main history, foreign policy, international relations, hard events, and also improving my foreign language proficiency and improving my physical physics. I even applied to graduate school to get a second master's degree in international affairs. So during this time, like I said, a waiting period. But I tried to maximize it. And when I finally did receive the letter that the board obtained my conditioning appointment back in November 2020, my status changed from a 38 -golf candidate to a 38 -golf selectee. So once I became a selectee, and this is what other 38 -golfs will go through, there will be new next steps to take, like criminal background checks, obtaining a clearance, going through medical screening. And more paperwork.

00:05:19    ASSAD RAZA
So as a 38 golf candidate, as you're waiting to go through the process, you said it took about two years. You got your second master's in international affairs and you're working on foreign language proficiency. Two questions.

00:05:32    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah.

00:05:32    ASSAD RAZA
What foreign language were you trying to improve on? And what was your thought about getting a master's degree in international affairs and how it's associated with your personal development to be a 38 golf?

00:05:42    HEATHER COTTER
That's a great question. So when I was lumber, More than 20 years ago. Actually, when I was in grade school, I was in a program with German and French through college. And then when I entered the workforce, I didn't really use those languages, but I still had a lot of knowledge there deep in my brain. So while I was taking my oath of office and from when I got the approval letter, I was improving my perfect easy in both German and French. And I had also reached out to my unit. to ask them what language needs they had. So they were telling me Mandarin would be good to know, Tagalog would be good to know, as well as Korean. So I just started dabbling in those, but I never got too far. I don't know about you, Roz, but the way I suffer to learn is classroom study, if that makes sense.

00:06:37    ASSAD RAZA
Yeah, absolutely. Having that foundational within the classroom, and I think using the apps later on as a way to maintain the languages. having that foundational within the classroom, especially PACOM -aligned languages, which are a little bit more difficult compared to European languages.

00:06:53    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, you're absolutely right about that. And then to use second question about the degree in international affairs. So interestingly, before I even learned about the 38 Golf Direct Commission program, I was exploring opportunities before this pandemic hit us in March of 2020. So I think it was like January. I think it must have been a New Year's resolution. In 2020, I started exploring opportunities to get involved with humanitarian aid assistance and what that would require of me in order to go on humanitarian aid work. And a common thing that I saw was a degree in international affairs would be super helpful, which makes obvious sense, right? So I started realizing that This was before civil affairs became something on my radar. But I realized that a degree in IA or international affairs is something I wanted to do. And then, of course, when the pandemic hit, life changed for a lot of us. And then I received the email about the 38 golf program. So I started pursuing that. And when I got selected by the board, I knew. even more confidently that a degree in international affairs would be incredibly helpful for me as an incoming civil affairs officer. Because the one thing that I kept sad was there's a lot of downtime between when you start the process of submitting your application to when you get selected and when you take your oath of office. And for me, you know, time is something that shouldn't be wasteful. I'm going to maximize my time. For me, the best way I could do a service to civil affairs class would be to expand my knowledge in international affairs. So I ended up applying to graduate school at Arizona State University. And I started my master's in August of 2022. And I graduated just a few months ago in December 2023.

00:09:07    ASSAD RAZA
Congratulations on that. Seems like everything kind of worked out, everything kind of aligned itself. So once you pleaded all that, transitioned from being a 38 golf candidate to an actual 38 golf, and you took your oath of office, what did you do next?

00:09:21    HEATHER COTTER
So once I took my oath of office back in August of 2022, the same month I started graduate school again, because I got my first, this was after 20 years ago, but I... I took my oath of office in August of 2022, and I attended a few battle assemblies, really just to complete and processing with my unit. And then within a few months, I was at the direct commission course at Fort Worth.

00:09:50    ASSAD RAZA
So when you say battle assemblies, for our listeners that potentially wanting to be 38 golfs and never served in the military, what is that?

00:09:58    HEATHER COTTER
Well, essentially, it's an active duty training that we do. Typically on a monthly basis, so it's when you get together with your unit, basically you're working on readiness as well as other soldiering skills, whether it's weapons qualification or something else relevant to whatever the unit's working on. But the 351s, specifically, I can't speak to the other units because I'm not in them. But we meet in a hybrid model, typically quarterly in person. And then we'll do our other battle assembly remotely. And typically, there's kinds of online training and requirements that you have to complete on an annual basis, whether it's anti -terrorism training or cyber awareness training or any other readiness requirements is typically what we're executing. As well as if we're trying to get involved in the school, as well as any mission requirements. or meeting whether it's before you go on a mission or mission.

00:11:06    ASSAD RAZA
Interesting. Just a really quick question. Where is the 351st Civil Affairs Command located? In Mountain View, California. How far is that from where you're located?

00:11:15    HEATHER COTTER
I'm physically based in the Phoenix metro area in Arizona. So it's about an hour and a half plane ride when I do have to go in person. So I'll be at battle assembly next month. And I'll fly up there to San Jose, which is about a 90 -minute flight. And then I'll return home.

00:11:36    ASSAD RAZA
Nice. So you get to fly up to Northern California for the weekend. Sounds like fun.

00:11:42    HEATHER COTTER
It's not the worst place to be, that's for sure. It's a great location.

00:11:46    ASSAD RAZA
Awesome. Okay, so you mentioned the direct commissioning course at Fort Moore. Can you describe that to our listeners?

00:11:53    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, we've got the direct commission course. developed for officers to receive a direct commission into the Army. So typically this course consists of mostly JAG officers, but you'll also see some civil affairs direct commission. You'll see direct commission into adjacent general, finance, fiber,

00:12:21    HEATHER COTTER
really any branch that the Army offers the direct commission to. So soldiers or those officers will attend the vaccination course at Fort Moore. And they offer this course throughout the year, I believe at a quarter of them basis, typically, and it's six weeks in duration. And throughout this course, you're going to learn how to review the uniform, how to do plan that, how to do basic rifle marksmanship. They'll take the ACFT a couple times, which is diagnostic. just to get you familiar with the requirements of physical fitness. And I'd have to say,

00:13:00    HEATHER COTTER
have to say, you know, my experience at Fort Moore was overwhelming and positive. The days were long. We had very little downtime. We were in the barracks and in uniforms, whether they were OCPs or APFUs about 98 % of the time. And we had staff duty in the middle of the night, training during the day. We ate a petite fast that we ate as a week, and we're information every three times a day. So it's a little bit like basic training, but it's designed for officers, and it's much shorter in length.

00:13:39    ASSAD RAZA
Nice. So you ate a defect three times a day, every day, for six weeks. Yeah. Did you get tired of the food? You know, I stuck with the salad box. Okay. That's great. I wanted to ask you, I know you said there was a lot of different other branches in there, like JAG and AG, Cyber. Were there any other civil affairs officers or 38 Gulfs in your course?

00:14:02    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, in my cohort, there were a few of them. There was actually another one from my unit, which was fantastic, Captain Ben Lyon. He's your 6th Delta, which is education. So it was nice to have a battle buddy there, somebody I could talk with before we fought to Fort Moore as well as during and after. And then I was also able to meet a few others that were there. Captain Heather Price was there. Major Al Cho was there. I don't want to forget anybody, but I believe it was just the four of us from Civil Affairs.

00:14:35    ASSAD RAZA
That's good. That's great that you got to meet some other peers within the 38 Golf and Civil Affairs branch. So once you finish the commissioning course at Fort Moore, back to your unit, the 351st. So what have you been doing since you got back to your unit?

00:14:49    HEATHER COTTER
So when I returned to the 351 back in June of last year, 2023, I had the opportunity to enroll in women, people, security training to become a gender focal point. So I did that in June of last year. And then I was able to go out to Hawaii. and support Indo -PACON with their first regional multinational women, peace, and security training. There were at least 10 different countries represented at that training. So it was a phenomenal experience, a phenomenal learning opportunity, and a way to get this opportunity to work with our nation partners. And then after that, I went back to professional military education. to Bullock B for 12 weeks in duration at Jackson. Nice.

00:15:50    ASSAD RAZA
Before I ask you more about your Bullock B experience, I do want to ask you one thing. Can you describe what you mean by a gender focal point?

00:15:59    HEATHER COTTER
So a gender focal point is essentially a person within the unit that is an advocate for women's peace and security issues champion to help promote women, peace, and security within the unit and inspire others to become also gender focal points and receive women, peace, and security training.

00:16:24    ASSAD RAZA
Oh, that's great. I'm a little bit jealous. You've gone to Northern California, which is beautiful, and in Hawaii. Well, with the 351st, so that's awesome. So talking about Bullock Bee now as we move on, where did you attend?

00:16:39    HEATHER COTTER
I was in South Carolina at Fort Jackson, and the bullet bee that I selected was Atchison General. It was 12 weeks.

00:16:49    ASSAD RAZA
So you get to choose which bullet bee you want to go to? Yeah, sort of. That's interesting. How did that work?

00:16:52    HEATHER COTTER
sort of. That's interesting. How did that work? I was like, kind of.

00:16:54    ASSAD RAZA
kind of.

00:16:57    HEATHER COTTER
Is there like a menu they give you guys?

00:16:58    ASSAD RAZA
like a menu they give you guys? Like, hey, here's a list of areas you can go, and you can choose one?

00:17:04    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, essentially, that's exactly what it is. had a selection of nine or ten different Bullocks that we could attend. Not every Bullock out there was offered, but Adjutant General was on that list, and I did select that one.

00:17:22    ASSAD RAZA
Okay, so how was your experience? What was it like?

00:17:25    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, so it was three months in South Carolina from August to November. The thing about Bullock B compared to Bullock A, There was a lot more downtime. If you remember the description I gave you about the recognition court, we were in uniform about 98 % of the time. And we were in formation three times a day. You did have the feedback three times a day, every day of the week. Life isn't like that. At full speed, we have a lot more freedom and liberty. So we generally had our weekend free. But for the court itself, some of the graduation requirements included day and night land navigation. We had to do a 6, 9, and 12 -mile walk, basic rifle marksmanship. We had to do the ACFP for record. And there were also, I don't know, about 27 assignments and two or three written tasks that we had to take. Unlike the direct commission course, which were predominantly jab officers with a few other branches and most of the cohort. at the direct commission course were first lieutenants for captains. And I think there was one or two majors. Whereas at Bullet B, the cohort, they're primarily recent graduates from ROTC or West Point. There were a couple from OCS, Officer Candidate School. And there was one other civil affairs direct commission there. And similar to the direct commission course, I was among the oldest.

00:19:01    ASSAD RAZA
Wow. That's, I'm not going to say a big age difference, but there is an age difference there between recent college grads and a professional like yourself that already had a career prior to coming into the military. Before we move on, was there any tension points or any frustrations because of the age differences within your cohort?

00:19:19    HEATHER COTTER
So I don't think there were any tension points, but it was noticeable, the generational differences. And I think a lot of that just... Life experience, as you mentioned, you know, I've been in the workforce for 20 years. I had a graduate degree under my belt. And these were folks who were brand new to leadership, most of them, right? But having said that, unlike me, they also had several months, if not years, of Army -type training. So they had skills I didn't have. So I think at the end of the day, it's a compliment to one another. I think I've learned from Dan probably more than they learned from me. And maybe because I was one of the oldest, some of them said, hey, you're mine. You know,

00:20:13    HEATHER COTTER
I remember specifically we were doing combatant. They're like, I just can't imagine my mom doing that. Yeah, we're down for it, you know? So. But it was all well -natured, right? Nothing was defaulting. I thought it was just understanding that there's going to be a generational gap and kind of being open -minded. I think it's important knowing that we can learn from young emerging leaders just as much as they can learn from us.

00:20:42    ASSAD RAZA
I think that's great. You brought up a good point. What time of year were you at South Carolina?

00:20:47    HEATHER COTTER
I was there in the fall, so from August to November.

00:20:51    ASSAD RAZA
Okay, so did you have an opportunity to go to Myrtle Beach?

00:20:54    HEATHER COTTER
I did not. Unfortunately, even though we had weekends free, because I am who I am,

00:21:00    HEATHER COTTER
am who I am, I was still in graduate school, and I was completing it. So not only did I have the demands on the Bullet Street course, I was also in two graduate school classes while I was trying to complete, and still kind of working. So my free time wasn't free, if you will.

00:21:20    ASSAD RAZA
That's understandable. All right. So, you know, this is really valuable for our listeners, specifically for those that are considering to become a 38 Golf and wanting to join the military and potentially never been in the military before. So reflecting on your 38 Golf career that you've had so far, what would you say has been the most rewarding experience?

00:21:40    HEATHER COTTER
I'm still very new, right? Into civil affairs and into the Army and a new commissioned officer at the 38 Golf. If gay, I would say the most rewarding experience I have in civil affairs has to be my recent mission to the Marshall Islands. I was with a team of experts to provide combating trafficking and persons training to different criminal justice constituents and stakeholders like prosecutors, judges, cops, and victim services professionals in the Marshall Islands. My area of focus for this training centered on victim services. like how to identify trafficking victims, the types of victims that might be trafficked, whether it's through forced labor, domestic servitude, or other types of trafficking. And while CTIP, combating trafficking in person, is a topic that's a little dark, some of the conversations we had, while they were tough to have, it was a rewarding experience because I'm hopeful that the knowledge that we share with the Marshallese and the knowledge shared between them during this event may help a survivor of trafficking.

00:22:57    ASSAD RAZA
That's truly inspiring. That's a really important and sensitive topic. I specifically have to talk with people from a foreign land. Potentially, it might be a little bit more sensitive for them, too. So, no, thank you. So, looking ahead. So what are some of your goals or aspirations within the civil affairs branch?

00:23:16    HEATHER COTTER
One of my immediate goals is to continue professional military education, the captain's career course. I've completed the direct commission course, bullet A. I've completed bullet B, which you're required to do within the first two years of proceeding the commission. And the next item for me to complete or the next P &E for me to complete is the captain's career course at Port Liberty. I'm also looking after that, or hopefully maybe even before that, to get some continued education and training in women's peace and security. And then longer term, really what matters most to me is being able to provide value to the civil affairs branch. What that looks like may vary over time, but I will do all I can just to be useful and relevant to the branch and to my unit.

00:24:10    ASSAD RAZA
Thank you. Well, I'm sure you're going to provide value to the SoFares branch in whatever you do. Before we move on, just really quick questions for our listeners. The Captain True course at Fort Liberty, what's the time frame for that?

00:24:23    HEATHER COTTER
Yeah, so from my understanding, it's about four weeks in duration for every service to attend, and they cut it across, I believe, three different phases. Don't quote me on those time frames, but it is about four weeks in duration.

00:24:37    ASSAD RAZA
Okay, four weeks, not too bad. It seems like it takes up a lot of time to get all these PME classes that you need to be branch qualified.

00:24:48    HEATHER COTTER
You're absolutely right on that. And a lot of it depends what bullets you go to as well. That is a factor in any person's division. I want to attend a nine -week bullet, a 19 -week bullet, or a 12 -week bullet. It really comes down to the individual officer, which one they attend. But you're right. I attended 18 weeks of PME last year and another four weeks, hopefully this year. But honestly, 22 weeks of army training for everything that you need to know really isn't that much.

00:25:21    HEATHER COTTER
training for everything that you need to know really isn't that much. At least in my perspective, because to me, training and education is ongoing and it should almost be daily. So yeah, I do. have to be a ways for extended periods of time. But one, it's absolutely necessary. Two, it's really rewarding. And you're going to find that everything you learn is going to stay with you. But unless you're using those skill sets on a regular basis, you're also going to lose some of them, which is why I think training and education is something that just needs to be the regular occurrence.

00:26:03    ASSAD RAZA
That makes sense. You want to stay up within your profession. like you do in your civilian side, you want the same thing in the military side, to be able to provide that value, like you said. All right, Heather, so before we wrap up, do you have any advice for our listeners who may be interested in joining the military or civil affairs branch, specifically like the 38 golf career field? Also, do you have any recommended readings or books that could better prepare them for this journey?

00:26:28    HEATHER COTTER
For me, joining the Army Reserve has been a transformative experience. I would love to see more people join, whether it's civil affairs or another grant. And there are two pieces of advice I can offer. First is to make sure you talk with your families and loved ones prior to taking the first step of applying. Their support is vital, especially when you become a service member. And second, you have to embrace the experience. Your mindset really matters. And it will be a factor in all aspects of your success. There are going to be times when you don't want to do something. They ask you to do like stand in the field when it's pouring rain. You know, waiting for tents, right? But that's just what you have to do. And I think having a good mindset and the attitude will make all the different things like that. And moving on to your second question about the recommended reading. Right now, I have two. The first book, I would recommend this for anyone interested in women, peace, and security. The title is Invisible Women, Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Perez. And the second book is by Gran Allison, and that's Deskin for War.

00:27:53    ASSAD RAZA
I might have to get both of those books. You know, there's nothing wrong with standing in the rain and waiting around for a tent to go up.

00:28:03    ASSAD RAZA
I think that just makes the experience a lot more worthwhile. All right. So Heather, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the 1CA podcast. I really was really inspired by your journey. And I'm sure it's an inspiration to many of our listeners that are thinking about wanting to join the 38 golf career field.

00:28:20    HEATHER COTTER
Thank you, Roz. It was my pleasure to be here and share my experiences. I hope these lessons learned can inspire or help them on their own path.

00:28:30    ASSAD RAZA
Thank you. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Be sure to join us next time for another episode of the 1CA Podcast. Until then, take care and keep pushing forward.

00:28:38    Close
forward. Thanks for listening. If you get a chance, please like and subscribe and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you're interested in coming on the show or hosting an episode, email us at capodcasting at gmail .com. I'll have the email and CA Association website in the show notes. And now, most importantly, To those currently out in the field, working with a partner nation's people or leadership to forward U .S. relations, thank you all for what you're doing. This is Jack, your host. Stay tuned for more great episodes, 1CA Podcast.