U.S. Army Central leaders ‘like’ virtual town hall

Photo By Sgt. Ryan Hallock | Command Sgt. Major Ronnie R. Kelley, USARCENT senior enlisted adviser, reviews questions submitted to him on the U.S. Army Central Facebook page prior to participating in the unit’s inaugural Facebook Town Hall held March 7, 2014. (Photo by Sgt. Ryan Hallock)  

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC, UNITED STATES

03.11.2014

Story by Maj. Fredrick Williams 

U.S. Army Central   

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE – U.S. Army Central’s command team hosted their first-ever Facebook town hall Friday, March 7 to interact with soldiers, \families and friends of the command via Facebook.

Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, U.S. Army Central commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Ronnie R. Kelley, U.S. Army Central senior enlisted adviser, answered questions submitted to them via the USARCENT Facebook page starting around noon and continued for a little over an hour-- until there were no more to answer.

The event was also unique, as the command team was split; Terry participated here at Shaw AFB and Kelley participated forward at the USARCENT operational command post at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

“We were able to address a number of concerns and provide instant feedback leveraging technology,” Kelley said. “It also allowed us to hold a town hall with minimal planning; we just logged on to our Facebook accounts and engaged the USARCENT team,” Kelley said.

The command team dealt with a wide-range of questions from military budgets cuts to the recent events in Ukraine, from physical fitness to junior soldiers and their use of social media.

“It is important to me as commander to check the pulse of my organization. I want to know what issues concern my personnel and try to address their concerns as best as possible,” Terry said.

The town hall was the third in a series of forums led by the command team to open up dialogue amongst USARCENT’s senior leadership, Soldiers and civilians, on a variety of issues facing the organization.

“It is also important to cultivate an environment where soldiers and their families can have a productive dialogue with their senior leaders, and an online discussion can be a good method for this,” Terry said.

According to the command, future engagements will resemble this current format. “Facebook was a great way to communicate across the command and I look forward to using it again to engage the USARCENT team,” Kelley said.

• Date Taken: 03.11.2014
• Date Posted: 03.11.2014 11:19
• Story ID: 121830
• Location: SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC, US