Photo By Maj. Jose Emperador | Maj. John E. Crabtree uses a rock drill demonstration to illustrate how a Theater...... read more read more
BELLE CHASSE, La. - Soldiers from across the 377th Theater Sustainment Command gathered at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, La. near New Orleans last February for the two-week Reserve Component Theater Sustainment course. The training, sponsored by the United States Army Reserve Command and conducted by the Army Logistics University is designed primarily for reserve officers assigned to, or planning on future assignments in, multifunctional sustainment positions coded 90A at the theater sustainment command, expeditionary support command, or sustainment brigade level.
According to the Army Logistics University, the RCTSC is geared toward reserve officers with the rank of captain or above, warrant officers and senior logistics non-commissioned officers having preferably completed battle staff school. First lieutenants require a waiver and graduation from an advanced course to attend.
Maj. John E. Crabtree, RCTSC course director and instructor, says it provides reserve component logistics officers, or those interested in transitioning to the sustainment career field, with a working knowledge of multifunctional sustainment concepts and procedures, missions, functions, capabilities and limitations of various sustainment and logistics organizations. Crabtree says there are between 10 and 13 annual RCTSC classes taught at the Army Logistics University campus in Fort Lee, Va. or onsite at various commands throughout the United States. This course satisfies one of two U.S. Army Reserve or National Guard educational requirements for awarding an officer the multifunctional logistician 90A area of concentration.
It’s been Crabtree’s experience the soldiers enroll in this course for different reasons ranging from wanting to branch transfer to gaining increased knowledge to become more competitive amongst their peers. In addition to standard introductions, he asks students to tell the class their reasons for wanting to take part in the theater sustainment training. Capt. Waymon Bryant, a 377th TSC transportation officer with the unit’s special operations section says he wanted to see the whole puzzle not just the individual pieces.
“I enrolled for the RC Theater Sustainment Course because as a transportation officer, I wanted to see the big picture and understand how all the other areas of logistics work together to support and sustain the war fighters on the ground,” Bryant said. “As a TSC, we have a major role in providing sustainment for our war fighters and increasing my knowledge on the way we conduct operations in theater enables me to be better prepared and maximize my effectiveness as a logistician.”
According to the Logistics University, the RCTSC course also covers the logistics evolution especially focusing on its transformation during the last six years.
“We were doing sustainment back in 2006 where we were functionally aligned to now being multifunctional.” Crabtree emphasized. “When I went over (Operation Iraqi Freedom) in 2005, we did sustainment by functional alignment…the 143rd did transportation, the 475th Quartermaster Group did quartermaster P-O-L bulk petroleum, we had a personnel group, everything was functionally aligned. Now that we’re doing multifunctional logistics, I think that it’s key that we express that to the Soldiers as best as we can.”
The logistics and sustainment training also covers the makeup and areas of responsibilities of theater sustainment commands (TSC), expeditionary sustainment commands (ESC) and sustainment brigade organizations. The course covers the operations like theater supply, field services, transportation, ammunition and maintenance in detail. It also gives students a good overview on force projection, including reception, staging, onward movement and integration. The course challenges students to share and utilize their professional experiences to help absorb lots of information for several tests. In fact, students will find that 50 percent of their final grade comes from quizzes and the final exam and 50 percent from class participation.
“Student involvement is pretty important because, since we’ve been at war, I’ve found that experience levels vary,” Crabtree says. “In some cases students are very experienced in the sustainment roles they performed in theater. I try to draw on students’ past experience and relate that to current operations.”
Crabtree added that he likes to vary his instruction techniques in class simply because “we’ve all taken classes that have been death by Power Point.” He says his goal is to rely less on slides and bring more student interactivity into the class room. Crabtree, who has been teaching RCTSC for almost two years, says he is constantly revaluating how to improve the course. During the course in New Orleans, Crabtree moved students from the classroom to a drill hall gymnasium where he demonstrated in terrain model and rock drill format the organization of sustainment and logistics activities in a theater of operations. Students liked this method.
“The rock drill we performed in the gym was outstanding. It helped everyone in the course to understand where all the logistical agencies and units are placed on the battlefield on a three dimensional plane,” Bryant, who is also an Intermediate Leadership Education (ILE) program student, says. “The officers and senior non-commissioned officers had to walk the length of the area of operations and explain the roles or each and why the respective agencies were placed in theater to the instructor. This method helped everyone understand how all individual moving parts created a finely tuned logistical-support sustainment engine.”
In addition to taking the RCTSC course and other training offered by the Army Sustainment University, Crabtree recommends his students stay informed on what’s going on in the Army logistics and sustainment arenas.
“If you’re a logistician, look and see what’s going on when it comes to changes in MTOEs, doctrine and regulations.” Crabtree advised. “When it comes to sustainment, as it is constantly changing, become very familiar with Field Manuals 4.0 Sustainment and 4.94 Theater Sustainment Command. Crabtree says this field is constantly updating doctrine to reflect what has been learned in war.
He also encourages students to frequent the Sustainment Knowledge Network accessible through Army Knowledge Online and the Army Logistics University Website http://www.almc.army.mil/ for the latest in sustainment and logistics information and professional forums.
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2011 17:41 |
| Story ID: | 68468 |
| Location: | BELLE CHASSE, LA, US |
| Web Views: | 747 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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