Photo By Master Sgt. Michael McGhee | Command Sgt. Maj. Sam K. Young, the First Army command sergeant major, selects a...... read more read more
JOHNSTON, Iowa - From wheeled and tracked vehicle repair to ammunition handling, from petroleum distribution to Tactical Combat Casualty Care, the Sustainment Training Center (STC), located at Camp Dodge in Johnston, Iowa, has become nationally-recognized as a unique, one-stop shop for all U.S. Army sustainment training needs.
Army officials are intrigued with the prospect of expanding STC’s training footprint in order to provide more proactive, cost-effective training for today’s Total Force, encompassing the active duty Army, U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard.
Within the past two months, Army Gen. Robert Abrams, the U.S. Forces Command commander and Maj. Gen. Flem B. Walker, Jr., the Deputy Chief of Staff, Logistics (G-4) for U.S. Army Forces Command have visited the Iowa training complex.
Most recently, it was Command Sgt. Maj. Sam K. Young, the First Army command sergeant major. Young, who traveled from Illinois’ Rock Island Arsenal, previously toured the Camp Dodge facility in 2014. Unfortunately, Young said, all he was able to see during his first visit was some of the warrant officer individual training.
“This visit,” Young said, “I actually got to see a Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) going through a culminating training event. I got to go out to the field and see an actual sling-load operation, I got to see the delivery of palletized equipment, and I got to see the linkage between the Charlie Med (battalion medical company), the headquarters and everybody else training. So it really showed you how the total exercise comes together and the training for the battalion as a whole.”
Young was also able to observe Soldiers from the 53rd Brigade Support Battalion and the 779th Forward Support Company, both from the Florida Army National Guard, perform annual training.
The four-acre STC provides collective-level training to support battalions, distribution companies, field maintenance companies, support maintenance companies, brigade support medical companies, and infantry brigade combat teams. More than 4,800 active duty Army, U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers pass through the STC on an annual basis.
“The trip today was to observe the training going on with the BSB units,” Young said. “What we are trying to do is find ways to economize the training for a BSB while maximizing their time. For instance, during Annual Training, how can we get the biggest bang for our buck, how can you get the most training out to each level, so the lowest Soldier doesn’t feel like he wasted his time?
“At the end of the day, when a Soldier goes to takes his boots off he should have confidence in his unit, confidence in his training, and confidence in his equipment. And that’s what we’re looking for,” said Young.
While most focus on the collective training piece early in the planning process, STC generates a hand-tailored, unit-specific training curriculum based upon the incoming unit commander’s intent, their force structure and the equipment they have available. Once that training is completed, the commander receives a comprehensive unit evaluation.
Using weapons repair as one example, the STC trains unit armorers on weapons ranging from a pistol all the way up to an M777 howitzer. According to Lt. Col. David Babb, the Sustainment Training Center commander, STC’s critical role in an ideal world is to train armorers in a Forward Support Company to a higher level of realism, providing multi-echelon, hands-on training focused on completing their arms mission the right way, rather than simply performing mission support for the unit.
One part of that on-going process involves STC ultimately determining “What right looks like.”
“By working with the G3 (Operations) and G4 (Logistics) community, as well as the Joint Readiness Training Centers and National Training Centers, the STC is attempting to integrate those ‘best practices’ into our training, all the while building upon those relationships to ensure we do what’s right,” Babb said.
The other reason Young said he was here, was to see if it was possible to link the orders process through the battalion and down to the lowest level.
“I wanted to get that linkage to where, instead of training individuals or platoons, we’re training at the battalion level,” Young said. “So the training goes all the way from the orders, to the higher, from the higher headquarters, to the battalions, down through the companies, to the actual person that executes the mission. So that’s what we’re trying to get after.”
Overall, Young said, it was “a good visit” and that the complex had “a lot of potential.”
“I think we have just a couple of more things we have to link together as far as where it fits into the training model, where it fits into the Sustainment, Restoration and Moderation (SRM) and how it will improve the readiness of the unit and assist the unit in accomplishing its objective,” he said.
With the Army National Guard’s new force structure rapidly approaching – generating new units such as Composite Truck Companies, Composite Supply Companies, Quartermaster Supply Companies and Classification and Inspection Companies – it’s even more imperative that the STC evolves even further to provide modern, innovative training for the Army’s Total Force of tomorrow.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.09.2016 16:22 |
| Story ID: | 191758 |
| Location: | JOHNSTON, IA, US |
| Web Views: | 211 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Iowa National Guard's Sustainment Training Center catches eye of First Army, by 1SG Duff E. McFadden, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT