The total force, tough and realistic training and readiness were key themes of the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss-hosted Southwest Regional Partnership Summit at the Centennial Banquet and Conference Center on Fort Bliss April 6.
The conference brought together nearly 80 representatives from five states, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah and Texas. Leaders from the Army and Air Force's National Guard, Reserves, and active component discussed potential training opportunities. Maj. Gen. Stephen M. Twitty, commanding general, 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss, set the stage for the conference with words from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley.
"We're one Army," Twitty said. "When (the CSA) talks about the Army, he says we are an Army of one comprised of 980,000 Soldiers. That's really the purpose of this forum today, that all hands must be on deck, whether it's active, National Guard, or Reserve component."
The main way leaders plan to fight as a Total Force is first through training. During the summit, each unit represented briefed their capabilities and upcoming training events.
"Really, at the end of the day, it's about readiness, it's about maximizing the opportunities for units to train to do their combat related tasks so they are most prepared when it comes time to deploy," said Col. Chris Lambesis, deputy chief of staff, operations, Arizona Army National Guard.
An example of this training is a Reserve or National Guard Soldier attending a troop school located on Fort Bliss, a scenario that is already underway.
"We have already sent Soldiers to 1AD's Air Assault School, who graduated. First time it ever happened, the first time we've been able to send Soldiers to Air Assault School from the state of Arizona in who knows how long," Lambesis said. "Without 1AD's willingness to partner with reserve elements, to be able to create these opportunities, it would have never happened."
Maturing these partnerships with the goal of creating a total, interchangeable fighting force takes effort, time and a great deal of coordination. The Southwest summit brought everyone together to start leveraging the scarce resources we have from across the active force, National Guard and Reserve respectively, said Lt. Col. Monte Rone, G3 operations officer, 1st Armored Division.
"What we get in the end is that readiness piece, it's not just readiness for the active component, it's readiness across the entire Army," Rone said.
They aim to increase the readiness at all levels in the military.
"What's so wonderful about it is, it can be down at the individual unit level, like having people go up for the Expert Field Medical Badge or Expert Infantryman Badge. That's an individual Soldier event. In the Reserves, it's very difficult for us to do our own so there's opportunities for us now to send our infantrymen to come here to participate in these type of events," Lambesis said.
There are also plans to have larger units train together later this summer. During the summit, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed, sealing in ink agreements to work together all the way through fiscal year 2018.
"What that essentially allows us to do is, everything we agree to ... whether it's attending troop schools on the installation, attending Air Assault School or other things that are available, we're going to support it. We're going to support it with the requisite people, with the associated skills and experience to make sure they're successful, just like our training is a success as well," Rone said.
The MOU wasn't just a ceremonial way to end the summit, it was business, Rone said. Meaning Soldiers have continued tough and realistic training coming their way.
| Date Taken: |
04.06.2016 |
| Date Posted: |
04.11.2016 16:35 |
| Story ID: |
195068 |
| Location: |
EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: |
454 |
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This work, Partnership summit aims for total readiness, by Abigail Meyer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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