Photo By Aimee Malone | Garrison Commander Col. Michael Poss gives a briefing March 31, 2022, to Fort McCoy...... read more read more
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Garrison Commander Col. Michael Poss spoke about the past year and the state of Fort McCoy during the annual workforce briefing March 31 at the annual garrison workforce briefing.
Poss shared some of the highlights and accomplishments of 2021. Some of the larger training events included hosting the Army Reserve Best Warrior/Best Squad Competition; Army Reserve Medical Command’s Expert Field Medical Badge event; two Warrior Exercise iterations; Operation Pershing Strike, a Level III Mobility Exercise 65; Global Medic; and the Cold-Weather Operations Course.
In all, 116,053 service members trained at Fort McCoy in fiscal year 2021, almost double the number that trained in fiscal year 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“We’ve got a lot of field space,” Poss said. “We’re open for business, to train safely and effectively.”
Community engagement was a strong focus during 2021. Reconnecting with the surrounding communities after COVID-19 safety precautions had forced everyone to distance themselves was a priority.
Fort McCoy hosted a number of distinguished visitors and community leader engagements. Garrison organizations also returned to community events, such as the Monroe County Fair and local Memorial Day and Veterans Day events.
“Despite COVID-19, we try to get out and circulate,” Poss said.
In August, Fort McCoy received notification that it would host Afghan evacuees for Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), and within days, the first guests arrived.
Fort McCoy quickly reached capacity with approximately 13,000 Afghan men, women, and children, as well as the accompanying support staff for the mission.
Fort McCoy personnel immediately sprang into action to prepare facilities and receive additional military, civilian, and nongovernmental personnel, Deputy Garrison Commander Lt. Col. Chad Maynard said.
Maynard and Poss thanked the garrison organizations and highlighted some of the ways they’d provided support in both the early days and throughout ongoing operations: the Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) for ramping up security and training military police personnel, the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) for its 24/7 responses to issues with OAW facilities, and the Directorate of Human Resources for managing the sudden onslaught of mail to and from the Afghan guests. Another success highlighted was the opening of the West Side Post Exchange during the OAW mission, which helped relieve congestion at the overtaxed Main Exchange and promoted safety by reducing foot traffic crossing central thoroughfares on post.
OAW ended Feb. 15 at Fort McCoy with the departure of the last Afghan guests, though some support personnel remained on hand to help wrap things up.
Looking forward, the installation is moving into a recovery phase to repair damaged facilities and proceed with ongoing modernization efforts.
Poss also shared some of the awards and accomplishments that garrison organizations had earned during the year.
The DES Fire Department was reaccredited with the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. Child and Youth Services scored 100 percent on its annual Higher Headquarters inspection.
The Civilian Personnel Advisory Center’s nonappropriated fund division scored 98 percent on a human-resources audit.
The Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization, and Security’s Mobilization Branch received commendations from Forces Command, Installation Management Command, and First Army for supporting the Level III Mobility Exercise.
DPW’s housing team earned a Platinum A List award for customer service.
The Garrison Public Affairs Office received awards at Department of Defense, Army, Army Material Command, and Army Installation Management Command levels for 2020.
The Fort McCoy Logistics Readiness Center helped deploy two Army units to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, supported rail deployments, and supported eight training exercises from two dining facilities consisting of 120,345 meals.
Mission Installation Contracting Command-McCoy completed 1,900 actions totaling more than $140 million and managed 787 government purchase card accounts with $34.6 million in expenditures.
The briefing also covered the ongoing construction of transient troop training barracks, which is currently seeing the second barracks building that was funded in fiscal year 2020 still under construction. The first barracks project was turned over to the Fort McCoy DPW on April 1.
Also discussed was Fort McCoy’s economic impact for fiscal year (FY) 2021, which was nearly $2 billion. Fort McCoy’s total economic impact for FY 2021 was an estimated $1.93 billion, above the $1.479 billion reported for FY 2020. The data was compiled by Fort McCoy’s Plans, Analysis and Integration Office. Workforce payroll, operating costs, and other expenditures totaled $481.6 million for FY 2021 compared to $369 million for FY 2020. A total of 17,753 personnel worked or were guests at Fort McCoy in FY 2021 — 1,702 civilians, 2,023 military, 1,452 contract employees, and 12,576 Afghan guests. This includes all personnel who were on post during Operation Allies Welcome and with Task Force McCoy.
This also was the first in-person workforce briefing since before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
| Date Taken: | 04.06.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.06.2022 17:19 |
| Story ID: | 417982 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 112 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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