Photo By Kelsie Steber | Installation Management Command-Western Hemisphere and Fort McCoy Garrison members...... read more read more
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Senior Installation Management Command-Western Hemisphere leaders joined Fort McCoy Garrison leaders and representatives from organizations across the installation Sept. 1 at McCoy’s Community Center for Fort McCoy’s annual Installation Planning Board (IPB) meeting.
Patrick J. Appelman, director of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command Directorate-Western Hemisphere (IMCOM-WH), and Command Sgt. Maj. Danny Castleberry, IMCOM-WH command sergeant major, participated in the meeting as Fort McCoy leaders reviewed current installation priorities and considered recommendations for future priorities.
The annual IPB is one of Fort McCoy’s key installation-wide planning forums. The meeting is organized by the Fort McCoy Plans, Analysis and Integration Office (PAIO) and brings together the garrison, installation service providers and tenant organizations to identify, assess and prioritize installation requirements.
Previous Fort McCoy IPBs have been described as a forum for providing a common operating picture of installation-wide planning requirements, improving collaboration and helping ensure resourcing decisions align with the installation’s strategic plan.
The Sept. 1 agenda centered on the installation’s Integrated Priority List (IPL) and included five major portions: feeder boards; key updates to the 2025-26 IPL; the recommended 2026-27 IPL; a round-robin discussion; and closing remarks.
Reviewing current priorities
The first portion of the meeting involved feeder boards, which provide information and recommendations that help inform the installation-level planning process.
The board then reviewed updates to the 2025-26 Integrated Priority List, giving Fort McCoy leaders an opportunity to assess the status of previously identified priorities and discuss progress or changes.
The meeting next turned toward the future with consideration of the recommended 2026-27 Integrated Priority List.
The IPL is a significant product of the IPB process because it helps establish which installation requirements should receive attention and visibility as Fort McCoy plans for future years. During the 2024 IPB, Fort McCoy PAIO planners explained that the process helps ensure resourcing decisions are aligned with the Installation Strategic Plan and the Army's installation-management principles.
The 2025 IPB likewise included Appelman and Castleberry and provided an opportunity for Fort McCoy officials to directly update IMCOM leadership and senior installation leaders on installation issues while working toward approval of the coming years' Integrated Priority List.
Looking across the installation
The round-robin portion of the Sept. 1 meeting provided another opportunity for installation organizations and leaders to discuss issues, requirements and priorities from their respective areas.
That installation-wide approach is central to the IPB process. Rather than looking at individual programs or organizations separately, the board provides a venue for bringing those requirements together so leaders can consider them in relation to Fort McCoy's broader mission and future. The process is particularly important as Fort McCoy continues to support large-scale training and mobilization requirements while also planning improvements to its infrastructure, facilities and installation services.
Fort McCoy’s long-term planning includes projects affecting training, mobilization, housing, utilities, roads and other installation infrastructure, garrison officials said. A separate Installation Real Property Planning Board held in April 2026 addressed the installation master plan, tenant needs, major military construction projects, future development of the cantonment area, space requests and project programming.
While the Real Property Planning Board focuses specifically on real-property planning, the annual IPB provides a broader installation-management perspective in which requirements from across Fort McCoy can be integrated and prioritized, officials said.
Planning for future
The Sept. 1 meeting was part of an ongoing planning process rather than an isolated annual event.
In July, PAIO representative Jobi Spolum briefed Fort McCoy garrison and tenant organization leaders about preparations for the September IPB and the information organizations needed to provide in advance of the meeting.
That preparation reflects the importance of having current information available when Fort McCoy leaders establish priorities for the coming year.
The IPB process has been used at Fort McCoy for years. A 2019 explanation of the board described it as an opportunity to enhance installation-wide communication and decision-making, prioritize local requirements and highlight issues that may need to be elevated to Army senior leaders.
Appelman has participated in Fort McCoy’s IPB process previously, including the 2024 and 2025 meetings. His September 2025 visit to Fort McCoy also included an installation workforce town hall and meetings with garrison leaders and organizations across the installation.
The Sept. 1 IPB concluded with closing remarks after leaders and representatives worked through the current and proposed priority lists and shared installation-level information, Fort McCoy PAIO officials said.
For Fort McCoy, the process provides a structured way to look beyond immediate requirements and help shape the installation’s future while supporting its current readiness mission. Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.”
The IPB is one of the planning mechanisms used to help turn that future-focused approach into installation priorities and actions, PAIO officials said.
Fort McCoy’s motto beginning in 2026 is “Training the Total Force and Shaping the Future since 1909.” The installation’s mission: “Fort McCoy strengthens Total Force Readiness by serving as a training center, Mobilization Force Generation Installation, and Strategic Support Area enabling warfighter lethality to deploy, fight, and win our nation’s wars.”
And Fort McCoy’s vision is, “To be the premier training center supporting the most capable, combat-ready, and lethal armed forces.”
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 Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on DVIDS at https://www.dvidshub.net/unit/FMPAO. Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 09.04.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2026 13:47 |
| Story ID: | 574000 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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