Houston-based reserve officer highlights new networked training system, part 1 of 2 (AUDIO INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT)

HOUSTON, TX, TX, UNITED STATES

10.20.2012

Story by Maj. Adam Collett 

75th Innovation Command

***UNCUT INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT***
provided by military public affairs personnel
for the potential use of civilian journalists
in augmenting their independent coverage*

INTERVIEW TOPIC: The Army Reserve’s 75th Training Command rolls out a new ‘Distributed Simulations Capability’ (or DSC) as part of an exercise they are running for a supported unit

INTERVIEWEE: Army Reserve Maj. Darrin Husmann, project officer for the DSC program
INTERVIEWER: Army Reserve Maj. Adam Collett, Public Affairs Officer for the 75th Training Command

FOCUS OF INTERVIEW: Maj. Husmann talks about why the 75th took the initiative to create DSC, and what the unit hopes to accomplish with the program.

INTERVIEW DATE: 20 October 2012
INTERVIEW METHOD: In person
INTERVIEWEE LOCATION: Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Houston, TX
INTERVIEWER LOCATION: Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, Houston, TX

INTERVIEW LENGTH: 5:47
AUDIO FORMAT: MP3

TRANSCRIPTION BY: Army Reserve Maj. Adam Collett
RELEASED BY: The 75th Training Command, Army Reserve, 10949 Aerospace Ave, Houston, TX 7705, www.army.mil/armyreserve75 or www.dvidshub.net/armyreserve75.

INTERVIEW NOTES: Part 1 of a two-part interview. Please note that toward the end of this segment, the interviewee asks that the recorder be stopped for a moment. After the recorder had been stopped, the interviewee indicates that he asked that the recording be stopped because he had wanted a clarification on the last question asked. He had not been certain if it was okay to keep the recorder going for such a question. After the interviewer clarified this, the recording resumes in part 2. No significant content was omitted from the overall 2-part interview.

* Military public affairs personnel are employed by the Department of Defense, but strive to provide accurate, contextual information to the public and to news media outlets in accordance with public law and regulation. Interview transcripts are provided as a courtesy, and every effort is made to ensure accuracy. Journalists wishing to incorporate interview segments into their independent coverage are encouraged to verify the transcription by listening/viewing the uncut interview that was likely released along with this transcript.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

MAJ ADAM COLLETT: Alright, it is October 20, 2012. We are here at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, Texas. This is Major Adam Collett, Public Affairs Officer for the 75th Training Command, conducting the interview, and we are here with Major Darrin Husmann, with the 75th Training Command as well. And Major Husmann if you could please go and give the spelling of your first and last name.

MAJ DARRIN HUSMANN: Major Darrin Husmann, d-a-r-r-i-n, last name h-u-s-m-a-n-n. I am the project officer for DSC with the 75th command.

COLLETT: And of course DSC standing for Distributed Simulations Capability and with that in mind, would you mind starting us off with a lay person description, if you were talking to grandma at the dinner table about what the whole project is about, what is Distributed Simulations Capability?

HUSMANN: It eliminates the tyranny of time and distance between training and the training audience. Easier said, it eliminates friction that comes with commanders setting up training for their soldiers or troops in their unit.

COLLETT: And you’re specifically referring to the kind of training the 75th focuses on, which is to help enable the success of the staffs – the support staffs of large military units – across the force as they're preparing to go on combat zone deployments or other kinds of missions. When you’re trying to accomplish the training, and when you're talking about eliminating the tyranny of time and distance, you are basically talking about making the training happen so that people don't have to travel any more…you can do it from a distance. Say just a little more about that.

HUSMANN: Exactly. The 75th Command’s mission overall is to support battalion-and-above staffs to become better, more efficient staffs. As you know, that type of decision making at that level, is of great importance. That being said, DSC helps to facilitate units being able to train persistently over the complete training year to develop their staffs. That allows them not only to pass a single event once a year. But rather, it shifts the way they work; it allows them to develop and season and mature as a staff, similar as directed in FM 5-0: changing from data and information, to understanding and wisdom, so the commander is able to make better decisions for his unit.

COLLETT: So before, when the 75th was facilitating this training for large military units that were preparing for missions. They would have to…either the unit was being trained would have to come to a large simulation center to get to the training, or vice versa. We would have to send out a large heavy team to get that done, and they…go ahead.

HUSMANN: Exactly. Think of it if you would, of taking a mid-size company and having to move all the employees to a remote location once a year. The logistics, the complexity…not to mention the administrative overhead burden, coordinating all those events, did impact training. And by removing that, by allowing the units to train at home station, we allow the commanders, the soldiers and the unit to focus on training, instead of moving large contingents of people, vehicles and equipment, and incurring the cost and time and manpower to move to remote locations. We just allow them to do their business better and remove obstacles.

COLLETT: Terrific. Well, it's been an effort that’s been many months in planning and preparation. Several smaller tests of the new network-based system that you guys have been working on have happened in the last a few weeks. But really a big chunk of the work has been done this past weekend leading into today when there's actually a unit going on. Talk about your impressions of what you saw earlier this week and today. Is it being successful? If so, how? What are your impressions?

HUSMANN: Well, again, as you said, Adam, it does tend to look like a scrum. It tends to look chaotic from the outside, but this last week and a half we've had a good contingent of our S-6 elements – that’s IT, information systems – and our operational people, really coming together, coalescing, getting this project done they've really work outside their comfort zones not limited by “not my MOS,” but doing what it took to get the mission done. They had innovation, initiative, and the entrepreneurial zeal to get this project done, and frankly that shift, that way of looking at and solving a problem, has been one of the greatest take-aways of this project.

COLLETT: So a lot of good teamwork went into this, and really the folks that are helping to run the actual simulation, and giving this scenario to this unit – this real-world unit that’s actually training for potentially future missions, using the 75th’s system this weekend, there's that of course. But there's also sort of the hidden side of it. Some folks with some a lot of great experience and knowledge and skill on the network communications side, that are kind of behind the scenes making that happen. Talk a little about their contributions this week.

HUSMANN: Can you stop it for a second?

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END OF TRANSCRIPT

• Date Taken: 10.20.2012
• Date Posted: 11.01.2012 23:35
• Story ID: 97161
• Location: HOUSTON, TX, TX, US