The Idaho Army National Guard’s Regional Training Site – Maintenance Ordnance Training Battalion received a 99.2 percent score during its most recent accreditation inspection, a reflection of the unit’s dedication and commitment to excellence as it works towards nearly doubling its student enrollment by 2022.
The inspection, conducted in November with the official results released in late January, evaluated the maintenance ordnance training battalion of the 204th Regional Training Institute on seven standards. RTS-M received perfect 100 percent scores in five of the seven categories.
“The best way to describe it is like a tax audit,” said CW4 Terry Gulick, the school’s commandant. “It’s a fairly significant event. Those seven categories cover more than 600 specific areas.”
The Regional Training Site-Maintenance Ordnance Training Battalion trains hundreds of Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard Soldiers each year in support of the Army’s modular force. The battalion provides institutional training in designated military occupational specialties, advanced leader courses, senior leader courses and additional skill identifiers. Specifically, it teaches reclassification and advanced leader courses in 10 maintenance career fields.
The Army Enterprise Accreditation Standards Evaluation Report inspected the battalion’s mission, purpose and functions; governance and administration; learning programs; institutional training and education, mission management; assessment, evaluation and effectiveness; staff and faculty; and leader development.
The battalion received perfect scores in the governance and administration; learning programs; assessment, evaluation and effectiveness; staff and faculty; and leader development categories. It received a 96.6 percent in the institutional training and education mission management and a 97.5 in the mission, purpose and functions categories.
“The results are like a report card back to the Army on the health of the institution,” Gulick said.
The battalion is accredited every three years and received perfect 100 percent scores on its two previous accreditation inspections, earning the “Institution of Excellence” distinction. As a result of its long track of success, combined with the Army’s shift to send Soldiers from all components to the same schools, the number of students and the campus’ footprint are both rapidly expanding.
The school’s record for graduates in a training year is currently 465. The school is projected to exceed that this year and increase that amount each year until 2022, when approximately 850 Soldiers are expected to train at the ordnance school.
To accommodate the increase of students, the school is physically expanding by more than 5,000 square feet by the end of the year. Additional turbine engine training bays will be completed by the end of the month. An expansion project to increase the simulator classroom and instructor staff space is expected to be completed by the end of April.
The expansions, which will include an additional M1A2 SEP v3 Abram tank simulator, will provide the school with capabilities matched only by those at Fort Benning.
“The Maintenance Ordnance Training Battalion provides professional, quality training to meet the needs of the total Army, not just the National Guard,” said Col. Farin Schwartz, commander, Idaho Army National Guard/Assistant Adjutant General-Army. “Graduates can be assured they are receiving the best training the Army has to offer.”
In addition, the school is in the process of expanding the number of barracks and laundry facilities to accommodate the Soldiers that train at the school.
“I want to see the 204th Regional Training Institute continue its necessary growth and modernization as it develops into a campus-like environment,” Gulick said. "I want Soldiers to know they are on the campus of a professional institution when they are here, with a similar look and feel of any of our university’s campuses.”
The battalion was the first in the 204th Regional Training Institute to be accredited and additional battalions will be inspected throughout 2018.