Students in the Basic Leader Course Class 004-26 with the Fort McCoy Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Academy held Collective Individual Training (CIT) on the Bayonet Course on the installation cantonment area March 27 as part of a graded field training course assessment.
The Basic Leader Course is the first level of leadership course for enlisted Soldiers in the Army. Academy Commandant, Command Sgt. Maj. Jason Kirkman, said the CIT being completed by the Soldiers was an important section of training in their course.
“This is a graded assessment where these young students will be demonstrating and teaching these collective skills to their peers,” Kirkman said. “This is a graded assessment to ensure that they know the proper techniques of conducting these courses so they can take it back to their home station.”
The students were distributed throughout the training area to complete the tasks set before them.
According to requirements, collective training at the NCO Academy is conducted in small collaborative groups using the Army Experiential Learning Model.
This includes:
— Team-level exercises simulating real-world scenarios.
— Tactical drills and live-fire or obstacle courses.
— Mission command practice using troop-leading procedures to plan and execute operations.
— Joint leadership activities where students apply leadership in group settings. These activities build cohesion, decision-making, and the ability to lead in complex environments.
With individual training, it’s based on the Army’s Warrior Task and Soldier’s Manuals, which define the critical individual tasks for each military occupational specialty.
The NCOs use these to:
— Identify mission essential task list tasks relevant to the unit’s mission.
— Plan and conduct individual training to ensure Soldiers can perform these tasks to the required standard, and more.
Class 004-26 graduated in late March.
Kirkman discussed upcoming changes to the Basic Leader Course as well.
“In addition to the course duration being increased to 29 days, we’re also adding
more rigor to focus on warfighting functions,” Kirkman said. “To have these students go back and be able to perform again, much like the Collective Individual Training that they're conducting … to go back and take these warfighting functions back to their home station.”
The Fort McCoy NCO Academy’s mission is to “train and develop adaptive, agile, disciplined, fit, and professional leaders who are ready to ‘Lead the Way’ in any environment.” The academy’s vision is to be “the Army’s premier NCO Academy with the best people experiencing the finest quality of life in the military.”
The academy trains hundreds of Soldiers each year in the Basic Leader Course and the Battle Staff Noncommissioned Officer Course. Learn more about the academy by visiting https://www.usar.army.mil/Commands/US-Army-Reserve-Command/Fort-McCoy-Main/NCOA-Fort-McCoy.
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 X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.” 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.”