All three Army components must be ready to respond to "the entire range of military operations" in an uncertain, volatile world, the commanding general of Forces Command said.

For the Army to win, it must integrate the National Guard and Army Reserve, said Gen. Mark Milley during the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting.

"The Guard and Reserve are critical in order to ensure that the American people are linked in to the operations that are being conducted," Milley said. "Operationally, we cannot execute sustained operations overseas unless we have the Guard and Reserve."

More than 70 percent of the Army's logistics capability, resides in the reserve component, he said.

FORSCOM, along with First Army, is working on a number of initiatives to build on the relationships formed during the last 13 years of war.

Here's a look at three key efforts:

■ Integrated CTC rotations: The Army is integrating Guard and Reserve soldiers and units into its combat training center rotations.

"We want to train as we're going to fight," Milley said.

Future rotations at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, or the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, will heavily feature Guard and Reserve soldiers training alongside active-duty soldiers.

Milley wants to increase the Guard and Reserve at a CTC rotation from 18 percent two years ago, to about 50 percent. The most recent rotation was about 42 percent Guard and Reserve, he said.

"What we don't want to do is go back to 10 percent Guard and Reserve, 90 percent active," he said. "That is not Total Force."

■ Unit partnerships: This program pairs active Army units with Guard and Reserve units.

"We've tried to line up all the corps with National Guard divisions, brigades with brigades, and I think we've got pretty much everybody partnered up," Milley said.

The idea is to get the units working and training together, whether it be during a home station training exercise or testing for the Expert Infantryman Badge or a leader development session, he said.

"No matter what the exercise, my guidance to all FORSCOM commanders, regardless of components, is to think multi-component, total Army, in everything we do," Milley said. "Pretty soon you [could] find yourself, I hope not, with the 1st Infantry Division on the left and the 29th Infantry Division on the right. The relationships that we forge in training ... is key."

■ Bold Shift: After 13 years of preparing Guard and Reserve soldiers for war, First Army is shifting its focus to more long-term, home station training, said Lt. Gen. Michael Tucker, the command's top officer.

At the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, First Army was training more than 90,000 troops a year. This year, the command trained about 37,000 deploying troops, and projections call for an eventual steady state of about 10,000 a year.

First Army will refocus its capabilities to advise, assist and train reserve component units at home. The command is undergoing an "unprecedented" 18-month restructuring, as about 75 percent of the reserve component is made up of combat support and combat service support units, Tucker said.

First Army is standing up 12 new engineer battalions and 15 new support battalions, each with about 60 soldiers trained as observers/controllers, he said. First Army is also reorganizing its 16 brigades into nine larger formations. There will be combat arms training brigades and multifunctional training brigades, Tucker said.

This restructuring will be done without adding any soldiers to the command. It started in September and is expected to be completed late next year.

As First Army trainers work with Guard and Reserve units at home, they will coordinate training plans and prepare for CTC rotations, Tucker said.

The goal is to increase readiness and cement the relationship between First Army and the reserve component.

"I have to get after this new mission set," he said. "We don't know when we'll have to deploy next."■

Share:
In Other News
Load More