FORT BENNING, Ga., (Sept. 10, 2014) -- The 2014 Maneuver Warfighter Conference officially kicked off Sept. 9, as Maneuver Center of Excellence Commanding General Maj. Gen. Scott Miller took the stage to welcome conference guests to Fort Benning.
Miller said the conference is a good opportunity to bring together retired senior leaders, current Army leaders, young Soldiers and community leaders to gather feedback on the present and future of the maneuver force.
"All of that brings us to a place where we have an opportunity to look real hard at what we're doing, get a chance to see ourselves from somebody else's viewpoint and make sure that what we're doing at Fort Benning and the Maneuver Center actually makes sense to those out in the operating force," Miller said. "What this allows us to do is check our priorities and focus areas. ... I look forward to everybody's input. It's quite important to me, and that's why everybody is here. I know there will be a lot of different ideas we'll need to bring together and that's a challenge to bring all those together, but I think we've got a great opportunity this week."
Miller also spoke about the importance of maneuver force rigor and training the basics, something he said he gained an appreciation for during his time in the Special Operations community.
"I know I have this background that people are always trying to figure out," he said. "What I tell people is the Special Operations community is not a mystery. Oftentimes, when you look at the Special Operations community, what is the hallmark? They do the basics very well, whether it's shooting, moving, communicating. They master those basics and continue to refine those basics to a level of mastery that allows them to do other things."
Miller also set the tone for the next two days of the conference by touching on some of the future challenges that will be discussed.
"When we do look at the future, one thing we can all agree on is that it's going to be complex," he said. "I think we're going to fight across a full range of military operations. That's a challenge as we look at trying to understand (how we're going to do that) in a time of diminishing needs, and make sure our young leaders who are coming up have the ability to learn what we've learned, but then build them so they're adaptive and ready to react to whatever is out there in a complex environment."
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