FORT KNOX, Ky. - The phrase "one team, one fight" is a familiar battle cry in today's U.S. military and is embodied by the Army School System (TASS), as the "proof of principle" class of the Unit Supply Specialist (92 Y) Advanced Leader Course recently demonstrated at the 80th TASS Training Center in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
The class marked the first time active duty Soldiers went through the course alongside their reserve and National Guard counterparts, proving that integrating the different components into a single system of military educational training is cost-effective and efficient.
Col. (P) Ronald Kirklin, quartermaster general and commandant of the Army Quartermaster School, visited the Fort Knox schoolhouse on Nov. 7, 2014 to witness the course's success firsthand and to reinforce the Army's commitment to the "One Army" strategy. When Kirklin addressed the class later, students told him how impressed they were with the quality of the instruction and he congratulated them on being among the first to embrace this new way of doing things, saying: "The one army system is here to stay."
Col. Timothy Dye, commander of the 1st Brigade, 94th Training Division, briefed the quartermaster general on the brigade's achievements and challenges, acquainting him with the numerous courses they teach from coast to coast and stressing the significance of having the active component go through the exact same training as reservists and guard members.
"We were teaching mechanics and how to work on equipment, but it wasn't the same," Dye said. "The one army school system says that when you come out and get a 1059 [certificate of course completion], you're going to have an equivalent education."
"We're trying to prove that we can have a balance of active duty, guard, and reserve Soldiers and it's the same training across the board for all of them," 1st Brigade's Command Sgt. Maj. Nickolette Yungandreas said, emphasizing how successful integration of the components can have a wider impact on the evolution of military training. "When they leave here, they're qualified, regardless of their component."
Streamlining the process can also save time and money for the active component, as Command Sgt. Maj. James Wills of the 80th Training Command explained. Active duty training is often spread out incrementally during normal work days over a longer period of time, whereas the Army Reserve condenses that training into about two weeks of intensive classes. That means longer days and working weekends, but there's a tremendous upside, according to Wills: "The advantage of that is, we return them back to their units quicker, so that they're able to go back home and get back integrated into their units."
Additionally, having active duty, guard and reserve Soldiers training side-by-side can help improve the communication back and forth between the components, which is especially important when units deploy.
"I think, right now, it's more insuring that everyone's on the same sheet of music," said Yungandreas, summing it up best. "If we've got to deploy, I can have a supply sergeant from the Reserve go to a National Guard unit or a National Guard Soldier go to an active duty unit and just fall right in and just do the job ... they just know what they're supposed to do and they get right to it."
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