Talking training, building teams: Centers of excellence leaders building relationships

By Nathan Pfau, Army Flier Staff WriterMarch 13, 2015

Talking training, building teams: Centers of excellence leaders building relationships
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Maj. Gen. Michael D. Lundy (center), U.S. Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker commanding general, Command Sgt. Maj. Eric C. Thom (second from right), Aviation Branch command sergeant major, and senior leaders from across the Army take part ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Talking training, building teams: Centers of excellence leaders building relationships
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT RUCKER, Ala. (March 13, 2015) -- Senior leaders from seven different centers of excellence visited Fort Rucker to get together and better communicate ideas in the Army, but the conference's main focus was set on team building.

Fort Rucker was abuzz with commanders, commandants and directors from all across the Army March 5-6 during the Commandants and Directors of Training Conference where senior Army leadership could get face time with each other to better work together, according to Col. Brian McHugh, military deputy for the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center-Training.

The conference was an opportunity for Lt. Gen. Robert B. Brown, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, commanding general, to meet with Army leadership across the CAC and get that leadership working together as a team.

"This is his conference and his opportunity to get face-to-face with those individuals. It's important because it gets him with his commanders, commandants and directors of training, and allows them to get face-to-face, allows him to give guidance, hear what they're doing and give the guidance in person," said McHugh. "And more importantly, it allows a collaborative effort amongst all of these individuals who are spread across the nation."

"These are commandants from all over the Army, from cyber, Aviation, fire, maneuver, infantry, armor, MPs (military police), chemical, intelligence -- we're scattered all over the United States," said Brown. "We have to work together to solve all kinds of tough problems for the Army. So, the more you get to know each other and the more of a team you are, then the more likely you are to call that guy and work out a tough problem and work together, and that's what it's all about. The problems today are really complex in the world and complex problems take a trusted team to be able to solve them."

One of the unique ways that the senior leaders would build that team was through a Mungadai challenge. Mungadai is meant to test Soldiers' endurance and skills as a team, and is based on the legendary Mongolian cavalry selection process by Genghis Kahn.

The leaders were divided into eight teams of about 10 members each, and during the event there were four challenges that the teams had to overcome that required all members to work together.

The teams were loaded into two CH-47 Chinook helicopters early Friday morning following Reveille on Howze Field. From there they were flown out to Ech Stagefield where they hit the ground running to start the Mungadai events.

The first event consisted of a Skedco pull, where the team had to work together to transport sandbags and a Skedco 1 mile to the next event without any members falling behind more than a certain distance, or points would be subtracted.

The Skedco pull was followed by the HUMVEE push, which required the team to push a HUMVEE 100 meters using only their manpower.

After the HUMVEE push, the teams' minds were put to the test through a doctrine test, where each team had to answer 10 doctrine questions correctly with one bonus question. Each correct answer allowed for time to be taken off the final completion time.

The final event was a paintball shoot, during which each member of the team had to shoot at least once at targets marked at different distances. The farther the distance of the target hit, the more time was taken off the team's final time.

The emphasis of the exercise was less on winning and more about working together as a team to solve problems, which Brown said is an integral part of solving problems.

"The best part about this is the teambuilding -- it's always important to build the team," said the CAC commanding general. "You can always have meetings, but you really don't work on how to get along together or how to form a bond, so we're with guys that we normally don't work with and now we know them a heck of a lot better.

"You'll talk about how sore you were from the HUMVEE push or how somebody shot on the paintball course, so it just builds camaraderie and the Army is all about the team. I'll say our Army's got the best team in the world," he added.

Brown said he was unsure about how his team would place during the event, but they worked together well and completed each challenge. The general's team did better than expected as they took the crown with the best time to win the Mungadai challenge.

Brown said he was very appreciative of the efforts made by Fort Rucker and Maj. Gen. Michael D. Lundy, U.S. Aviation Center of Excellence and Fort Rucker commanding general.

"It was a great job by General Lundy and the Aviation Center of Excellence for putting this on for us. It's not easy to do. It takes a lot of effort, so we appreciate their hard work," he said. "I do feel sorry for the next folks that have to host (this conference) because the Aviation Center of Excellence has set the bar really high -- a tremendous job across the board."

Lundy said that he was pleased to see the different centers of excellence working together to overcome challenges and he looks forward to continue working with the leaders in the future.

"Seeing the power of the different COEs working together, we're going to build a good team and I think there's so much collaboration," he said during the conference. "One of the main things about this was less about what we're doing and more about how we can help each other."

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Fort Rucker, Ala.

U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence