Army researchers bring off-site planning onto fort
By Luke Waack
Assistant editor Fort Leonard Wood GUIDON
August 6, 2009
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - Fort Leonard Wood has attracted the attention of one the country's premier military research groups.
Fifteen leading analysts from the RAND Arroyo Center - the U.S. Army's only federally funded research and development center for studies and analysis - came to post, Tuesday. The team reports to the center's policy committee, which is co-chaired by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli and Assistant Secretary of the Army Dean Popps.
The analysts came to Fort Leonard Wood to see its mission and develop relationships with leaders on the ground.
Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin, Maneuver Support Center and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general, greeted the Arroyo Center team at the Pershing Community Center, Wednesday morning. Martin gave a brief history lesson about the post, and then described the installation's potential for future growth.
"If you said, 'Let's take a blank sheet of paper and build an installation that would enable and advance the training and development of forces to do full-spectrum operations in an era of persistent conflict,' you'd probably come up with something like Fort Leonard Wood," Martin said.
The general described the installation as a hotbed of study opportunities, and gave the group an open invite to come back.
"I am so thrilled that you are here, because you are
academic researchers. You have this living laboratory of everything going on in national security, and it's right here. I think the big breakthrough is going to come when you all come to the point of contact, which in America is the big installation. This is where the rubber meets the road; it's where the people live, the troops train, they come and go from the war, their families are here - the whole package is here on the big installation. When you want to test or do research, come here. You have an open door."
Part of the Arroyo Center's mission is to conduct research on major policy concerns, and improve the Army's effectiveness and efficiency, according to www.rand.org/ard.
"Every activity here at Fort Leonard Wood is extremely important to the Army; it supports a training mission, it supports centers and schools that provide the home for major branches," said Timothy Bonds, Arroyo Center acting director.
"I know that those things will be featured in our research either this year or in future years. We will be asked to help the Army articulate the importance of some of these things in our work. Coming here and developing relationships and gaining information is the best way for us to do that," Bonds said.
The Arroyo Center team spent Wednesday at the Pershing Community Center.
Today, the group is scheduled to tour the 43rd Adjutant General Battalion, attend the Company C, 3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment Basic Combat Training graduation ceremony at Baker Theater, lunch with brigade commanders and command sergeants major, tour Stem Village, the Counter Explosives Hazards Center, and the Lt. Terry Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Incident Response Training Facility.
On Friday, some members of the RAND group will attend the Human Dimension Forum at Nutter Field House at 7 a.m.
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