FORT BENNING, Ga., (Aug.12, 2015) --Scout and tanker Soldiers in the Armor Advanced Leaders Course participated in a culminating field training exercise Aug. 5, which called for them to stray from their standard operation procedures and fall into Army doctrine-style training.

"We're going over standard doctrine that is at their skill level," said Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Grundy, assistant branch chief, Armor ALC. "This is reinforcing the tasks that they should know at their skill level."

The Soldiers were evaluated on tasks that every scout or tanker in that skill set at that level should know, while also introducing them to doctrine.

"What's great about this course is that we come here knowing our SOPs, we flush them away and we learn the Army doctrine - the proper way of doing it," said Sgt. David Martin, ALC student from Fort Stewart, Georgia. "The purpose of an SOP is to take what you learn by the doctrine standard and improve it, and the problem is most Soldiers, including myself at one point or another, only knew SOP and didn't know doctrine, so there was no way to properly improve it."

ALC is the second step in the noncommissioned officer evaluation phase, the first being the Warrior Leader Course, but it is the first level of the NCO training that is military occupation specialty specific, Grundy said.

"They're being evaluated out here in the MOS that they are involved in - 19K tank crewmen and 19D Cavalry scouts, " Grundy said.

The FTX occurred in the sixth week of ALC, with the five weeks leading up to it having been in the classroom.

Mixed in with 19K and 19D sergeants and staff sergeants in ALC were three foreign soldiers, - two tankers from Lebanon and one scout from the Czech Republic - one female Soldier exploring the different military occupational specialties as part of her Cadet Troop Leader Training and three Armor Basic Officer Leader Course lieutenants serving as platoon leaders.

The event began with planning and briefs before mounted and discounted scouts moved out for reconnaissance of the area.

Grundy described it as a multifaceted mission, where tankers and scouts worked in cohesion.

The scouts set up a screen line, - elements set up observing a named area of interest - then they made link up with the tankers, they did a battle handoff and moved into sector.

The scouts would call in reports to 'headquarters,' and from the reports, the tanks maneuvered.

The first location was the tactical assembly area deemed suitable for a home base by the scouts. Here, they set up security, secured the perimeter and completed priorities of work including drinking water, eating meals and getting rest.

Then, the scouts maneuvered to an optimal engagement area.

"In a real world environment, if need be, the scouts would call on the tanks to up and be the strong offensive arm while the scouts would be the eyes and ears of the battlefield," Grundy said.

The event allowed for Soldiers who were less than comfortable with their skill level to strengthen that skill, said Staff Sgt. Jacob Arriga, instructor, 19K ALC.

The Soldiers get a lot of their experience from their home station unit training and deployments they'd been on.

The training was relevant for Martin, as he related the situation to his time in Afghanistan.

"Numerous times, I linked up with units I had never seen and didn't know existed, and we had to figure out ways to communicate with them," Martin said. "One thing was hand and arm signals - (a signal) might mean something different for me."

Martin used himself as an example and said he's been light reconnaissance his entire career.

The ALC FTX involved different tactics and piecing them together for the Soldiers to agree on one way of doing it to make it flow, Martin said.

"Because I do it a lot dismounted, I would have a different way of doing this than say someone who has been mounted their whole career," Martin said.

Other than a few "snags," Martin said they did well.

"Since we're using doctrine instead of what we know from our units and our SOPs, there have been a few snags here and there about how we want to go about doing things - also, ... this being an Advanced Leaders Course, there are numerous NCOs from all sorts of background and different units who do things differently."

Going back to doctrine, however, alleviated that clash.

"What they teach here is doctrine, based out of the set doctrines that are, they are enforced by the Armor community," Grundy said.

Staff Sgt. Cameron Frazier, 19K ALC student, said he wasn't as familiar with the duties involved with his MOS as he'd like to be, but that through the course, his confidence was built up.

Frazier said he performed as a section sergeant as well as the platoon sergeant position.

"It was a nice way to diversify myself and really get my feet wet in the position so that when I go to my line, I am more effective and I can understand more of what has to happen for my platoon to succeed," Frazier said. "There was a lot of things that the regular Army forces do based on our SOPs, but it differs from doctrine so I just wanted to understand the groundings that all of our Army operations really derive from - discipline and our doctrinal standards."