FORT BENNING, Ga., (Aug. 19, 2015) -- Maneuver leaders from across Fort Benning came together for this year's fourth Azimuth Check, a quarterly conference for command teams and directors of the Maneuver Center of Excellence on Aug. 13.

The objective of this Azimuth Check was to discuss the progress of the MCoE's campaign plan, which embodies the organizational culture of excellence.

The campaign's vision states that the MCoE must operate in three time zones simultaneously - here and now, the future and always - to create Soldiers who are smart, fast, lethal and precise.

To begin the conference Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commanding general of the MCoE, put emphasis on the four lines of effort from the campaign plan.

The first line of effort, Miller said, is to understand and describe future maneuver. That includes collaboratively developing the movement and maneuver concept, integrating and collaborating across all Army war fighting challenges, and informing material and concept development through experimentation.

Describing the future maneuver force is complicated and hard work, but leaders must take ownership, organize for purpose and ensure interoperability across the force. This work is complicated by the fact that the future is unknown and unknowable, this requires our leaders to work together as a team to develop concepts and experiment with those concepts to make sure we define the future the best way we can, Miler said.

"Each of you guys pay attention to it, contribute to it and quite frankly start to own it, because it is your future," Miller said.

The second line of effort on the MCoE's campaign is leader, Soldier and civilian development. It includes collaboratively developing the Maneuver Leader Development Strategy with the operational force, optimizing human performance -physically and cognitively- and improving and optimizing training infrastructure.

"Leader development, that's our business," Miller said. "In addition to providing initial entry training for our Infantry, Armor and Cavalry, we are the home for maneuver leader training, there is no higher requirement for us to get this training right."

Leader development, Miller said, means assessing people, making sure you're setting people up for success and sometimes making hard calls.

"It's counseling. It's interaction. It's routine interaction, but it's the most important thing we're going to do," he said.

Miller also talked about the third line of action, identify and master the fundamentals. That includes rapidly adapting courses to focus on mastery, increasing lethality - shoot, move, communicate and survive - and developing world class instructors and cadre.

Miller said physical fitness is one of the most important fundamentals of maneuver leadership.

"Maneuver leaders need to be physically fit," he said. "If it's not you who is going to set the example for the United States Army, who is it? Our maneuver Soldiers and leaders must possess the ability to physically and cognitively out maneuver our adversaries. That ability begins here with our leader development and training."

Miller said the MCoE should work to develop expert marksmanship.

"I'm talking about carbines. I'm talking about tanks. I think we ought to have a level of proficiency that gives them a certain amount of credibility," he said. "Expert is what we ought to be shooting for. If it's less than expert, let's figure out what we're doing wrong."

Maneuver leaders should also be able to issue an order, Miller said.

"I think they should be able to issue a meaningful order, that has a meaningful outcome," he said.

Miller told commanders they should take ownership of their plans for the maneuver culture.

"Own the problem. Own what you're doing. Once you start doing that, you start building excellence," he said.

Miller also spoke about the fourth line of effort, care of Soldiers, Family, and community outreach, which includes providing a safe environment to live and train, promoting resiliency across the community and staying connected through community outreach.

MCoE Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy Metheny discussed individual MCoE achievements of the last quarter.

He praised recent excellence, including instructors who recently won an international high frequency radio communications competition, the MCoE musicians who recently won Best Small Band in the Army, the reserve component retention NCO who won Career Counselor of the Year, the active component career counselor who won second place in the Career Counselor of the Year competition, the military working dog team, Sgt. Daniel Jackson and military working dog Staff Sgt. Bbailey, who recently won first place at the Hawaiian Islands Working Dog Skills Challenge, winners of the Best Ranger Competition, the Armor School's 3rd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment, winners of the Gainey Cup Competition; and Staff Sgt. Christopher Thompson, who recently won TRADOC NCO of the Year.

"What I'm telling you is the guidance is to be excellent, and we are excellent," Metheny said. "We're doing very well. We talk to a lot of senior officers across the Army who have their kids coming through Fort Benning and there is absolutely nothing but positive feedback."

Metheny said the Azimuth checks have matured into open conversations among MCoE leaders.

"Every initiative that we took, I saw ownership on. I saw passion. That's good ... I'm very excited about what I heard today. There are some awesome initiatives going on at the Maneuver Center," Metheny said.

Miller said the Azimuth checks have improved communication and collaboration.

"You guys are talking to each other. There's a sense of (team) tackling a problem," Miller said.