Connector event showcases Warrior Forge

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash.- On the vast terrain of JBLM’s Observational Point 2, Liaisons from Washington state communities and representatives from various schools across the country, received a live enactment of what a platoon leader might experience on the battlefield, a convoy hit by small arms fire.

The enactment was just a part of a showcase held during a Community Connector Day, July 18.

Units on JBLM hold Community Connector events throughout the year to inform their neighbors on training, technology and the day-to-day tasks of a Soldier. This particular event was unique because through the months of June to August, the U.S. Army Cadet Command’s Leader Development and Assessment Course, also known as Operation Warrior Forge, takes place on JBLM.

“We wanted to bring the community connectors from JBLM out partially to showcase Warrior Forge and the operation we have here because it is a pretty tremendous operation,” said Maj. Amanda Doyle, operations, 8th Brigade, Cadet Command. “But more importantly, we wanted to show them the support that their partner units are providing to Warrior Forge and Cadet Command.”

Warrior Forge is the capstone training course that assesses the tactical, technical and leadership abilities of Cadets who will become commissioned through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. Every year juniors and seniors from over 1,100 colleges and universities travel to JBLM to complete the Army required training.

Many of the educators and administrative staff who support the ROTC programs at these schools attended the Community Connector to receive additional information on what the Army seeks out in its leaders.

“Learning about the system you have in place for evaluating the skill sets and leaderships capabilities in our young officers to be, that’s something I’ll probably carry back with me,” said Quinton Williams, Provost Vice President Academic Affairs, Jackson State University, Jackson, Miss. “The information that was given out about the different characteristics that the U.S. military looks for is similar to what any non-military organization would look for as well.”

Observational Point 2 is the home of the U.S. weapons site, which provided the setting for the school representatives to receive hands-on demonstrations and see the carefully orchestrated battlefield presentation that mimicked the stresses and realism of today’s battlefield.

“I thought the demonstration was very cool and helped dispel some myths for me,” said Williams. “When you look at television or the movies you think that everything’s fast paced, but this showed that there is a method and a lot of strategy that goes into the tactics of it. It allowed me to realize that it is a real science and art behind this.”

A tremendous amount of manpower and teamwork goes into Warrior Forge. Soldiers, civilians and contractors come from all over to prepare Cadets to be well-rounded Army lieutenants; and the community connector day was able to show just that.

“Advertising what they do for the Army makes the Army a lot more real to a lot of people in the community,” said Maj. Doyle, a Scio, Ore. native. “[4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division] are the one’s who run the US weapons site, they do a tremendous job and so does everybody else. It just all comes together and makes everything work. We couldn’t do it without JBLM and we just really wanted to showcase that.”