AMC CSM visits National Training Center

By Vickey MouzeAugust 1, 2008

AMC CSM visits National Training Center
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT IRWIN, Ca. -- The U.S. Army Materiel Command's Command Sergeant Major visited the U.S. Army National Training Center here July 21 - 24 to observe Soldiers who are training prior to deployment.

The NTC trains primarily mechanized brigade combat teams against a "live" replicated opposing force prior to deployment.

During his visit, CSM Jeffrey J. Mellinger spent time observing how AMC is supporting the rotational units.

"Some of the units' equipment will leave here and go directly to their staging areas," he said. "Some of it will go back to the home station. Of course, all the equipment that is used here for rotational units as well as the NTC's Operations Group, that, at the end of the day, that all really falls to AMC to make sure that it's maintained."

Mellinger said that while the AMC mission is a varied one, the thing that Soldiers need to know is that they're going to get what they need when they need it.

The last time Mellinger visited NTC was in 1989 as the first sergeant of a unit that was training here. He compared then to now.

"(On this visit) I got to go out and see all the equipment that the NTC units maintain and operate for the rotational units as well as for themselves. Wow, what a monster. It's huge. It used to be that there was very little equipment here. When the units came in, they had to bring their own stuff on rail. Now, even with the vismods (visually modified equipment), it really lends to the realism and the credibility of the training."

Mellinger said that from the AMC perspective, Soldiers should spend their time training and not fixing equipment.

"I'm pretty happy with the way we support the rotational units as well as the NTC units. I think we're doing a pretty good job. There's some things that we could probably improve on; we continue to improve the fighting position everyday."