FORT SILL, Okla. -- The Fires Center of Excellence proved it knows how to train Soldiers and that the organizations themselves can pass a test. The FCoE recently went through the Training and Doctrine Command accreditation process and received a 98-percent average, one of the highest ratings given in TRADOC and across the Army.
"I know what kind of people y'all are, what kind of team we have here and I'm not at all surprised in every category we got the highest rating," said Maj. Gen. Mark McDonald, FCoE and Fort Sill commanding general. "How can you go wrong with a team like this? It's not possible."
Chris Rader, TRADOC Quality Assurance Office acting director, at Fort Eustis, Va., and his team of 30 evaluators came to Fort Sill in October to review training processes and procedures according to the 28 Army Enterprise Accreditation Standards.
"We looked at most everything that touches the Soldiers," Rader said. "We looked at how training and education are developed, how the students are trained and to see if the outcome of their training was what the course was truly designed to give them."
The accreditation process happens every three years and Fort Sill began to review its own processes in 2012.
"This is where individual Soldiers come up and really take charge and get you through because they're working weekends, they're working nights -- there was a lot of that getting into the accreditation process," said Col. Gene Meredith, 428th Field Artillery Brigade commander.
The FCoE, 428th FA, Air Defense Artillery School, Field Artillery School and Noncommissioned Officers Academy were put under the microscope and found to meet the highest standards.
"Really, it's the hardwork of the individual instructor, whether it's an AIT instructor or the Captains Career Course or Warrant Officer instructor, you know getting down into the lesson plan making the changes that needed to be made," said Meredith.
McDonald said the Quality Assurance Office led the effort and helped ensure everything was ready before the final review by TRADOC.
"I think it's very impressive work particularly with so much going on. We're still deploying Soldiers, Soldiers are still coming back, we've got a lot of transition with instructors, we were short resources and personnel -- so if you can still do all this and meet the standard I think that says a lot about your organization," said Jim Connolly, QAO director.
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