FORT LEE, Va. (May 8, 2014) -- In the words of hockey great Wayne Gretzky, "You can't skate to where the puck is now; you have to figure out where the puck is going to be."
It's a simple and fitting analogy that was cited May 1 by Maj. Gen. Pete Lennon, commander of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Reserve, while describing the importance of the Globally Responsive Sustainment Rehearsal of Concept Drill that was under way at Fort Lee's Army Logistics University.
The strategy symposium focused on the future of Army Sustainment. It began on April 28 and concluded Friday. More than 500 military, civilian and defense contract personnel participated -- about 80 percent through live video-teleconference connections around the world.
In an invite letter to the session, Maj. Gen. Larry D. Wyche, commanding general of CASCOM and Fort Lee, laid out the purpose of the GRSRD. "We are planning to examine many of the 29 remaining issues (from an earlier Global Logistics ROC Drill conducted in 2013 along with others submitted by sustainment organizations across the Army) through the lens of the following two major objectives: 1) Validating the roles, responsibilities, redundancies and gaps in Sustainment O5 (colonel-level) headquarters and higher; and 2) Determining which emerging technologies enable expeditionary sustainment support of strategic landpower," he wrote.
"At the conclusion of the GRSRD," Wyche added, "I expect that the sustainment community will be positioned to both make DOTMLPF-P-based assessments of the Army 2020 sustainment force as well as be better informed of how potential 2025 technologies impact the total Army."
In essence, a ROC Drill is war-gaming on steroids. A lot of very knowledgeable people gather in a large room and review mission briefings, after action reports, lessons learned and developmental concepts that incorporate new procedures or technology that are designed to make organizations more efficient in the future. Along the way, fictitious scenario-driven exercises provide opportunities to compare current procedures with new concepts to determine if support functions could be performed faster and more efficiently while still meeting the needs of an expeditionary Army. The "players" also factor in global strategies like anticipated levels of support from U.S. allies and logistical roadblocks that may be created by unfriendly countries.
Yes, it's just as complicated as it sounds.
Nonetheless, as the event drew to a close, those in attendance agreed that it was by far one of the most valuable sustainment symposiums they had attended in recent history.
"I'm encouraged by the intellectual capacity that's in that room out there; it's amazing," Lennon said. "And the teamwork … everyone is working hard to come up with solutions. They may not agree, but they're getting good answers that are well thought out, and it's many different perspectives that cover a wide range of potential issues. It really is encouraging to see what the guys without gray hair are thinking out there."
Continuing his Gretzky comment, Lennon said, "We've got to be thinking where do we want to be; how do we want to be designed; how do we want to train; what equipment do we need; how do we retain enough redundancy so we're not vulnerable in one particular area? And, if we have redundancy, how do we cut fat and grizzle without cutting bone? We have to think about being multifunctional and multi-capable, and how we go about building our leaders so they can function in the end-state. With all that in mind, you can see that this is really important work."
Col. Tom Stackpole, chief of logistical operations, G-4, U.S. Army Europe, shared similar sentiments and compared the GRSRD to previous force structuring projects he was part of during an earlier assignment to Fort Lee.
"I was in CASCOM from 1998 to 2000, so I was involved in the build-up of the Stryker brigades (and other evolving concepts) that were fielded and operated in the war," Stackpole said. "So, I know the importance of this work. We're repositioning how we're going to operate in the future."
The road ahead is fraught with challenges, he noted, that are both hard to define and difficult to fully understand.
"I think the biggest challenge really is … and it sounds rather simple … defining expeditionary," said Stackpole. "We have within our Army these Global Response Forces that are ready to go in a certain period of time, and we have other forces that maintain a certain level of readiness. That's where we need to be; structured so we can build that combat power quickly."
Col. Marty Wagner, director of logistics, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, shared the views he developed from not only his current position but also a previous assignment with the 1st Theater Sustainment Command in Southwest Asia.
"We do have a lot of redundancies (in the sustainment community)," he said, "so this was a great forum to discuss what we need to either get rid of altogether, which quite frankly there's not much (only one unit that everyone agreed upon), but also it's an opportunity to say 'where do we have redundancies that make sense?'
All of the military services, Wagner said, have a lot of catching up to do after years of deployments and support operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and other terrorism hotspots around the globe. "We have a lot of things that worked quite well over the last 12 years, (and) we're kind of sorting through lessons learned that, quite frankly, I'm not sure we kept up with. So, now we're catching up on what worked and what didn't, and what we should be implementing."
Strategy sessions like the GRSRD also discourage "stovepipe thinking," Lennon said.
"This really gets people out of the track they've been in. Sustainment is an enterprise; it is not a single line of business. It's across all your strategic partners, your coalition partners," the general said. "We have many folks who are absolutely great logisticians, but they've essentially gone single track. That's not always a bad thing because they're very good at what they do, but this is an opportunity to see things from a different view. It allows you to listen to what other people have experienced. You've got to create an environment where you have that experience. This gives people an opportunity to learn the global impact of our sustainment mission."
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