ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. -- First Army commanders and command sergeants major developed a road map for the coming months during the First Army Fall Commander's Conference, held Oct. 6-9 in the unit's headquarters here.
Highlighting the conference was a rehearsal of concept drill for Operation Bold Shift, a transformation initiative that will change First Army's focus to pre-mobilization training, while maintaining the core mission of post-mobilization support to Reserve Component Soldiers.
"The ROC drill should be a good opportunity for us to get after some of the issues with Bold Shift. We know they're out there," First Army Chief of Staff, Col. Dale Kuehl, told conference attendees. "We know there are some holes in the plans, and that's OK. We'll work through some of those and plan our way forward."
First Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, gave on overview of the transition.
"Bold Shift has two lines of effort. We're shifting from an exclusive post-mobilization mission set to a pre-mobilization mission set," he said. "Then secondly, Bold Shift is the changing of our Table of Distributions and Allowances, so that we can better support the Reserve Component structure. Because our structure right now is too combat arms, Brigade Combat Team-centric. We need to be able to provide training assistance to the entire Reserve Component force."
Tucker addressed the importance of leading and managing the change that Bold Shift is bringing. "This is when we need leadership the most," Tucker said. "I need leaders with their sleeves up, organizing and leading this transition. When people in your organization look to you and ask, 'What's this Bold Shift about,' you've got to be able to stand up and deliver the 'why,' and explain why it's important."
Tucker also outlined his expectations for First Army commanders when they partner with Reserve Components being trained.
"When we see Reserve Component units come to major culminating training events…you're the unblinking eye. You've got to be there early in the process. You must enable and shape the exercise so that it achieves as much training readiness as possible," he said.
Other topics of the conference included Army Force Generation, cyber awareness, and sexual assault and harassment prevention.
First Army, in accordance with Title 11 and Army Total Force Policy, partners with United States Army Reserve and Army National Guard leadership to advise, assist, and train reserve component formations to achieve Army Force Generation-directed readiness requirements during both pre- and post-mobilization through multicomponent integrated collective training, enabling Forces Command to provide combatant commanders trained and ready forces in support of worldwide requirements.
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