A Total Army Standard

By SFC W Michael HoukOctober 27, 2014

A Total Army Standard
1 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Maj. Gen. Augustus L. Collins, the adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard, confers with Maj. Gen. Jeffrey L. Bailey, commanding general of First Army Division East, Col. Jeffrey P. Van, commander of the Mississippi Army National Guard's 1... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
A Total Army Standard
2 / 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Lt. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, Commanding General, First Army, describes how his command fits into the U.S. Army's Total Force Policy and First Army's relationship with the National Guard to a journalist at the 2014 annual Association of the United Stat... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md. - General John J. Pershing, First Army's first Commanding General, whose job was to mobilize, combine and train Army and National Guard units for deployment in WWI, said in 1917, "We no longer differentiate in an ultimate sense between Army, National Guard and Reserve Forces. Every energy is bent to the development of the Army of the United States. Our purpose is to think only of the American citizen and to prepare him for duties in war."

In September of 2012, when Secretary of the Army John McHugh signed Army Directive 2012-08, the Army's Total Force Policy, he placed into official policy Pershing's like minded philosophy integrating the active component (AC) with its reserve component (RC) counterparts, the Army Reserves and the Army National Guard. It states, "DoD policies require the military departments to organize, man, train and equip their active and reserve components as an integrated operational force to provide predictable, recurring and sustainable capabilities." This, to a single Army standard.

As the Army's premiere multi component collective training and mobilization platform, First Army, with its Observer Coach - Trainers, or OC-Ts, has built durable and productive relationships with the Army Reserves and the National Guard in order to help them train to that single standard.

"We train roughly 44 to 50,000 troops a year," says Lieutenant General Michael S. Tucker, Commanding General of First Army. First Army does so in part by facilitating large scale exercises that pull together elements from all components, creating a training environment that more closely represents how units will integrate in the real world deployments.

In essence, the total force directive provides a policy framework for continued multi component "train as you fight" efforts that have been the norm for First Army over the past 13 years of conflict and stretch as far back as the inception of Guard and Reserve components. Hard won lessons are still fresh in the collective Army mind and can help fine tune sustainment training, providing focused, proficient and capable organizations.

Whether it's long-term peacekeeping efforts, or whatever contingency the future may hold, the Army's new age of mutual cross component coordination, in a historic sense, is not really that new, particularly to First Army, who has been training and mobilizing Guard and Reserve Soldiers since 1993. It just now has a policy to back it up.

First Army's total force integration is sometimes better understood when seen at an operational level rather than from a strategic standpoint.

Watching First Army Observer, Coach - Trainers operate best illustrates the concept.

Last summer, at a small fenced-in motor pool next to an airstrip in Camp Shelby, the Mississippi National Guard set up a complex of tan colored modular tents in the intense southern summer heat during its annual training.

Inside the tent, amidst a web work of cables and the industrial hum of multiple outside generators, staff of the MS Army National Guard's 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) gathered around a folding table to discuss a warning order they just received from a notional "higher headquarters."

These Soldiers took part in a simulation driven staff WFX, or Warfighter Exercise, in which the entire brigade staff reacts to simulated enemy action within the brigade's specific area of operations. First Army Division East OC-Ts, by request, augmented this training with a specific set of subject matter experts.

"Just go through the steps, man," said Lt. Col. John Nipp, the Executive Officer for the 155th, of the order they just received. "1330 is when I need a product." The staff broke hurriedly to meet a deadline for a draft operations order that lines up with the brigade commander's intent. A developed battle plan had to be briefed in a matter of hours. OC-Ts from First Army Division East watched the action unfold.

"We partner with different war fighting functions within the brigade, we assist them in seeing themselves and discovering a means to enhance their ability to work together as a staff and a team," said Capt. Jacob Bowen, an OC-T team chief assigned to the 155th's WFX. He is from First Army Division East's 177th Armor Brigade.

In the past, if a National Guard unit were to work out annual training like this on its own, such training at this level might be internally driven, and possibly without benefit of external subject matter experts, materiel resources and capabilities to support it. First Army has the ability to reach across all Army components, plugging elements into reserve component training to make it more valuable to the end user.

Bowen, a subject matter expert on air defense artillery, described how he applies that expertise.

"Some of the biggest things we look for are communication, utilization of the principles as they are in U.S. Army doctrine, as well the ability to think and plan." He says.

"I think our relationship is about teamwork." Says Bowen earnestly of his 155th ABCT staff counterpart, "I want him to be able to fully understand where he stands in his staff and internalize the things he can work on. My job is to facilitate his understanding of the areas he's strong in and additionally areas of improvement. I am a mirror for him. What I try to do his help him see himself."

First Army's senior officer, "We never go to war without the Guard, Reserve and active component. Never." Tucker says, describing the RCs as an operational force.

"If we didn't have Total Force Policy, we could go back to our stovepipes, and train alone. Only AC, only Guard, only Reserve. That's not training as we fight." The reserve components "need an agent to bring them together." He says.

Tucker elaborates that First Army and reserve components begin to plan and shape brigade events as much as two years to 18 months out.

"A sponsor can be with them on weekend drills and prepare for this exercise all the way through to the exercise, and again when they get back to home station."

"I am who I'm training, so to speak," said Tucker, explaining the total force nature of his own command, "I have Army Reservists, Army Guard, and of course, Active component." Echoing, in a corporeal sense, the sentiments Gen. Pershing expressed almost 100 years ago. First Army's implementation of Total Force Policy is expected to carry that sentiment well through into the 21st century.

Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/145886/total-army-standard#ixzz3HLx4wB2V