Maj. Gen. Roger Cloutier spoke last week about his first 100 days on Fort Jackson. Following is a synopsis of the topics he covered.
The budget:
"There were no winners" in the personnel cuts announced Armywide earlier this year, Cloutier said, and it will take time to assess what difficulties the loss of 180 military positions will mean to Fort Jackson.
Further cuts will not be announced for a least another year. Any cuts made at Fort Jackson would come in relation to the needs of Big Army, he said. With 40,000 to 42,000 trainees yearly, Fort Jackson handles 54 percent of Soldiers in Basic Combat Training.
"We may have to reduce training load," Cloutier said. "We have to kind of lean forward … and plan, (but) it's still early."
It's also possible that Fort Jackson could boost its Basic Training numbers.
"I have looked at what excess capacity we have," he said. "You can't replicate what we do anywhere else in the country. We can do more … if the Army needs to make changes."
As for trimming the civilian workforce, Cloutier said: "I don't know what that looks like yet."
The mission:
Cloutier said he came to Fort Jackson as "a consumer of the product" the post puts out: Soldiers trained for combat. Even though he has not been involved in training before, he said, he had some ideas and had worked with post commanders to develop ways to improve the product:
1. The Program of Instruction for Basic Combat Training will become "a bit more rigorous" with the implementation of more tests to ensure that Soldiers have mastered the skills taught, he said.
2. The Warrior Ethos Assessment piloted by the 193rd Infantry Brigade -- in which Soldiers gauge their colleagues' commitment to Army values -- will become the practice across all training units.
3. "We are going to try to leverage technology," both to boost training efficiency and to save money -- specifically, by using simulators for marksmanship training. Cloutier said that the more time a Soldier could spend on the simulator beforehand, the better he would shoot on the range. Also, "I can put the Soldier in a simulator all day long at zero cost."
The future:
"People talk a lot about this generation," Cloutier said, but "I think we're in good shape. The young men and women who come into the Army nowadays, I'm pretty sure our Army's in good hands."
Quality of life:
With his new post and the traveling he has done during his first 100 days, Cloutier has been home very little to unpack boxes and hang pictures with his wife, Diane.
"My situation is a smaller representation of the problems that drill sergeants face" in finding time with their Families, Cloutier said.
Fort Jackson works to accommodate those hectic schedules in several ways people might not see:
• The new Starbucks opens early.
• The Shopette has extended hours.
• Child care is available 24/7.
• And the post dental clinic soon will offer evening hours.
"There's not a lot of space" to change training cycles in order to give drill sergeants more off time, Cloutier said, so he and his commanders keep their eyes open for other accommodations.
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