Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. -- The Army is continually looking for ways to connect people within its ranks, getting more done with less time spent hunting for answers.
The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's Field Assistance in Science and Technology, or FAST, Directorate drives this mission home with its Orientation and Reach-Back Training program, putting key personnel who are either being deployed or work in geographically separated locations in touch with the agencies that can help get problems solved quickly.
The biannual training session brought the next group of deployed/separated science and technology personnel to the U.S. Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, here, Sept. 15 and Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Sept. 17-18.
The group was given insight to the wide range of technical solutions offered by CERDEC through organizational overviews and project updates from the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate and the Command, Power and Integration Directorate. The Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate's C4ISR Systems Integration Lab and the Joint Satellite Communication Engineering Center Lab presented various capabilities and projects from their areas as well. The group also visited the CERDEC Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate at Fort Belvoir.
"For us, this program is about making connections with people from around the Army so they know who they can reach-back to for the answers they need to help our Soldiers," said Lt. Col. Shane Sims, CERDEC's acting military deputy.
The ORBT program objectives include ensuring attendees will be able to understand and write requests for information, operational need statements and joint urgent operational needs statements, as well as for rapidly equipping forces with reach-back capabilities.
"A perfect example of this program's success came from introductions before the first session. We were able to link up the U.S. Army Pacific Command's Director of International Technology Center in Australia with one of our Foreign Liaison Officers from Australia. Without this program, he might never have known how accessible this resource was to him," Sims said.
"The dust is just now settling from the previous Base Realignment and Closure actions that brought CERDEC to the Aberdeen Proving Ground community. So we're just getting to the point of being familiar ourselves with the offices and agencies who've been our neighbors for the last couple of years," he said. "Now, we can extend that familiarization with other agencies around the Army and start moving forward at an even faster pace."
Knowing your neighbors who have the answers is only part of the battle. Various cultural or organizational mindsets, as well as Army's policies and regulations can still present challenges of their own, said James Gibson, director of RDECOM G-3 FAST.
"A lot of work remains to be done, because answers will very rarely just drop in our laps," Gibson said. "Developing the reach-back connections is a great first step, but being familiar with higher Army command levels, as well as making other governmental agency decision-makers aware of the issues we're running into, then presenting them with various solutions for how to get over the hurdle we're facing, is going to make a huge improvement in accomplishing everybody's mission."
----
CERDEC is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
Related Links:
RDECOM program puts Army scientists shoulder-to-shoulder with Soldiers
Army.mil: Science and Technology News
U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command
U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center
Social Sharing