In 2016, First Army will set the conditions for the readiness of the Army's Total Force for years to come.
Using lessons learned from the past decade of providing forces to meet combatant commander requirements, First Army is implementing our Bold Shift initiative that generates unprecedented premobilization readiness in reserve-component (RC) units through partnerships with Army National Guard (ARNG) and U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) units throughout the continental United States, and the U.S. territories of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Our shift in focus from post- to premobilization training support will reduce postmobilization training time for deploying RC units.
First Army will emerge from 2016 as an agile and proactive training support organization that is responsive to the training readiness requirements of the ARNG and USAR and supports the unpredictable challenges facing our nation's military around the world.
PRIORITY OF EFFORT
First Army's top priority is to enable readiness in RC units, thereby strengthening our Army and allowing our nation to counter complex threats throughout the world. We measure our success in accomplishing this priority through the readiness of our RC partners.
Readiness sustainment involves building strong partnerships with RC counterparts, ensuring RC units prepare at home station to optimize collective training opportunities, and facilitating world-class, multicomponent, integrated collective training events.
The Army fights as an integrated force and, therefore, will train as an integrated force. As Forces Command's (FORSCOM) coordinating authority for implementation of Army Total Force Policy (ATFP), First Army:
• supports RC premobilization unit readiness with enduring, habitual partnerships;
• provides predictable and scalable training support that enables units to maximize collective training opportunities;
• shapes and integrates tough, realistic, resourced collective training events;
• enables FORSCOM to provide combatant commanders trained and ready RC forces as needed;
• conducts postmobilization operations to mobilize, train, validate, deploy and demobilize RC forces.
ESTABLISHED PARTNERSHIPS
First Army provides critical active-component training support for RC unit readiness through habitual partnerships -- based on geography and unit type -- with ARNG and USAR units. Through unit partnerships, we conduct assistance visits at armories and local training areas; provide observer controller/ trainer (OC/T) support during Annual Training (AT) exercises and Combat Training Center (CTC) rotations; conduct regular touch points (synchronized with the state and unit leadership) to assist with the development of training plans and key collective training exercises; and coordinate training support for inactive duty training (IDT) and non-AT home station training events.
A key outcome of habitual partnerships is First Army's ability to provide an assessment -- in coordination with the RC commander -- of the estimated days required to mobilize an RC unit should it be ordered to deploy during its available year. This postmobilization assessment is produced following the RC unit's culminating training event in their Train/Ready 3 year of their Sustainment Readiness Model.
OBSERVER COACH/TRAINERS
First Army accomplishes our top priorities and supports total force readiness by developing and certifying OC/Ts who are adaptive, agile trainers who understand the importance of leading and managing training support.
The First Army Academy at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, ensures our OC/Ts are fully qualified and certified to coach, teach, mentor, advise, assist and enable the RC training audience. Academy graduates are well-versed in observation techniques, current Army doctrine, Combined Arms Training Strategies, the Army Training Network, Unified Land Operations, their respective areas of expertise and associated lessons learned from Army sources. Most importantly, they become masters in the art of facilitating quality after action reviews.
First Army has initiated actions with U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command to establish an accredited program of instruction (POI) that will result in an additional skill identifier (ASI) being awarded to qualified OC/Ts. This effort will provide a standardized, core POI that all components will use to train and certify OC/Ts. First Army Academy classes are currently available in the Army Training Requirements and Resources System (ATRRS) and support OC/Ts from the active and reserve components.
STRUCTURE
First Army is a multicomponent-sourced organization composed of more than 8,000 active- and reserve-component Soldiers and Department of the Army Civilian personnel. Reserve-component Soldiers account for more than half of our trainers and staff, ensuring "we are who we train."
First Army comprises a Headquarters at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois; two Division Headquarters -- Division East at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Division West at Fort Hood, Texas -- and nine brigades located at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin; Camp Shelby, Mississippi; Camp Atterbury, Indiana; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
BUILDING ON SUCCESS
First Army's future is built on our critical strengths and successes of FY 2015. The successes with the greatest impact were transforming 16 training support brigades into nine larger and more efficient brigades, implementing habitual partnerships, and creating a major culminating training event to elevate the readiness of ARNG brigades prior to entering their available year.
RESTRUCTURING BRIGADES
During FY 2015, First Army converted 16 brigades into nine reorganized formations: six Combined Arms Training Brigades (CATBs) and three Multifunctional Training Brigades (MFTBs).
The reorganized brigades are multicomponent-sourced, modular and scalable organizations that have increased training support capabilities and the ability to support pre- and postmobilization training exercises, ATs and home station training.
Transitioning to a mix of CATBs and MFTBs balances First Army's training force, ensuring a sufficient number of experienced OC/Ts, with the correct skillsets, are available to meet reserve-component training needs. We have also increased our capability to train functional and multifunctional formations, a necessity since more than 76 percent of the functional and multifunctional units in the Total Force reside in the reserve component.
In addition to Combined Arms Battalions, each CATB has a brigade engineer battalion with engineer, signal, military intelligence and military police companies and a chemical platoon; and a brigade support battalion with medical, transportation, quartermaster and maintenance companies. Each MFTB has two brigade engineer battalions and three brigade support battalions.
The brigade restructure increases the number of First Army's active-component training support battalions from 42 to 49, including one aviation training support battalion, two air defense training battalions and one medical training task force.
First Army brigades are aligned into three regions -- West, North and South -- with one MFTB and two CATBs in each region. The CATBs and MFTBs have enduring training support partnerships with all RC units in their respective regions.
Should an RC unit be sourced against an operational requirement, it will already have a relationship and a training plan developed with First Army. This supports a seamless transition from pre- to postmobilization and minimizes postmobilization training time.
The transition to CATBs and MFTBs provides a 47 percent increase in First Army's functional and multifunctional training capability and an overall 32 percent increase in First Army's training support capability and capacity.
Implementing TFPP
In 2015, First Army created a series of leader conferences as a first step in fulfilling the intent of the Total Force Partnership Program (TFPP) directed by FORSCOM's Interim Guidance for ATFP. The conferences provide a forum for senior leaders and commanders to understand current readiness models and integration efforts, build and strengthen partnerships, develop training opportunities, share lessons learned, exchange ideas, focus on a mutual understanding of ATFP implementation, identify ATFP requirements, and align multicomponent resources to positively impact RC unit readiness.
The first such leader conference was held at the Texas Military Joint Forces Headquarters at Camp Mabry and brought together commanders and senior leaders from the ARNG divisions and brigades, Department of the Army (DA), FORSCOM, ARNG, National Guard Bureau (NGB), USAR, First Army, Combined Arms Center (CAC) and active-component brigades.
First Army plans to conduct similar conferences for aviation, functional and multifunctional brigades in FY 2016.
Multiechelon Integrated Brigade Training
Only two CTC rotations per year are available to ARNG brigade combat teams (BCTs), resulting in a Train/Ready year 3 training gap for units. To address this gap, First Army created the Multiechelon Integrated Brigade Training (MIBT) exercise.
The MIBT is a multicomponent, multiechelon training event that exercises reserve- and active-component forces to achieve aim points in accordance with approved training models.
The MIBT is conducted in AT status with minimal additional resources and is conducted at a training location that provides the best overall training enabler support. Typically, this is an active-component (AC) location, a Regional Collective Training Capability (RCTC) site or home station (if neither an AC nor RCTC site is available). First Army provides the exercise design and scenario development team members and OC/T requirements.
In June, the New York ARNG's 42nd Infantry Division Headquarters, Virginia ARNG's 116th IBCT and Vermont ARNG's 86th IBCT participated in First Army's Proof of Principle MIBT at Fort Drum, New York, using active-component Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division as opposing force (OPFOR). First Army's 188th Infantry Brigade (CATB) designed and executed the training, based on the ARNG commanders' training objectives, and integrated live, virtual and constructive elements during the 15-day training event.
Two ARNG MIBTs are scheduled for FY 2016.
CONCLUSION
First Army's focus on readiness means the Army can consistently provide RC forces at readiness levels built to the highest standard through integrated, demanding premobilization training enabled by professional and operationally experienced OC/Ts.
First Army, as the Army's premier collective training formation, is intensely focused on developing the collective readiness of RC forces in accordance with ATFP, reducing postmobilization training time in accordance with directives established by National Defense Authorization Acts and supporting the Army's Readiness Model. As FORSCOM's coordinating authority for ATFP, we continue to have a critical role in enabling RC Total Force readiness. We stand as an important link between the active and reserve components, assisting them in operationalizing ATFP. Working together, shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners, First Army is building the strong and enduring training support relationships required to reduce postmobilization training time and maintain the USAR and ARNG as a true operational reserve.
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