REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. -- The Army's best can only get better if today's Soldiers commit themselves to the top priority -- Soldier readiness -- as set out by the Army's chief of staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said one of the Army's three-star generals.
Speaking to a group of air defense artillery Soldiers at the Aviation and Missile Command 101 for Missiles on Oct. 27 at the Bob Jones Auditorium, Lt. Gen Larry Wyche, Army Materiel Command deputy commanding general and Redstone Arsenal senior commander, brought a message that resonates with today's Soldiers, regardless of their military occupational specialty.
In his presentation, he asked the air defense Soldiers to think on one question -- "How do we make our best better in maintaining and sustaining the best Army in the world?"
After 14 years of war, during a time when the Army turned to contractors to maintain and sustain its equipment while Soldiers were in the fight, the Army's Soldier competencies in the areas of equipment readiness faded into the background. Now, although the Army is still at war, Wyche said it's time to rebuild those competencies.
"How do we reinvigorate those competencies with green suiters to sustain the greatest Army in the world?" he asked.
Wyche shared with the Soldiers -- about 100 representing the Army's enlisted, warrant and officer missile corps -- an experience he had as a battalion commander in 2000 when he took his unit to the National Training Center.
"We had run our tanks and all our platforms very, very hard before that rotation," he said. "We get to the National Training Center. We get in the box. And the first day, eight tanks catch on fire. The division commander asked me, 'What is the problem? What do we do to fix it?'
"We had to pull out packs (engines) and steam clean every one of those packs. In a 48-hour period, we had those tanks back in the fight. That was a very hard lesson learned in many aspects. As a battalion commander, I didn't push hard enough. We have to do the maintenance right on these platforms. I've been in heavy divisions. I knew better. I let it slip by."
And that's where the teaching point came in.
"Do the maintenance right from the get go," Wyche said. "Maintenance is training. Maintaining your platform is training. It has to be fully integrated in your training strategy. You can't push it aside. Don't learn this lesson the hard way."
Although maintaining equipment is not at the top of most Soldiers' priority lists, Wyche said, "you know how precious your equipment is when you go to war."
Wyche didn't place the blame for the lack of maintenance knowledge on Soldiers. Rather, he said that it was a product of 14 years at war.
"Equipment has been given to us. Maintenance hasn't been the focus," he said. "You've got to work hard to getting back to being the experts."
He mentioned chief warrant officers, reminding them of their role in the Soldier environment, and how their coaching, mentoring and teaching is critical to the development of Soldiers who understand their equipment and how to maintain it.
"When there's a break down, what do you hear? 'Where's chief? The chief can fix this,'" Wyche said. "We did not get there without your technical expertise."
For all Soldiers, serving at their best requires them to know where they fit in.
"Each of us has a job to do to get the readiness, the logistics readiness, back into our way of thinking," he said. "
Wyche, who began his Army career as an enlisted Soldier, talked about the non-commissioned officers' creed, emphasizing three of its phrases -- "No one is more professional than I am," "Competence is my watchword," and "I will fulfill my responsibilities."
There are two responsibilities for the Army's Soldiers -- to remain technically and tactically proficient, and to provide outstanding leadership for the Soldiers whom they lead.
"You are the backbone of the Army," Wyche told the NCOs in the audience. "We will not meet the chief of staff's priorities if the NCOs are not engaged."
He urged the more senior Soldiers in his audience to share their experience with the next generation of non-commissioned officers and officer corp. Developing Soldiers requires the right mix of education, training and experience.
Wyche recalled a time when a senior officer was preparing him for a presentation on a new Army truck strategy. Just about the time Wyche was thinking about bailing from the presentation, the officer said to him, "I'll be there to catch you if you decide to jump."
"Your people have got to know you care. They've got to know you are going to be there for them," Wyche told the NCOs. "You are responsible for the welfare of Soldiers and the readiness of your equipment to go to war."
In closing, Wyche talked about Russell Wilson, quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks during the 2013-14 season.
"He challenged his team. He said, 'Why not us?' And, guess what? They went on to win the Super Bowl," he said. "Why not you? Our Army needs you. We are the greatest Army in the world. That didn't happen overnight. It happened because of people like you who have made invaluable contributions.
"Think big. Play to change the game. Why not you? Why not you be the one to come up with the greatest idea that will help the Army revolutionize the way things are done. We are our own greatest limitation. Take challenges and look at them as opportunities. How do we make our Army better?"
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