Leaders of the 1st Infantry Division laid out the roadmap to the future of the "Big Red One" and Fort Riley to members of the greater Flint Hills community Dec. 11 during the CAMPLAN 2020 rollout in the division's Joint Operations Center.
The 2020 plan is the fifth campaign plan the division has drafted. Past campaign plans have facilitated the creation of $1.8 billion in facilities and infrastructure, created relationships with three regional airports in Manhattan, Salina and Topeka, launched the Soldier for Life Transition Assistance program and led to the ability for Fort Riley to annually train 22,000 reserve partners and federal, state and local agency personnel.
"We developed a strategy to take Fort Riley into the next five years that will allow us to improve our operations, compete for resources and communicate our relevance to external audiences," said Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., 1st Inf. Div. and Fort Riley commanding general. "The 1st Inf. Div. has always been an adaptable, learning organization with a positive, nurturing command climate. You will see that the minor changes we've made to the existing campaign plan will bring us and our surrounding communities closer together and help us all reach our collective goals."
Grigsby identified the mission of both Fort Riley and the Big Red One as building and maintaining combat-ready forces to protect the United States and its interests at home and abroad.
"Diminishing resources make training more difficult, but our state-of-the-art ranges, virtual gaming facilities and open maneuver areas enable cost-effective training," Grigsby said. "That is what makes Fort Riley the best place to train in the Army."
Fort Riley is also the best place to live, deploy from and come home to, the commanding general said.
The CAMPLAN 2020 presentation also recognized the National Guard and Army Reserve. Grigsby said the division wanted Fort Riley to become a mobilization site so the post could train, equip and deploy Soldiers from the Guard and Reserve. This would allow Fort Riley to compete for resources and bring more people to the central Flint Hills area.
"For years, we would go to combat and be shoulder-to-shoulder with our reserve-component partners, but then when we come back here we would have cylinders of excellence … and in some cases, when you looked at it, it was not very efficient, nor was it effective," said Brig. Gen. John S. Kolasheski, 1st Inf. Div. deputy commanding general for maneuver. "So what we're trying to do is integrate all those training opportunities, especially because it is a fiscally difficult environment that we find ourselves in."
Kolasheski said it was critically important to look at how National Guards from the states around Kansas can work together in the future.
"I thought it was actually very good and very well presented to the community and the state that was represented here," John Armbrust, executive director of the Governor's Military Council, said of the rollout. "I think what they did is put it in not only historical perspective, but also in the perspective of the overall Army mission, how Fort Riley fits into that and how the communities fit into that piece with Fort Riley."
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