FORT RILEY, Kan. -- The 1st Infantry Division's commanding general told his guests Feb. 11 that Fort Riley was a big Astroturf field -- a place where their troops could train as they would fight.
Maj. Gen. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr. and Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph C. Cornelison led the "Big Red One's" first Total Army Conference, a gathering of National Guard and Reserve leaders from six states throughout the Midwest. The goal is strengthening the partnership between active-duty, National Guard and Reserve forces, making them all more operationally effective.
"It's really up to me as the active component commander here at the 1st Infantry Division to communicate more on what our capabilities are here and what our schedule is here," Grigsby said, "so we can help integrate and be better teammates to our partners."
The conference included an extensive tour of Fort Riley training sites and facilities so adjutant generals from Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa and Minnesota could get a look at just what was available to them in the Central Flint Hills of Kansas. Kansas National Guard and Reserve forces are no strangers to Fort Riley, and the state's adjutant, Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, who Grigsby referred to as his "battle buddy" during the TAC, touted the post's training capabilities throughout the day.
Joining Tafanelli were leaders from Army National Guard's 35th Infantry Division from Leavenworth, Kansas, and the Army Reserve's 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command from Wichita, Kansas. Soldiers and leaders from the 35th Inf. Div. spent time at Fort Riley in January as the 1st Inf. Div. headquarters and units across the post conducted an extensive Command Post Exercise. The CPX was one of three training exercises to help prepare the division for this spring's Warfighter Exercise, a high-level training opportunity that will prepare the headquarters and subordinate units for upcoming missions. Participants from the 35th Inf. Div. served as observers/controllers, overseeing the scenarios presented to sections within the headquarters to test their readiness.
"We are one Army," Grigsby said. "We have to train the way we fight and fight the way we train."
He echoed the message sent down from the Army's top leaders. U.S. Army Forces Command is, by design, a Total Force command -- Army National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve and the active component, Gen. Robert B. Abrams, FORSCOM commander has said in past reports.
"We are one Army," Abrams said. "We are one Army working together, shoulder to shoulder, to build and sustain highly trained and disciplined Soldiers and formations in accordance with Army standards. We are experts in our war fighting skills, ready to deploy and win in ground combat against any enemy."
According to the 1st Inf. Div.'s Campaign Plan 2020, a roadmap for the division and post's future, the Big Red One is a leader within III Corps in executing the Army Total Force policy. About 22,000 joint, inter-organizational and multi-national partners from 30 states train at Fort Riley each year. Grigsby said he hoped the conversations started at the TAC would increase that number.
"I hope we get more," Grigsby said, "because this whole thing about being an observer, coach and trainer -- as we go through things, that's a win-win for everybody."
Events like the TAC are important, said the Nebraska Air National Guard's Maj. Gen. Daryl L. Bohac, who serves as the state's adjutant general. Bohac said Grigsby set the tone when their teams met last fall. The Total Army environment had issues in the past, but the renewed emphasis on partnership "are the difference makers in terms of enduring relationships and goodness for the nation," he said.
"We are excited by this," Bohac said.
"The Army has been making significant inroads into making sure we are acting as one team. That's good for the citizens of this nation and what we are supposed to be about, which is the defense of this nation."
The visiting senior leaders, along with members of Grigsby's staff and Fort Riley garrison officials, sat down at the end of the day to talk about upcoming training and ways to collaborate.
Grigsby stressed a favored theme spoken often by senior Army leaders: it's all about building readiness.
"It's the No. 1," Grigsby said. "There is no No. 2. We are all about building readiness -- all of us, working together as one."
For Bohac's Army forces in Nebraska, relationships established at Fort Riley mean access to training -- both physical ranges and the virtual environment he and others got a firsthand look at Feb. 11.
"It just means better realistic training for them," Bohac said. "One of my expectations leveled to all my commanders is, 'You will deliver demanding, rigorous training every opportunity we can.' So being a partner here at Fort Riley and with the 1st ID is going to help us do that."
Grigsby had one message for his National Guard and Reserve partners: "Fort Riley is the best place to train, live, deploy from and come home to. And they want some of it, to be back here with us. It's their post, it's not mine. It's the taxpayers'. It's all about all this together, so, come on, we'll make it happen."
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