Lieutenant General Michael Lundy, commanding general of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC), hosted two events last week to present his vision and priorities for the organization, the key tasks to accomplish in Fiscal Year 17 and his expectations. The first event was a Senior Leader Onsite gathering on Tuesday, Sept. 20, and the second a State of Command Workforce Update on Friday, Sept 23.
In an effort to develop shared understanding across the workforce, a good portion of Lundy's presentation on Friday described CAC's roles and responsibilities to the larger Army and his vision for meeting them.
Under Lundy's command, the vision for CAC is: "As a learning organization, CAC is a team of highly skilled professional experts exercising disciplined initiative, with shared understanding, to develop and deliver the Army the best combined arms Soldiers, leaders and capabilities today and in the future."
Lundy mentioned the term "warfighting" multiple times during his presentation and explained how team members at Fort Leavenworth needed to understand their importance in the greater Army's mission.
"Warfighting is what our Army is focused on," Lundy said. "Although you may not be warfighting in your particular job, you are absolutely enabling our warfighters every day, and it's important for us to remember that. You all have a very important role in this big machine that we have."
Lundy shared his enduring priorities with the military and civilian employees present from a macro, strategic point of view. He said that in an organization as large as the CAC, it can be a challenge to narrow down every team member's priorities.
"I ask myself 'how do you tell 35,000 plus people who are doing lots of different projects what our priorities are,'" Lundy said. "But what I present today are broad, overarching priorities that will allow us to reach the end state. If we focus on shared understanding and disciplined initiative -- the key components of the Mission Command philosophy -- we will achieve success. I have the expectation, because we are a big organization, that you will execute your mission with a lot of initiative. I'm not going to tell you how to do things. I'm going to communicate what needs to be done. There's a significant amount of trust among us all."
The CAC's end goal is to develop agile, adaptive and professional Soldiers in highly capable combined arms formations who are able to conduct Unified Land Operations to prevent, shape and win in the complex operational environment. Lundy informed the attendees that they are essential in creating this end state.
"When it's all said and done, that's what CAC does," Lundy told the CAC military and Army Civilian personnel. "It's the combination of leadership and information that drives combat power for our Army to achieve that end state. That's what you're doing for our nation every day. That's a pretty big deal, and you all are really doing it well."
The organization achieves this end state as the Force Modernization Proponent for Unified Land Operations, Combined Arms Operations and Mission Command, which delivers full Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership, Personnel, Facilities and Policy (DOTMLPF-P) for Divisions, Corps and Theater Armies.
The U.S. Army CAC synchronizes and integrates Doctrine, Training, Education and Leader Development across Warfighting Functions proponents. Additionally, the organization executes professional military education and functional training through Branch and Non-Branch schools, as well as training and education support through enabling capabilities, such as the Mission Command Training Program (MCTP), National Simulation Center (NSC), Integrated Training Environment (ITE), Training Aids, Devices, Simulators, and Simulations (TADSS), Soldier Readiness Processing (SRP), Maneuver Combat Training Centers (MCTCs), Army Joint Support Team (AJST) and Army Training Network (ATN).
"This is where we develop leaders and build Soldiers -- whether they be Army Civilians, junior enlisted Soldiers, noncommissioned officers, warrant officers or commissioned officers, "Lundy said. "We cover the full gamut of training and education across the Army."
Lundy stated that the CAC's main priority currently is the compilation and publication of Field Manual 3-0 which covers Army operations. This field manual along with Army Doctrine Publication 1 represent the Army's capstone doctrine.
"The publication FM 3-0 is our main effort at the current time," Lundy said. "It's not just our capstone, but it is the document that lays outs out how we fight."
Additional tasks for the next year include bringing Army University to full operational capability; refine and implement officer, warrant officer and noncommissioned officer professional military education; and integrate the Army Profession Theme -- "One Army Indivisible" to name just a few.
Kirby Brown, deputy to the commanding general for the CAC, also addressed attendees to discuss employee engagement and changes to the upcoming evaluation system. The new system, expected to go live next July, is called the Defense Performance Management and Appraisal Program (DPMAP), and will change the rating matrix from 1 through 5 to 1, 3 and 5. This new program is based off results of the Federal Viewpoints Survey, in which CAC employees heavily participated.
"I want to thank everyone who completed the survey, because the Army's average response was 25 percent," Kirby said. "Our response percent from the Combined Arms Center was 44 percent. Almost the best in TRADOC and well above the Army."
Lundy concluded the event by presenting his expectations of the CAC team and what employees could expect from him.
"I think it's important when you come into an organization, or you get a new boss, that everyone knows what he thinks and what he wants," Lundy said. "First and foremost, we must all be Army Professionals of impeccable character, commitment and competence. We have to be experts in what we do. Another part of being a professional is looking out for each other.
"What can you expect from me?' Lundy continued. "I'm all in. I can be a little intense at times, but this is what I love. I love having the opportunity to serve with Solders and Army Civilians who do good things for Soldiers. I most like to watch people perform and do well. The best 90 days, I've had in the Army is watching this team. I'm absolutely proud and amazed at the things you all are doing every day."
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