ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Ill. - The training opportunities available to Army National Guard and Reserve units, and the assistance First Army can offer, was the focus of a Training Support and Synchronization Working Group (TSSWG), held here March 14-17.
The working group's main task was to forecast Reserve Component training exercise opportunities in order to ensure commanders can determine which ones will best serve their units.
Working Group members also focused on training support priorities and how they fit into the deployment cycle. The Working Group was designed to give attendees a better understanding of how available training exercises will help hone warfighting skills, both collectively and individually. Attendees included officers, senior enlisted Soldiers, and senior civilian personnel from the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and First Army units.
Col. Jason Joose, First Army G3/G5/G7, outlined training priorities in his opening remarks to attendees in the Pershing Conference Room of First Army headquarters.
"The first priority for everybody in the Army is mobilized units. If a unit is mobilized and requires support, First Army is there to provide that support," he said. "Secondly, we look at the units that are next in the chute. We need to support them with advise and assist capabilities and ensure they're ready to go. Next, we are going to fill what our higher headquarters tell us to -- the Warfighters and National Training Center and Joint Readiness Training Center rotations. Then we're looking to the major exercises that generate readiness."
Those exercises, then, are matched up with units that would most benefit from them. Capt. Sid Priest, Joint Readiness Training Center Project Officer, said the Working Group went a long way toward accomplishing that goal.
"I help manage the enabling units of the Guard rotations, so I work with First Army to fill Observer Coach/Trainer requirements," he said. "They are very helpful in augmenting and supporting our Guard rotations. Because of the Working Group, I have a clearer vision of the assistance First Army can offer, especially in terms of planning guidance. This helps commanders lay out their calendars for the next couple of fiscal years."
Meanwhile, Maj. Rocky Torrez, S4 for First Army Division West's 189th Infantry Brigade, said the Working Group is valuable for planning and coordination.
"This helps us to find the best ways for us to provide support to the units when they come through for their Warfighters, XTCs, and other exercises," he said. My job is to plan, coordinate, synchronize, monitor, control, and assess. We must do that constantly and the Working Group is integral to all that. I will leave here with a much better understanding of the process."
For Lt. Col. Albert Lehmann, chief of collective training for the United States Army Reserve Command headquarters G3/G5/G7, the Working Group gave a clearer vision of how obstacles to training will be overcome.
"It was very informative. We worked through a lot of issues to help ensure the Army Reserve will be integrated with and supported by First Army," he said. "I have a collective training workshop that First Army Deputy G3/G5/G7 Rick Fink and several others from First Army sit in on, and that and this Working Group help with integration and provides information sharing that makes it better for both of us."
Specifically, Lehmann leaves with a better understanding of how First Army and the Reserve Component work in tandem.
"What I take away from this is I see what support is lined up and what the capability gaps are and how we can address the issues that Reserve Component units are having and how the units can be resourced," he said.
The TSSWG built on Army Total Force Policy, which aims to ensure active and Reserve Component forces are manned, trained, and equipped to one standard. First Army, as FORSCOM'S designated coordinating authority for implementation of the Army Total Force Policy, partners with United States Army Reserve and Army National Guard leadership to advise, assist, and train Reserve Component formations to achieve Department of the Army directed readiness requirements during both pre- and post-mobilization through multi-component integrated collective training, enabling FORSCOM to provide Combatant Commanders trained and ready forces in support of worldwide requirements.
Part of this requirement is helping the National Guard and USAR increase unit collective readiness, which the Working Group helped to facilitate.
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