Soldiers from units across Fort Knox, Kentucky gathered here for a final Leader Development forum, March 23, at Haszard Auditorium.
The event, hosted by Maj. Gen. Thomas Seamands, U.S. Army Human Resources Command commanding general, was his last before relinquishing his command to Maj. Gen. Jason T. Evans later in April.
"I am lucky enough to be one of the 3,700 brave Americans who wake up every day with the sole purpose of building readiness and taking care of Soldiers and families," Seamands said.
Together, Seamands along with the command's senior enlisted Soldier, Command Sgt. Major Wardell Jefferson, have taken their message of readiness to 65 installations worldwide and led a total of 89 officer and leader development discussions before finally bringing the "Road Show" back home to Fort Knox.
Seamands says he uses the forum to make sure the Army gets it right, by listening to Soldiers and Leaders' concerns out in the field and then taking those concerns back to HRC to see where there is room for improvement.
"A couple of years ago the Army sent me off to the War College to answer questions from what you would call really smart people," Seamands said.
"About half of the questions I answered and the other half I couldn't answer so I would just look at them and ask 'what's your security clearance?' That's what you're going to get here today," he joked.
Seamands used the opportunity to talk about, as he puts it, "who HRC is."
"As I travel around I try to be that person who demystifies what HRC actually is," he said. "A lot of people think of HRC and think that that's just the person who cuts my orders. That's part of it, but we're much more than that."
After defining the different functions of HRC and the key role they play in every Soldier's career, Seamands took the time to field questions from the audience in the packed auditorium; not only addressing present concerns but how decisions made at the highest levels today will affect promotions and advancement in the future.
"I firmly believe that we are an organization that 90 percent of the time gets it right and that 10 percent we don't get right, we stop, we AAR, and we reflect on it for the next time."
He also addressed the Army's recent announced plans to build the force from 460,000 to 476,000 strong by the end of this fiscal year and how those plans are directly affected by the work done at HRC, Recruiting Command, and Cadet Command.
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