Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation which evolved from a small basic training post more than 70 years ago, to a premier Army Center of Excellence, training nearly 80,000 military and civilians each year.
Recently, the GUIDON hosted a question-and-answer session with Maj. Gen. Kent Savre, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general, regarding MSCoE's mission and his vision and priorities.
How would you describe the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood purpose?
Specifically, our purpose is to provide the operating force with trained and ready Soldiers who serve ethically, who lead effectively in ambiguous situations, and who possess unique maneuver support capabilities -- skills and tools -- that enable commanders to achieve victory.
We are here to provide capabilities to the Army -- which not only means training and educating service members, but also developing doctrine, organizations, and systems for current and future maneuver support forces.
To achieve this purpose, we must develop competent leaders and warriors of character and develop and integrate engineer, CBRN, military police, and maneuver support capabilities that enable mission success across the range of military operations.
What do you consider your top priorities as the commanding general, and how do you measure success for your priorities?
To develop these unique skills and tools mentioned in our purpose, we operate along four lines of effort.
The first major effort is training skilled warriors to appropriate standards under realistic conditions to achieve expertise and agility.
Next, is developing leaders of character -- both students and permanent party through challenging training and experiences that enable leaders to think critically and build resilience.
Third, we develop capabilities based on the threat and future operating environment, and finally, we could not do the first three without taking care of our people and our post to ensure we are resilient to evolving and emerging requirements.
Ensuring success across these lines of effort requires buy in and support from leadership and every organization across Fort Leonard Wood.
What do you consider to be the way forward for the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood?
Well, let me start by saying that Mary Beth and I are very excited about continuing to serve at Fort Leonard Wood along with Command Sgt. Maj. Jon Stanley and his wife, Barbara.
I believe the future is very bright for both the installation and our surrounding community. I think this year we may see additional focus in a few areas, including planning and execution of support to the Army's End Strength Increase, modernizing materiel systems across our regiments to support maneuver commanders across the range of operations and providing highly specialized, relevant, challenging training that invites or encourages other services, agencies, and partners to attend our courses.
What has not changed is my philosophy: "Mission first, people always, team of teams," or my vision: At the heart of mission success, across the range of military operations, are capable warriors/leaders with unique skills and tools developed at the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, Fort Leonard Wood.
How can the workforce best contribute to your vision and priorities for the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood?
I would ask that leaders and supervisors continue to nest their organizations' vision and my vision.
I also ask that leaders continue to put the mission first and take care of people always.
That means treating every member of our team with dignity and respect while upholding and enforcing standards, collaborating well within your organizations and across our greater team of teams and always remaining flexible and adaptable to new guidance, projects or missions.
From the individual's perspective, we ask that everyone on Fort Leonard Wood know their position and supervisor's expectations, perform their very best in the job they are in and make daily contributions toward the organization.
Remember, our shared purpose is to serve our nation and the U.S. Army.
How would you describe maneuver support on the future battlefield?
The key word in "maneuver support" is "maneuver," so it is critical that we have a relationship with and understanding of maneuver capabilities on the future battlefield.
In defining the future of maneuver support, we have spent a great deal of time identifying what specialized skills and tools (equipment and training) maneuver commanders will need to guarantee success in future conflict.
A very short description of what future maneuver support forces must do is to provide supported commanders with options, integrate efforts with multiple partners, operate across multiple domains and present enemies and adversaries with multiple dilemmas.
Complementary and reinforcing maneuver support forces must understand and shape the terrain and environment; mitigate the effects of obstacles and hazards; and protect the force, populations, resources and activities to enable freedom of movement and action.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I continue to be very impressed with our Fort Leonard Wood team of teams.
The mission we have and the capabilities we provide are critical for our Army, our sister services and our nation.
Every person -- military, civilian, and Family member -- contributes to our overall success, and every person is appreciated.
Command Sgt. Maj. Stanley and I are incredibly proud to serve on this team
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