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 August 22-25.
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.
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.
"Priority one for First Army to support is mobilization. If you are mobilizing and deploying into theatre, make no mistake, that is our number one priority," he said. Joose added that other priorities include combat training center support and support of collective training events, where First Army Soldiers serve as observer coach/trainers.
The TSSWG's purpose, then, is to match units up with whatever collective training events would best match where those units are at in the deployment readiness cycle.
The Working Group was further 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.
That included Maj. Joseph Harrison, S3 for First Army Division West's 189th Infantry Brigade. Harrison said while at the TSSWG, he "wants to synchronize the next two fiscal years so that our resources and personnel are coordinated and de-conflicted for all of our training events."
He continued, "The process is pretty cut-and-dried. The calendars that we use, although they are very macro-oriented, helps to focus your orientation on the big problems. The out brief at the end of this is to (First Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Stephen Twitty) is for problems that a corps commander needs to solve. These are not problems that are for captains, major, or even lieutenant colonels. These are problems that I need a three-star general to help me with."
The lesser problems, meanwhile, can usually be resolved by talking them out, Harrison added.
"The biggest thing is getting people to talk," he said. "Once people start talking, most of the solutions are pretty evident. It's really just a difference of opinion or difference of prioritization. Once opinion and prioritization are communicated, most of the problems are resolved," Harrison said.
Meanwhile, Maj. Samuel Banter, executive officer of Operations Group Wolf, an Army National Guard training support battalion, said the TSSWG helps him solidify his unit's focus and priorities.
"I came here to plant the next couple of years training activities, and we've been able to do that," he said. "I was able to get a good understanding of the process when I came here last year, so there were no surprises this time."
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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