HONOLULU - U.S. Army Pacific hosted their annual G-8 Synchronization conference April 4 -5, took place at the Hickam Officer's Club on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, and the Mission Command Facility on Fort Shafter.
The theme for this year's event was "Ready to Fight...Resourcing the Pacific" and was hosted by USARPAC Assistant Chief of Staff, G-8, Shar Kaina.
The conference, now in its second year, allows USARPAC resource managers from across the Pacific to come together to exchange ideas, discuss resourcing challenges, receive training from subject matter experts, and collaborate on a variety of topics.
The Synch also featured several guest speakers including Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Operations Wes Miller, and Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, Phillip McGhee with United States Army Forces Command.
USARPAC Deputy G-8, Lt. Col. Tom Buchholz coordinated the conference this year, and described the goal of the training.
"The training we're doing is getting all the USARPAC G-8 personnel together from on-island and off-island to train and look at how we would operate in a contingency environment," said Buchholz. "We're all busy working at our separate commands, but this is an opportunity for us to (create) shared understanding and ideas; and when we go back, we can share that information with our commanders and staff partners; it's brining everyone together."
The training covered several important financial topics such as audit readiness, resourcing focused ready units, financial de-obligations and training on the General Fund Enterprise Business System.
During the event, G-8 personnel also had an opportunity to hear from guest speakers from the Air Force, and Marines, and gain a better understanding on how sister services resource their units for contingency operations.
Chris Nezu, the G-8 with U.S. Army Japan, said it was his first USARPAC G-8 Synch he has attended.
"I think the training is great; it gives an opportunity for all of the resource managers in the theater to come together and share ideas," said Nezu. "A lot of us are new in our respective positions, so this really gives us an opportunity to come together to get to know each other better and talk about topics in our profession with some high level officials, so it's definitely a great opportunity."
Lt. Col. Yolanda Hines, the 2nd Infantry Division G-8 stationed in South Korea, also enjoyed the training and was glad to be able to attend this year's synch.
"The training has been excellent because it allows all of the G-8's to get together and discuss topics that are critical to us, like resourcing trained and ready forces and audit readiness, which is key to the Army's success in being auditable," said Hines. "Last year I wasn't able to come but I'm so happy for this opportunity this year."
Buchholz said in addition lessons learned during the training, he hoped people would be able to work on building strong relationships.
"One of the most important goals is the relationship building, this conference is a great opportunity to build relationships amongst each other, to communicate face to face and to build that trust."
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