1 / 4Show Caption +Hide Caption –Gen. Stephen Townsend, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command commanding general, virtually tours the E.F. Bullene CBRN Defense Training Facility with the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset/heat mounted display, Thursday at the Lt. Terry Facility during a site visit to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. During his visit, Townsend visited with Soldiers and viewed training at the CBRN, Engineer and Military Police schools. The headset is one of the many pieces of technology being developed for the USACBRNS by the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. (Photo Credit: Ms. Dawn M Arden (Leonard Wood))VIEW ORIGINAL2 / 4Show Caption +Hide Caption –Gen. Stephen Townsend, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command commanding general, virtually tours the E.F. Bullene CBRN Defense Training Facility with the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset/heat mounted display, Thursday at the Lt. Terry Facility during a site visit to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. During his visit, Townsend visited with Soldiers and viewed training at the CBRN, Engineer and Military Police schools. The headset is one of the many pieces of technology being developed for the USACBRNS by the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
(Photo Credit: Ms. Dawn M Arden (Leonard Wood))VIEW ORIGINAL3 / 4Show Caption +Hide Caption –Gen. Stephen Townsend, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
commanding general, learns about the capabilities of the Dry Support Bridge. (Photo Credit: Mr. Ryan Thompson (Leonard Wood))VIEW ORIGINAL4 / 4Show Caption +Hide Caption –Gen. Stephen Townsend, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
commanding general, learns the controls of the M30 Bridge Erection Boat.
(Photo Credit: Mr. Ryan Thompson (Leonard Wood))VIEW ORIGINAL
The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command's commanding general visited Fort Leonard Wood July 11-12 to meet with senior leaders and get a first-hand look at the skills and tools developed by the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence.
"This is my first official visit to Fort Leonard Wood as the TRADOC commander," said Gen. Stephen Townsend, who took command of TRADOC in March. "I'm pretty impressed with the infrastructure here."
In addition to the impressive infrastructure, Townsend said the installation's location is advantageous due to the Mark Twain National Forest surrounding much of the post.
"Fort Leonard Wood doesn't have encroachment problems … and because of that," Townsend said, "I think there's a lot of potential for future missions here at Fort Leonard Wood."
While on post, Townsend visited with leaders and Soldiers of the Army's Engineer School, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School and Military Police School. He also had the opportunity to take part in and observe engineer, CBRN and MP training, all of which, he said, is critical to the Army's lethality.
"Your maneuver support mission is absolutely vital," Townsend said. "BCTs (Brigade Combat Teams) are not going to close with the enemy without the enablers that you provide them."
Another area Townsend said he is interested in after visiting Fort Leonard Wood is MSCoE's annual training numbers.
"I'm more aware of the actual training load that you do here and the graduates you produce; somehow that had escaped my notice -- how big the mission is here," he said.
According to Maj. Gen. Kent Savre, MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general, more than 86,000 service members and civilians are trained at Fort Leonard Wood annually, across all services, all components, in 245 different courses and for 26 different technical military occupation specialties.
"Bringing in 86,000 people a year and giving them some sort of graduation certificate is strategic," Savre said. "We have a lot going on with the three schools, sister services, and supporting Sustainment Center of Excellence with 88M (truck driver) training -- we're a big time training organization."
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