FORT BENNING, Ga. (Sept. 12, 2018) - The 2018 Maneuver Warfighter Conference continued into its second day Sept. 12 at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia.
This year's conference theme is "Sharpening Our Craft," which, as MCoE Commanding General Maj. Gen. Gary M. Brito said, emphasizes the importance of basic Maneuver Force effectiveness in order to win in a battlespace that spans land, air, sea, space and cyberspace, and in order to improve within the Army's modernization effort.
Subject matter experts and Maneuver leadership from across the Army led discussions on various topics to support this theme.
One of the panel discussions during the morning sessions was on "Building Readiness." Maj. Gen. Paul Calvert, 1st Cavalry Division commanding general, spoke about promoting and fostering readiness at the division level. One of the most valuable resources Soldiers have, he said, is time, and it must be used effectively. To this end, he emphasized making priorities and making those priorities known to commanders at lower levels. Maj. Gen. Leopoldo Quintas, 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, went beyond building readiness to sustaining readiness. He said units, upon returning from deployments, should continue training within 10 days to ensure essential skills are not atrophied, and Soldiers will remain ready next time their skills are needed.
Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston of U.S. Army Forces Command briefed about FORSCOM priorities. Grinston pointed out that the Army Chief of Staff's number one priority of readiness truly speaks to the conference theme, "Sharpening Our Craft." He expanded on this when listing FORSCOM priorities which include maximizing unit readiness, mastering the fundamentals and strengthening leader development.
The last panel was about NATO and coalition operations. German army Maj. Gen. Gert-Johannes Hagemann, deputy commanding general of Rapid Reaction Corps - France, and Polish army Brig. Gen. Jarosław Gromadziński, deputy commanding general of the Polish 12th Mechanized Division, spoke about their own experiences operating in coalition environments overseas, including Iraq and Afghanistan, and how to maintain readiness in a multinational environment. NATO, which consists of 26 sovereign nations, includes more than 1.8 million non-U.S. active-duty Soldiers and more than 1.2 million non-U.S. reserve Soldiers. Hagemann said the key to finding solutions for the complex challenges encountered in a large multinational environment is to maintain cooperation, coordination and compromise to achieve unanimous decisions.
The afternoon continued with an Armor Branch update during lunch. Conference participants then moved to different classrooms to take part in Maneuver Warrior Corners where numerous topics were discussed with more in-depth audience discussion.
To learn more about the conference or to see photos from the second day of the conference, visit the "Related Links" section on this page.
Related Links:
Maneuver Warfighter Conference: Day One
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