FORT BENNING Ga, (June 1, 2022) – The 198th Infantry Brigade, U.S. Army Infantry School, Maneuver Center of Excellence hosted the inaugural Infantry Basic Training Summit at the National Infantry Museum, Columbus, Ga., on May 25-26, 2022.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Larry Q. Burris, U.S. Army Infantry School Commandant, Maneuver Center of Excellence, was on hand to welcome the participants during the opening ceremony.
During the summit, military Infantry leaders from Royal Netherlands Army, Australia, South Korea, Germany, British Army, France, Brazil, Chile, and the U.S. Marine Corps presented information on Infantry basic training.
Participants discussed one-station unit training, large-scale combat operations, and Army health and fitness.
“We recognize that interoperability is really a mirror to see ourselves better. For a long time, we’ve done the same thing just because that is the way we do it. This is an opportunity to get to learn about the way our allies and partners and other services do it so we can see ourselves better,” said U.S. Army Col. Ryan Wylie, commander, 198th Infantry Brigade.
Wylie added, “There are two important things that we are working on that we can benefit from having all these mirrors of different perspectives. One of them is the transition to large-scale combat operations and the other one is our transition away from [an] industrial-based training methodology to one that is based off of an individualized approach and takes advantage of information technology and digital technology in order to better train our Soldiers to raise their level of performance.”
One of the key areas of focus at this year’s summit was the common challenges experienced by the participants.
“I think the critical aspect to coming together like this is sharing our ideas and understanding on how we got so many commonalities, of the same problems, the same issues, [and] the same thought process to effectively achieving a fighting force,” said Lt. Col. Ross Brookfield, commanding officer, 1st Infantry Training Battalion, British Army, United Kingdom.
U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Michael Harmon, commander, Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry-West, Camp Pendleton, California agreed that the summit helped Infantry leaders share common experiences to identify solutions. “I would say we are all dealing with the same problem set and have come up with some similar solutions so it’s interesting to see everybody wrestling with the same problems as an Infantry force and how do we deal with future conflicts in fighting peer adversaries,” said Harmon.
The summit increased understanding of the operating environment, highlighted diverse perspectives on Infantry training, and identified ways to increase capability and strengthen interoperability with allies and partner nations.
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