FORT STEWART, Ga. – The “Spartan Brigade,” 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, hosted the Ground Readiness Evaluation Assessment and Training Engagement facilitated by a team of senior leaders from U.S. Army Forces Command on Aug. 29-31 at Fort Stewart. The FORSCOM team’s purpose during the GREAT Engagement was primarily: to provide the brigade commander an indication of where the unit stands relative to Army policies and regulation; assess Soldier knowledge, training and ability to execute the brigade’s standing operating procedures; and provide immediate feedback to operators and crews as well as to the operations, supply and maintenance personnel.
“The GREAT Engagement to a degree is to assess whether or not you’re ready to go,” said Lt. Gen. Paul T. Calvert, the deputy commanding general of U.S. Army FORSCOM. “The idea is routine things done routinely; Army systems and processes executed to standard is what we’re talking about. Army systems and processes that are drivers of readiness really center on three things: maintenance management, property management and training management.”
FORSCOM developed the GREAT Engagement team in 2020 in response to Army audits between 2018 to 2019 that revealed a decline in the maintenance and accountability needed to sustain required readiness levels.
The FORSCOM GREAT Engagement team consisted of 22 leaders ranging from senior officers and noncommissioned officers to chief warrant officer fives, bringing with them vast institutional knowledge and experience.
“It’s about making ourselves better,” said Maj. Gen. Charles D. Costanza, the commanding general of the 3rd ID and Fort Stewart. “If we’re talking about being a part of America’s Contingency Corps, we have to blow out the door quickly … then we got to have the systems in place to do that kind of thing.”
Once the engagement is complete and the findings are disseminated, the brigade will have 60 days to send an action plan that addresses any identified below marginal areas to FORSCOM and then will have 180 days to execute the action plan before the division assesses the remediation.
“This preparation for the GREAT Engagement has helped us build relationships both internal and external to our organization to help us through a period of transition,” said Col. Ethan J. Diven, commander of the 2nd ABCT, 3rd ID. “We are about to be the most modern brigade in the Army, so generating those readiness-generating systems with new equipment has been super helpful in that capacity in getting ready for our collective training, the road to [the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California] and beyond.”
The Spartan Brigade is the Army's most modern land fighting force, and the GREAT Engagement is one of the many ways the brigade is preparing to defeat any threat in large-scale combat operations.
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