FORT HOOD, TX – About 25 Soldiers with the 369th Sustainment Brigade participated in maintenance and supply Global Combat Support System-Army, or G-Army, training Sept. 23, 2022, on North Ft. Hood in preparation for deployment to Kuwait.
Critical components of a successful G-Army system process are structure, roles, responsibility and frequency.
G-Army is an integral part of theatre and warfighting logistics, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Elton Caruth, the officer-in-charge of the supply half of the G-Army training and material manager with the 369th Sustainment Brigade Support Operations, or SPO.
“G-Army is critical beyond supply and maintenance,” Caruth said. “It is useful in logistics and other sections.”
U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Karl Lorenz said that many units deploy without a sufficient understanding of the data and meta data relevant to maintenance and supply functions of the G-Army system. That system supports unit supply, property book, maintenance, warehouse and warehouse management, which are all essential to a properly functioning support operations.
Connecting these essential functions to data and meta data using the G-Army system provides access, accountability, operational status and oversight on all items documented in the system.
Lorenz, who is assigned to the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, was the officer-in-charge of the maintenance half of the G-Army training.
“A Soldier can know how to open and close a work order but without understanding what a work order is, what it does and how it affects the unit, there is going to be a lack of understanding,” Lorenz said.
The goal of G-Army training is for support operations team members to have a full understanding of the system which results in effective operations and readiness.
“I teach deploying Soldier’s how to manage multiple units in theatre from the perspective that all the standard operating practices that a unit has won’t be effective if they don’t understand the critical pieces that go into a successful system process.”
For example, Lorenz said, there are numerous two-character codes that mean something but if those codes are missing from a unit standard operating manual, it makes it difficult to understand. That lack of understanding can lead to mistakes that interfere with the successful completion of the mission.
Sgt. Emanuel Negron, an automated logistical specialist with the 369th Sustainment Brigade’s SPO Sustainment Automation Support Management Office (SASMO), said that he used G-Army extensively with his former unit, the 105th Military Police. He used the system for dispatching vehicles and in the creation of work orders, which contributed to his unit’s effectiveness by means of timely response to accidents and incidents.
In theatre, things can get chaotic, said Negron. Learning the basics of G-Army now, can prevent mistakes that can inhibit the completion of the mission down range.
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