Fort McCoy Garrison commander holds town hall to review climate survey, first 90 days

During two town hall sessions for the Fort McCoy workforce Oct. 27 in building 60, Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Messenger reviewed his first 90 days as commander and discussed results of a climate survey completed by garrison employees.

In a memorandum to the workforce leading up to the sessions, and as discussed during the sessions, Messenger communicated his message directly.

“Overall, I assess the work ethic and professionalism of U.S. Army Garrison Fort McCoy as among the very best of organizations I have worked with in my career,” Messenger said. “We possess a talented and diverse team of experienced leaders from across the Department of Defense (DOD) who display the utmost teamwork and dedication to the mission. They spent the last 24 months highly engaged in the COVID-19 global pandemic and expertly accomplished the whole-of-government Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) mission.

“Simultaneously, they have achieved exceptional results on major inspections in the past 90 days to include the Higher Headquarters Assessment, Organizational Inspection Program, and Environmental Health Site Visit,” Messenger stated in his message. “The team’s ability to execute multiple missions, conduct garrison operations with a high level of expertise, develop and implement long-range action plans, establish a superior multi-year budget, and collaborate with partners at the local, state, and federal levels have clearly cemented a culture of winning through cooperation. However, the garrison has worked hard, and OAW, COVID, and some cultural challenges have taken a toll on the workforce.”

Messenger said he’ll do all he can to continue to help the Fort McCoy team to do well, and everyone should do the same.

“You decide every day to come into work, right? Whether you’re happy or not. You decide every day whether the culture and your organization are okay or not. Every person has a right to come in every day and enjoy their job,” Messenger said. “It’s incumbent on all of us to be a good battle buddy, to be a good leader, to be a good friend, to be a good mentor.”

Messenger also shared the following “lines of effort” that his leadership team will focus on going forward.

— LOE 1.0: To Ensure Soldier, Civilian, and Family Readiness. “We have proven over the past year through COVID-19 and OAW that we can pivot our focus immediately, maintain exercise season capability, and simultaneously look to the future. We will continue to expertly train the warfighter, take care of employees, support families, and develop leaders.”

— LOE 2.0: To Maintain and Increase Installation Readiness. “The overall installation is aging with the preponderance of the buildings constructed in the World War II era. However, a robust planning process has paved the way to demonstrate continuous improvement throughout the decade. Our goal is to improve the processes, facilities, and infrastructure to support training service members to fight and win our nation’s wars while taking care of our people.”

— LOE 5.0: To Sustain Power Projection. “We must ensure the installation and people are prepared to train and mobilize at any time. Fort McCoy must quickly regain its OAW degraded infrastructure capacity to remain the ‘go to’ Mobilization Force Generation Installation (MFGI), Reserve and Guard training platform, and Strategic Support Area.”

— LOE 8.0: To Conduct Strategic Communications. “Our high visibility mission is critical to internal and external Fort McCoy stakeholders, to include the American public. We must build and maintain effective strategic communications to tell our story in support of Soldiers and service members, civilians, families, communities, and the nation.”

Messenger also shared the following 20 strategic decision points for the garrison going forward into fiscal year 2023.

— Restore MFGI barracks.

— Transition to privatized housing.

— Execute fiscal year 2023 exercise season.

— Develop energy resilience strategy.

— Develop holistic civilian development plan.

— Achieve funding plan for multipurpose training facility.

— Conduct a full-scale exercise through the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security.

— Develop telework policy.

— Achieve 100 percent fill of work positions.

— Streamline hiring practices.

— Design garrison current operating picture.

— Retain physical fitness capacity.

— Establish awards board.

— Streamline staff action control sheet process.

— Develop battle rhythm consistency.

— Target social media platforms.

— Implement information technology modernization plan.

— Enhance civilian hiring strategy.

— Reconstruct Burma Road.

— Create Behind the Triad video series.

“These are no more or less important than other tasks,” Messenger said, “but they're critical to changing the game this year. All these are game changers.”

During the sessions, Messenger presented Thomas Desjardins with the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobility and Security and Jobi Spolum with the Fort McCoy Plans, Analysis, and Integration Office each with a commander’s coin for excellence. Additionally, Installation Safety Office Manager Randy Eddy presented the garrison and the commander with its sixth Army Safety Streamer.

Messenger said he will continue to update the workforce on all of the items he discussed going forward as well.

“Overall, this veteran team of talented leaders is ready to continue to perform at an exceptionally high level. … We are postured well moving into the future,” Messenger said.

Fort McCoy was established in 1909 and its motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.