FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Jordan Gillis, assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, visited Fort Leonard Wood in August to assess installation infrastructure and readiness requirements, engage installation leaders and see firsthand how Army investments are supporting Soldiers and mission requirements.
The installation oversight visit provided Gillis an opportunity to examine challenges and opportunities across Fort Leonard Wood’s infrastructure portfolio while hearing directly from leaders responsible for training, facilities and installation operations.
“Installation visits are critical to understanding how the decisions we make at the Army level translate on the ground,” Gillis said. “You have to see the facilities, understand the mission and hear directly from the people responsible for delivering readiness every day.”
During the visit, Gillis received updates on Fort Leonard Wood’s training infrastructure, facilities and ongoing modernization requirements.
Installation leaders discussed challenges affecting several training ranges supporting Initial Entry Training and efforts to maintain training capacity while addressing infrastructure requirements. Gillis also received updates on priority facility requirements, including aging infrastructure supporting critical installation missions.
The discussions allowed Gillis to examine how infrastructure conditions can directly affect an installation’s ability to generate readiness.
“Facilities are not simply buildings. They enable missions, and when infrastructure cannot support the mission it was designed to serve, that becomes a readiness issue,” Gillis said.
Preparing for emerging Army requirements
Gillis also visited the U.S. Army Prime Power School, where leaders discussed the school’s efforts to prepare Soldiers for emerging energy requirements.
The school is examining how its training mission can evolve to support emerging Army energy technologies and future operational requirements.
The effort represents one example of how Fort Leonard Wood’s training mission is evolving alongside emerging Army requirements.
Gillis met with Prime Power School leadership to discuss the initiative and the importance of developing the workforce required to operate increasingly sophisticated energy systems.
“The technology is only one part of the equation,” Gillis said. “We also need Soldiers with the skills to safely operate and sustain these capabilities. Building that workforce has to occur alongside the technology.”
The combination of established training missions and emerging requirements underscores the need to ensure installation infrastructure keeps pace with the missions it supports.
Installations are where readiness begins
Gillis’ visit also included remarks at the Sustainable Ozarks Partnership Annual Meeting in Waynesville, where he highlighted Fort Leonard Wood’s importance to Army readiness and the longstanding relationship between the installation and surrounding communities. “Simply put, installations are where readiness begins,” Gillis said. “That is why Fort Leonard Wood is so important.”
During his remarks, Gillis highlighted Fort Leonard Wood’s role as one of the Army’s premier training installations. The installation develops Army engineers, trains military police and prepares Chemical Corps Soldiers for operations in demanding environments. Each year, thousands of Soldiers begin careers at Fort Leonard Wood that take them around the world in service to the Nation.
Gillis emphasized that Fort Leonard Wood’s success is also closely connected to the communities surrounding it. “The relationship between this installation and the surrounding communities is one of the strongest examples anywhere in America of what happens when military and community leaders work toward a common purpose,” Gillis said.
He credited members of the community to include educators, business owners, local officials, veterans, community organizations and citizens throughout the region with contributing to Army readiness, emphasizing that national security is strengthened by those who support Soldiers and installations beyond the fence line.
Installations as strategic assets
Gillis also used his remarks to discuss the changing role of Army installations as the service transforms to meet future requirements.
“Modern installations are no longer simply places we operate from,” Gillis said. “They are strategic assets that enable the Army to deploy, sustain, and prevail in an increasingly complex world.”
That evolution requires the Army to examine how it builds, modernizes and sustains installations. Gillis highlighted the need to deliver infrastructure faster, improve stewardship of taxpayer resources, embrace new technologies and work together with industry, utilities, academia, state governments and communities when those relationships can produce better outcomes for Soldiers and taxpayers.
Building relationships and collaboration are particularly important as installations adapt to support new technologies and changing mission requirements.
“Our responsibility is to ensure that our installations evolve just as rapidly as the Soldiers and capabilities they support,” Gillis said.
For Fort Leonard Wood, that transformation is occurring alongside an enduring training mission and growing responsibilities that will continue to make the installation an important component of Army readiness.
Seeing readiness firsthand
As assistant secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, Gillis is responsible for policy and oversight across the Army’s installation, energy, environmental, safety and occupational health portfolios. Visits such as Fort Leonard Wood connect those Army-level responsibilities with the conditions Soldiers and commanders experience at installations.
The visit also reinforced the relationship between installation infrastructure, Soldier quality of life and readiness.
“Quality of life and readiness are connected,” Gillis said. “The places where our Soldiers live, work and train must support both the people who serve and the missions we ask them to perform.”
By combining installation-level engagements with dialogue with the community, Gillis said the Army can better understand requirements, prioritize resources and identify solutions that strengthen installations over the long term.
“What we learn at places like Fort Leonard Wood helps inform decisions across the Army,” Gillis said. “The goal is to make sure our policies and investments ultimately produce results for Soldiers, commanders and the mission.”
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