FORT LEE, Va. – Deputy Commanding Generals for Support as well as Sustainment Brigade Commanders from the active Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve came to Fort Lee Oct. 27-28 to attend the U.S. Combined Arms Support Command-hosted DCG-S Course where they were updated on the sustainment warfighting functions.
CASCOM DCG-S Course empowers Division level leaders with the latest sustainment updates across the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership Development, Personnel, Facilities and Policy spectrum to strengthen relationships within the sustainment community and provide reach back capabilities that will help generate and build readiness across our sustainment formations.
“It's all about you; it's a chance for the DCG-S and the Sustainment Brigade Commander to come together and work together, strategize,” said CASCOM Commanding General, Maj. Gen. Sean Davis. “It’s an opportunity to familiarize how you want to get after instilling command discipline in your divisions, but also getting your divisions ready for combat and/or getting ready to pass on to someone so that they can continue to get on that road to war.
“DCG-S is a remarkable position because you have your sustainment brigade commander as your partner; you have an AFSB (Army Field Support Brigade) commander as your link to the enterprise; you have a Division G1, G4 and G8 who's got fire in his or her belly coming right out of battalion command and getting after it,” said Davis. “This (course) is all about how you can use those teams to your advantage to make your division the best it can be.”
The role of the DCG-S is to synchronize sustainment and protection warfighting functions to support the Division and control the rear area of operations.
“I recommend at your installations, you wrap your arms around your AMC enablers that bring to bear the power of the (sustainment) enterprise and work through your sustainment commanders and your senior staff at echelon,” said Army Materiel Command Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Gavin Lawrence. “Who are the AMC enablers that you should be wrapping your arms around?
“In terms of installation support, the garrison command team that act essentially as the mayors of your installations,” said Lawrence. “Each installation has either an AFSB headquarters or an AFSBn (Army Field Support Battalion) that act as the faces of the field in terms of integration of AMC equities; they absolutely should be a part of your Team Sustainment and involved in your sustainment-related algorithm of defense.
Lawrence also mentioned the importance of the Army contracting brigades and battalions delivering operational contracting support.
The first day of the course focused on the larger sustainment warfighting system as well as Lessons Learned panel from former DCG-S officers and a senior warrant officer panel. Day two contained overview briefs from Finance, Adjutant General, Transportation, Ordnance and Quartermaster commandants.
“With power comes responsibility, and you have to understand that command supply and maintenance discipline are not administrative functions; they are combat requirements,” said Davis. “You must maintain discipline, you must maintain proper accountability; it is not something we do because we're good government stewards, we need our equipment to be ready for combat.
“Each of the commandants will take you, as I said at the beginning, and they'll take you to their areas to show you again how to inspect an SSA (Supply Support Activity), how to inspect a motor pool, and how to run a command discipline program,” said the general.
Many of the attendees were not logisticians by trade but are now in a position where they oversee sustainment sections and units.
“The DCG-S course was phenomenal; this gave us an opportunity both to network with our peers and then also understand all of the different systems, offices, and capabilities within the sustainment warfighting function available to us,” said Col. Patrick Schuck, DCG-S, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea. “I would absolutely recommend taking this course as soon as you could, or as soon as you are in position, because it has been a phenomenal experience.”
CASCOM hosts the DCG-S course one to two times a year.
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