ECC Commanders Meet in Huntsville

By ACC Public and Congressional AffairsMarch 31, 2010

Going from Right to left (nearest individual first) -- COL Jeffrey Morris, 412th CSB Commander, MSG Richard Petersen, 412th CSB Senior Enlisted Advisor, SGM Daryl Gonzalez, 900th CSBN Senior Enlisted Advisor, SGM Cortorcha Rucker, 901st CSBN Senior E...
Going from Right to left (nearest individual first) -- COL Jeffrey Morris, 412th CSB Commander, MSG Richard Petersen, 412th CSB Senior Enlisted Advisor, SGM Daryl Gonzalez, 900th CSBN Senior Enlisted Advisor, SGM Cortorcha Rucker, 901st CSBN Senior E... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Approximately 80 commanders, sergeants major and senior staff members from the Expeditionary Contracting Command met in Huntsville, Ala., March 9-11 for a Commanders' Workshop. Hosted by Brig. Gen. Joe Bass, ECC commanding general, the conference provided ECC senior leaders with the opportunity to discuss current issues and review the command's path forward for providing America's Warfighters with the products and services they need to accomplish their mission.

In his remarks Bass spoke about three areas that are most important to him: people, training and mission. He reminded everyone of the need to take care of their people, to ensure they are properly trained, encouraged, rewarded and recognized. He also highlighted the need to communicate, "...up, down and laterally." As ECC continues to evolve, grow and change, he underscored the need to focus on the Army Contracting Command's strategic goals and the importance of leader involvement in the training and development of their people.

The conference included presentations and group discussions that covered a wide range of subjects. Command Sgt. Maj. John Murray spoke about the needs and expectations of soldiers newly assigned to the command. He encouraged commanders to appoint sponsors to help newcomers prepare for their transition and to assist with their in-processing and integration. Murray also stressed the need to review individual family care plans to ensure readiness.

Selected members of the ECC and ACC Headquarters' staffs provided overview briefings about their respective activities. Several members from Army Human Resources Command discussed the challenges of identifying, training, and assigning officers and non-commissioned officers to ECC to perform contracting duties. Col. Jerry Jones, ECC G-3, discussed the training challenges within the command and also spoke about the great work ECC personnel are doing in Haiti following the devastating earthquake. The new ECC civilian personnel manager, Glenda Malden, provided an overview on how the new G-1 staff agency is organized to provide field units with both military and civilian personnel support.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Leisenring, commanding general of the Mission and Installation Contracting Command headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, described how his command is reorganizing its headquarters to better synchronize with the ACC and ECC headquarters and establishing intermediate levels of command and control to focus MICC contracting support to the Generating Force. He also described how the MICC Directorates of Contracting and Contracting Centers are being reorganized to better aid the ECC Contracting Support Brigades, Contingency Contracting Battalions and Contingency Contracting Teams. Leisenring stressed that the MICC is the supporting command and the ECC is the supported command when providing the continental United States technical training base and contracting expertise in preparing ECC Soldiers for their operational contracting support mission. Both commanding generals commented that they shared the same views on operational issues and that both commands are working closely together to provide the best possible contracting support for America's Army.

The Commanders' Workshop final day was an open forum with only the commanding general, commanders, command sergeants major, senior enlisted advisors and deputies. They discussed a host of training topics, specifically, the 51C Soldiers Manual of Common Task management and implementation, Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act certification versus contracting accreditation, 51C school management, operational contact support, and the Total Employee Development System versus the Digital Training Management System. Bass concluded the workshop by briefly discussing his training philosophy.