Thursday September 19, 2013
What is it?
More than a dozen leaders from the U.S. Army National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve and the active Army - including U.S. Army Forces Command and First Army - met Sept. 16, 2013, to leverage current and upcoming training opportunities within war-fighter exercises, combat training center rotations, and home-station training events.
This recent active component/ reserve component (AC/RC) training summit is part of the milestone Army Total Force Policy initiative, signed last September 2012 by Secretary of the Army John McHugh. This policy integrates the Army’s active and reserve components into the total force – organized, trained, sustained, equipped and employed to support the six combatant commanders’ requirements for ready force packages.
Why is this important to the Army?
The Army’s active and reserve components are vital to fulfilling national military needs. The Total Force Policy and partnerships like the AC/RC Training Summit will help ensure the nation benefits from the vital experiences gained from 11 years of war. These initiatives support the Mission Command Training Program’s collective training of Army units, as directed by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, and scheduled by Forces Command under Army Force Generation to train for mission command in unified land operations.
What has the Army done
Continuing strong partnerships between reserve component units with active component Army units enhance training opportunities, leadership professional development, and shared lessons learned. The total Army is aligning forces regionally prior to employment in support of combatant commanders, as well as with active Army counterparts to optimize training relationships, resources and readiness. The leadership of the National Guard, Army Reserve and active Army are working to support the Chief of Staff of the Army’s vision for contingency-enabler packages. Army leaders are collaborating to ensure Army commands and Army service-component commands establish uniform procedures and processes for validating the pre-deployment readiness of assigned AC and RC units and Soldiers.
What continued efforts does the Army have planned for the future?
This Army Total Force training-integration summit at Forces Command and many other collaborative partnerships are focusing on enhancing policies and procedures to leverage the Total Army: active-duty, Reserve and National Guard. These partnerships will facilitate better integration of the three component forces and a balanced total force.
Resources
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