Military

FORT MONROE, Va. (Army News Service, July 9, 2003) -- Eight months into his tenure as the Training and Doctrine Command commanding general, Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes said he has seen tremendous changes within the Army and his command.

Byrnes took the TRADOC leadership reins Nov. 7, 2002.

The first thing Byrnes said he wanted the TRADOC community to know, during a recent interview, is the command is focused on the Army's future fighting force.

"I would tell them that we're on track," he said. "We're doing what the Army and the nation needs of us. What we're doing is absolutely critical to the Army and the nation. I think if you look at our most recent success in Operation Enduring Freedom, I think that the value of training -- training to standard and training under tough conditions -- has proven itself to be the difference between the best Army in the world and others."

Byrnes attributed much of the Army's success to leader development and noted that it will continue to play a crucial part in the Army's success in the future.

"We grow leaders everyday in the Officer Education System and Noncommissioned Officer Education System," he said.

He said his top priorities as TRADOC commander are leader development and ensuring that all soldiers are properly trained.

"Those embedded reporters -- we've known it for a while -- but the embedded reporters showed the American people what we've been talking about. We've achieved a level of respect and confidence that no Army has in the past."

He vowed that the Army would maintain the standards and confidence the American public expects it to have in the Army of the future.

Byrnes said TRADOC's mission remains largely unchanged from when Gen.William E. Depuy first laid it out 30 years ago -- to train the Army for war, develop leaders, establish standards, build the Army of the future and recruit the force.

He said his priorities operate within that mission framework. Those priorities are:

Support Operation Iraqi Freedom and the ongoing Global War on Terrorism -- Byrnes said the command would continue to support the current operations with whatever resources are necessary.

Training and leader development to standard - "I will ensure that we have the right resources in the way of quality instructors and drill sergeants and the dollar resources so we can accomplish our mission as the Army expects us to," Byrnes said. "Beyond that, everything else is secondary."

Transformation - "We're going to transform this Army into an Objective Force," Byrnes said. "We're going to do it with first units being fielded this decade; we're going to get that right. There has been a lot of hard work during the last three years designing the organization. We've also taken a hard look at the training programs, at the tactics, techniques and procedures, and at types of equipment and technology capabilities we want to put in the hands of our soldiers. "But that work will continue as we move into the future."

Transforming the Army includes a number of major programs that must be in operation to ensure Transformation, he said.

"The first is a rigorous experimentation program that allows us to take the good ideas and the first pieces of the future combat systems, being developed, put them in the hands of our soldiers and let them push (the equipment) to failure," Byrnes said. "(By doing this they can) tell us what works, what doesn't work and let us redesign it, then put it back out. The continuous spiral of the experimentation will get us better.

"So that when we develop the first force, (it has) been 'soldier-certified' so we have what we believe is the right soldier, the right organization, the right training, the right leader development and the right equipment in the hands of the world's best soldier."

He said there's also an element under Transformation that tells us we will never fight another war alone again. That element is the process of combining all branches of the U.S. armed forces, along with other coalition forces to face a common enemy. That element, referred to as jointness, is another of Byrnes' priorities.

Joint relationships - "We've got to include more of a joint force in everything we do," he said. "We have to become fully integrated into Joint warfighting. Our exercises have to be done in a Joint context. Our doctrines have to be developed, keeping in mind that we're going to fight as a member of a Joint team. We should have in mind that we're developing the force to contribute to the joint force commander."

Byrnes said the Objective Force cannot be developed with a narrow view. TRADOC has to consider how the joint force commander will apply the Army as one of his many tools.

"He has an air component, a naval component and a Marine force with expeditionary capabilities," Byrnes said. "How do you get the best out of what each service can offer and achieve a balance (the joint force commander) can apply in places like Iraq, Afghanistan or a number of potential battle places in the future? We've got to contribute to the solution to the joint force commander's challenge."

Byrnes said one of his internal challenges is for the command to figure out how to redesign TRADOC to best support the new mission with the new force.

"Today we train individual soldiers and leaders, and we certify them in their skills and push them out to the force," he said. "When they come back to the schoolhouses at different levels, we'll run them through a training program, recertify them and, push them back out to the force.

"The Army of the future is going to be far more complex, and it's not just about greater technology," he said. "It's going to be about organizations that have a tremendous leap in capabilities. This Objective Force we're designing is built around the soldier, of course, but the main system the soldier will have is called the Future Combat System."

Future Combat Systems -- He said that the Future Combat Systems comprises 18 hardware systems, with the 19th system as the network on which soldiers operate. The systems will be built to interoperate and leverage off one another, Byrnes said.

"The true strength of that organization will be when everything is working, everything is in the network," he said. "Information is flowing without any obstructions. Intelligence is collected and available to commanders at all levels on a sensor network. So you have situational understanding of what your forces are doing -- those on your left and right and in other areas of your area of responsibility: what the Air Force is doing, what the Navy is doing, what the intelligence pictures.

"When you can operate like that, you can achieve greater capabilities, you can be much more lethal and you can certainly be more survivable; you can take care of your force a lot better."

Byrnes said operations with the new systems would require replacements by unit instead of the current way of individual replacements.

"Since we're going to field those kind of capabilities, we're moving to a system where we're going to replace by units. Right now, for instance, soldiers go to Korea and they fall into individual replacements. That happens everywhere in the Army," he said. "In the future, if we want to (rotate soldiers) by units, instead of going over (to Korea) individually, we will grow a company, grow a battalion, maybe put them at Fort Hood for six months, rotate them to Europe, bring them back for a year, refill the unit -- maybe by platoon or company -- send them back to Korea for six months after a couple of years at (Fort) Hood.

"We're not talking about increasing the optempo, we're talking about 'how do you rotate?'" Byrnes continued. "Rotating by unit makes a lot more sense. You have immediate readiness. There a lot of other benefits."

He noted that Transformation presents another challenge: the schoolhouses.

"If we're going to build far more complicated systems that interoperate and we're going to rotate by units instead of individuals, what does that leave for the schoolhouse?" he said. "I can't just train individuals any longer and send them out to the force. Does TRADOC need to be involved in training units? The first unit of action will be an Objective Force Brigade. In TRADOC, do we pull it together, from the force, build it, get all the individual skills ready, then train crew skills, start to field the equipment, train crew, platoon, company, battalion, brigade and then provide (this unit) to the Army as a certified combat-ready force?

"That's not how we do it today. But that's just one example of things we're looking at and how we need to redesign TRADOC to best serve the Army in the period before the Objective Force is fielded."

Byrnes said TRADOC was looking at redesigning the way the schoolhouses operate so all graduating units would be similar to cohort units, which were in operation during the mid-80s. He pointed out, however, that the Department of the Army is the final authority for all plans.

He said it's important for all members of future units that will operate the Future Combat Systems to train together instead of at several different locations. This would result in increased unit cohesion and ensure that all systems within a unit are trained to interoperate properly, he said.

"We've got a very complex training challenge with the technology that is going to be in our systems," Byrnes said. "When you've got to have all 19 systems working together to get the full benefit, I can't just train unmanned aerial vehicle operators in one place; train mortar operators at another place; and train communications guys in another place. To get the value, I've got to train them together before they go to the field, before they're deployable. They've got to be able to work together."

Innovation -- "Part of our mission from the Department of the Army is to be the architect of the future, "Byrnes said. "We're in charge of designing the organization for the future, for developing the doctrine and standards that future forces will operate under. I've got to have an organization here that is open-minded, that welcomes new ideas, that challenges and helps me weigh new ideas that come into the organization. We need to create a culture of thinkers and innovators who look at a challenge and input a set of ways of doing it, not just apply band-aids and bailing wire to fix old ways of doing business.

"If something needs to be changed and it makes sense to me, let's figure out the best way to do it. I seek collaboration and will collaborate with other services on challenges, and with industry where it makes sense. Any way I can find good ideas and solutions to challenges, I want to work with those people to get it done."

Accessions - "(Training and Doctrine Command) is responsible for recruiting the force, taking them through initial-entry training and handing them off to their first unit as technically qualified in their MOS field, qualified as a soldier, schooled in all the fundamentals," Byrnes said. "When their first unit gets them, they will continue learning and grow on to become first contributing members of crews and platoons.

"That's a tough mission," he said. "But it's not just enlisted; I also assess the officer corps. TRADOC is responsible for the Officers Candidate School program and the ROTC program. We have the senior ROTC program, which includes 270 colleges and universities.

"The view of the Army senior leadership is that soldiers have been and always will be the centerpiece of everything we do. We don't get carried away with equipment. Some folks worry about the caliber of the weapon. The Army worries about the caliber of the person; that's far more important. We equip the man, rather than man the equipment."

Byrnes said it's very important to get the best soldiers and ensure they have to best training to maintain a quality force.

"We have to do everything we can to get the right quality of soldiers in the force and train them properly," he said.

Byrnes said he sent a message to the commandants within TRADOC that the schools, basic training and advanced individual training or one-station unit training will be fully resourced. He said the commandants will get everything they need so the schools can deliver in providing soldiers to first units with all the necessary training.

He said TRADOC will continue to contribute to Army Transformation by ensuring the training and leader development programs are exactly what is needed for the future force. He said a crucial part of Transformation will include providing professional development training for the Army's civilian workforce as well.

"It's all about providing the education for quality leaders in the future force," he said. "We're going through the NCO study right now, and we will be bringing the recommendation into the Pentagon for the senior leadership in the late summer or early fall. We'll also study the warrant officers' program, but the real challenge to all of this will be the civilian education.

"How do we provide for the professional development of our civilians?" he said. "I think we've tried very hard in the past and we've made some progress, but we're not there. We need to do a lot better, and I think that will be the tougher one. I think you'll see TRADOC in the future take responsibility for the education for Department of the Army civilians."

(Editor's note: Sgt. 1st Class Reginald P. Rogers writes for the TRADOC News Service.)