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Infantry, armor NCOs train together

By Annette Fournier
Fort Benning Bayonet
September 26, 2006

FORT BENNING, Ga. (Army News Service, September 26, 2006) - As part of the Army’s ongoing transformation, senior armor and infantry NCOs began training together this month in the first combined Advanced Noncommissioned Officers Course.

Two of the combined classes began simultaneously, with one class at Fort Benning and the other at the Armor School at Fort Knox, Ky.

ANCOC was redesigned as combined training so senior NCOs in combat arms would have a better understanding of each other's tactics, capabilities and equipment, said 1st Sgt. Sherman Roberts, Fort Benning's ANCOC first sergeant.

In the Army's restructured brigade combat teams, Soldiers of many MOSs work side by side in combat, said Michael Quirion, NCO Academy's chief operations officer. The new training will help NCOs make better use of the equipment and Soldiers available, because they'll understand their abilities, he said.

"The armor and the infantry deploy together and work together all the time, but they know very little about each other," Roberts said. "Combining the courses will enable us to train as we fight."

The courses are also being combined in preparation for the Armor School coming to Fort Benning to form the Maneuver Center.

The decision evolved from discussions between Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Fort Benning's commanding general, and Maj. Gen. Robert Williams, Fort Knox's commanding general, Quirion said.

First word that the courses might be combined spread in late 2005, and by January the armor and infantry NCO academies were tasked with combining the old ANCOC and updating old content to create the joint course.

Much of the course content for the armor and infantry ANCOC were similar, but combining the two was easier said than done, Quirion said.

"It's really a challenge because doctrine and manuals have to be rewritten. But, infantry and armor have the same goals, just different ways of accomplishing them," Quirion said. "We're focusing on the common ground, then adding some MOS-specific information."

NCOs study together during the first five weeks of the seven-week course. In the class, doctrine is taught by an instructor but enhanced by student discussions. Because many of the students are combat veterans, their experiences are valuable teaching tools, Roberts said. Students also study the specialized skills, equipment and terminology of scouts, tankers, mortarmen and infantrymen.

"I'm interested to see at the end what they learned from their brothers in arms," Roberts said.

During the sixth week, students are divided to learn certain MOS-specific skills, and the final week the students rejoin for a simulated training exercise.

Because Fort Benning currently lacks the equipment to launch an STX complete with tanks, the practical exercise is conducted in the close combat tactical trainer.

Each week of the course, the instructors from the Fort Benning and Fort Knox classes meet via video teleconference to discuss the week's progress.

"This is a coordinated effort all the way. Infantry doesn't have the lead and armor doesn't have the lead on the new course," Roberts said. "And it's not just putting the two old courses together."

The new course adds content relevant to today's battlefield and focuses on building skills that each MOS may not have had a lot of practice with.

New content includes combatives for armor and mounted land navigation for infantry. Other new content includes counterinsurgency operations, intelligence preparation of the battlefield and information operations.

"Before, infantry didn't know what armor was doing and armor didn't know what infantry was doing," Roberts said. "This course is breaking ground."