Abstract: OUR ARMY IS approaching a crossroads.Even as we continue examining wartime lessons, transitioning to an Army of preparation, and realizing digital revolution's potential, we are confronting a number of crucial decisions. Among them is defining our approach to reinvigorating how Army trains and readies for future conflicts. What we already know is that any future progress rests upon inspiring this young generation of soldiers. There is little chance such inspiration can be found in a haphazard approach. Rather, we must take a slight pause in our tempo to engage in serious reflection and assess future of training.Ultimately, three imperatives emerge as foundation for training Army of 2020:* Return ownership of training to commanders and hold them responsible for engaging our young leaders.* Refine and improve our understanding of human elements of warfare.* Harness promise of technology to allow us to train faster, better, and more efficiently.Reviewing lessons learned following our last transition from a major war is helping to craftthese imperatives into a coherent narrative. Our Army has been through this before. The Army that leftVietnam faced many of challenges we confront today. At that time, General William and newly formed U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command stepped forward to lead an intense, introspective review of how our Army trained and educated itself. TRADOC's efforts were controversial and took years to implement. However, reward for this perseverance was a set of four innovations that changed our Army forever: standards-based training, Noncommissioned Officer Education System, operational concepts, and the Big 5-the Abrams, Bradley, Paladin, Apache, and Blackhawk.Driven by an increasingly bellicose and adventurous Soviet Union, these innovations sparked a renaissance in operational thought and unit training. initiatives, such as School of Advanced Military Studies, meaningful doctrine, and a pioneering leader development system produced most professional and competent leaders in world. The results, obvious to anyone within our Army, were demonstrated to world when U.S. forces shattered Soviet-equipped Iraqi Army twice within a decade.Just as impressively, 40 years after DePuy revolution, system he instituted remained robust enough to see Army through a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. We may be a bit battered and frayed, but we remain most capable fighting force in world.Emerging from Vietnam, our predecessors leftus something of inestimable value-a culture of training. In succeeding decades, personal commitment of commanders to training excellence built superb Army that performed so magnificently in recent conflicts. Our ability to adapt and to remold units while in contact with enemy was built on this foundation of excellence. Furthermore, Army leaders, forged in crucible of training, were our strategic reserve who led wartime adaptation. Simply put, our culture of training created an unbeatable combat overmatch against our enemies-no one could train faster or better than U.S. Army.The New RealityBefore we can arrive at a compelling vision of future training, we must first appreciate impact 11 years of war has had on Army. The moral imperative to prepare our young men and women for situations they would face in Iraq and Afghanistan forced trainers to focus on a narrow range of skills. This entirely appropriate training focus came at expense of broader leader development and critical individual, collective, and staffskills required for large-scale combat operations.While these training deficits are reversible, doing so means significantly changing how Army trains now. For a decade, efficiency in generating readiness for a specific theater was vital to our success. To accomplish this, we centralized training and training resources, and our commanders became experts in creating readiness for missions they faced in Iraq and Afghanistan. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 3
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