First Army leaders considered their various crucial duties and how they could be done more efficiently during an off-site strategic planning symposium at the Ralph Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago. Breakout sessions were held on such topics as marketing, branding, recruitment, reconstitution, and mission essential task lists. During these times, attendees worked through problem sets and potential solutions.
First Army personnel were joined by members of the Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a consulting group that lends their expertise to the military and other organizations.
First Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Mark Landes, told attendees that as a three-star headquarters, First Army, is responsible for solving Big Army problems, and that the symposium would aid in accomplishing that.
Along those lines, Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Prosser, First Army senior enlisted Soldier, encouraged those in attendance to think big.
“Don’t get wedded to what we’ve done in that past,” he said. “The purpose of the off-site is to get us out of our environment and thinking differently. Utilize the BENS personnel that are here. They are a wealth of knowledge and it’s a great opportunity to leverage them.”
That mindset permeated the breakout sessions, including one where Col. John Horning facilitated a discussion on marketing, branding, and recruitment. Horning serves as marketing director for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office. He said the session enabled “the First Army team to have a better platform from which to think about this issue. This will be a success if the attendees are aware of the key considerations for how to identify this issue and there is an understanding of the topic areas.”
Natalie Callone, Director for BENS Chicago region, said the organization consists of “Americans who have business expertise and want to serve their country.” This takes the form of business leaders sharing their knowledge with military personnel.
“A lot of members deal with supply chain logistics, distribution, and manufacturing so when we’re talking about First Army and reconstitution, we’re talking about how the industrial base will need to be leveraged if we have a large-scale mobilization,” she said. “Another piece that comes up is that when you’re mobilizing in a war time economy, a large piece is financial. How are you going to garner the capital that is needed to purchase what is needed to move? Another large part is marketing and how do you launch national campaigns? They’re able to take that private sector expertise and share it with First Army. Those are the kinds of conversations we’re having.”
Having these discussions away from First Army headquarters is strategic, she added.
“A successful off-site is one that’s imaginative and can summarize your needs in order to move forward,” Callone said. “You’re able to think big picture in order to address problems. BENS members are able to help foster that type of thinking and get Army members out of any silo thinking.”
One key topic addressed was reconstitution, which was described by First Army G-5 strategy branch chief, Lt. Col. Tye Nagel, as “a CONUS-based, strategic operation that supports the generation of newly-constituted Army units and the reconstitution of disbanded Army units to meet Theater Army and the combatant commanders’ force requirements during protracted Large-Scale Combat Operations.”
If called upon, Nagel continued, First Army could transition “from Reserve Component mobilizations to support the collective training and validation of newly-constituted and/or reconstituted units at CONUS-based Mobilization Force Generation Installations during large-scale mobilization Operations.” Another potential mission would be First Army deploying “OCONUS as an expeditionary force and assume the Regeneration Task Force mission in Theater, to ensure unit regeneration operations comply with the plans and priorities of the commander
directing the regeneration, and to restore…units to desired levels of combat effectiveness for future operations.”
Nagel stressed that this is all pre-decisional and that First Army “has not been specified as the Supported Command for reconstitution by FORSCOM in any published plan or order.”
But it was all part of good discussion and the off-site added up to time well spent, according to event organizer, Lt. Col. Charles Hall, who serves as First Army strategy branch chief. He described BENS and the military as logical associates.
“BENS has a vested interest in national security and we are partnering with them to be able to help us with the issues that we’re working on across the four breakout groups,” Hall said. “They are offering perspectives from corporate America that will help inform what we’re doing at First Army and how we’re approaching the problems.”
The breakout sessions accomplished their intent, he added: “The feedback and collaboration between the First Army staff and mentors will get us out of our comfort zone and thinking a little bit differently and come out of this symposium with a better product.”
At the conclusion, First Army Chiefs of Staff, Col. Bryan McCarthy, told attendees, “It’s encouraging to see the work that we’ve done.”