ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Illinois - While the world is in continual flux and the military is continually adapting to changing situations, the First Army mission remains constant.
First Army Commanding General, Lt. Gen. Mark Landes, reminded attendees of this during the unit’s Training Support and Synchronization Working Group, held the last week of February.
“Our purpose is to enable Compo 2 and 3 warfighting readiness. We stay laser focused on that,” he said to an audience consisting mostly of brigade and battalion command team members and First Army senior civilians.
Landes stressed that the decisions made at the Working Group will pay necessary dividends months and years later.
“What I would like to see come out of this is that we and our partners come up with good plans,” he said. “This conference is about planning more than anything else. This is about synchronization, resourcing, and getting it right.”
With that, attendees got to work pairing Reserve Component units with the First Army partners that will best help them meet their commander’s intent and be ready to for a successful deployment.
Another focus was ensuing that readiness is maintained and resources are directed toward warfighting skills and capabilities.
The Working Group benefits not only the Reserve Component, but also First Army’s enterprise partners.
For example, Maj. Joseph Rosenthal, 84th Training Command exercise plans officer, attended to better understand what support First Army offers to the collective exercises that his unit has a role in.
“First Army is there to assist so that the Reserve units that come to those exercises are ready to deploy and they get an external evaluation,” he said.
By dialoguing with First Army members and their Reserve partners, Rosenthal better understands how he can execute his unit’s mission.
“Staff members such as myself have specified challenges to work out and they put us in the right breakout session with the right people, and that is very beneficial,” he explained. “I need to know what is going on with a specific exercise with a specific Reserve unit.”
The conference was also time well spent for Maj. Kelandis Evans since he is in his first month serving as the 5th Armored Brigade chief of training. Being new to the position, Evans said the Working Group proved to be a valuable learning opportunity: “This has shown me how to better read and understand a training calendar and understand how to use it to ensure my unit is accomplishing what it needs to in relation to its work with our partnered units.”
Now, these and other lessons learn will be applied as the process drives on and First Army continues to adapt to a changing world to help fulfill the nation’s military needs.