From the COMMAND SERGEANT MAJOR IMPLEMENTING LSCO INTO TRAINING

As the Army’s focus is shifting to Large-Scale Combat Operations, now is the time for us to adapt the way we plan and execute training for ourselves, as well as IET Soldiers. While our primary mission is to provide drill sergeants, instructors, and support capacity across the ATCs, we also must continue to focus on individual MOS skills moving and operating across the entire breadth of the battlefield. Meeting the challenges of largescale combat operations will require a shift in the way we not only train initial entry Soldiers, as it is already happening across our maneuver One Station Unit Training Brigades, but also the way we plan and execute training internal to our organization. Infantry and Armor training brigades have already be continuously contested through defensive probes, indirect fires, air attacks, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear environments. While our primary mission is training IET Soldiers in basic Soldier skills, know that you will be exposed to this training shift during your annual training at our Army Training Centers. We must also be prepared to constantly maintain ourselves and our MOS across our own formations. The Army’s operational threat assessments are always evolving and our priority in training will need to be addressing our near peer threats. Our paradigm needs to shift in the way we train to meet our threat challenges. The pendulum has swung away from the Army’s and our maneuver forces operating in the COIN dynamic. Training from a Forward Operating Base, going out for missions and then back is no longer the way we operate, and we must be prepared to be a more fluid force that is constantly begun to adapt their programs of instruction to incorporate more continuous operations training through the use of situational training exercises and field training exercises. This needs to be accomplished by incorporating a disciplined opposing force in your training scenarios to include enemy uniforms, using enemy tactics, and knowledge of enemy weapons systems to reflect these challenges and combating our advisories. Shifting your training focus from a non-contiguous/non- linear battlefield to a linear one that will skill sets through large-scale combat operations training at the company, battalion and brigade levels. Training schedules need to reflect quality collective training of Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills. It is more beneficial and less resource cumbersome to introduce realistic collective training than to continue to continuously train on skill level one tasks year after year. Those skill level one tasks need to be combined into notional training exercises to realize the full depth of our capabilities. Leaders need to enforce disciplined training and ensure our Soldiers are prepared. Leader Development should be a top priority, our staffs should also be looking at ways to plan, prepare, and execute operations using the Military Decision Making Process to prepare for contingency operations in the form of standing up a future Army Training Center, augmenting existing Army Training Center with capacity, or displacing elements at the Army Training Centers with companies, battalions and brigades. How do you accomplish this? Do you dust off the plan on the shelf from 20 years ago? Tabletop Military Decision Making Process exercises at your level to assess where you are in terms or readiness, brining together your formations in field training exercises to identify gaps, weaknesses, and strengths. Implementing a good orders process at echelon in our training planning will enhance all leaders. I ask that you incorporate large-scale combat operations into your planning considerations.

Individually are our Soldiers proficient in their MOS? As subject matter experts in skill level one tasks you must also be proficient and up to date on your individual MOS skills. The talent across our formations is impressive, and value added. Trainees will look to you! Whether you are the personal actions clerk, the instructor on a range or the drill sergeant expected to be the subject matter expert on all things Army regardless of your rank or position.