Pinnacle course offers two and three-star commanders joint education

Senior officers refine their joint leadership skills during Pinnacle, a five-day course recently created to assist senior military leadership understand their role in a joint warfighting environment.

By Jennifer Colaizzi
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(SUFFOLK, Va. – Oct. 8, 2004) – Two and three-star level joint task force commanders walked away today from U.S. Joint Forces Command’s five-day joint education course with the understanding of what it takes to quickly stand-up and make a joint task force headquarters work effectively said USJFCOM Commander Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani.

Pinnacle, which ran this week at USJFCOM's Joint Warfighting Center here, is the first-ever course designed for leadership of this level and came about when Pentagon leadership decided that “we weren’t preparing our senior officers and also senior enlisted to operate in a joint way,” said Giambastiani, who is responsible for maximizing future U.S. military capabilities and leading the transformation of joint forces.

Pinnacle builds upon the Capstone course designed for newly selected flag and general officers. Capstone is a two week course, in which four days are spent at USJFCOM focusing on joint operations.

“U.S. forces don’t go to an operational situation or to war unless they fight or operate as a joint unit. In order to have a fully-trained joint unit you must train the senior leaders,” Giambastiani said.

Fellows, as these course attendees are referred to, spend four days at the USJFCOM’s Joint Warfighting Center in Suffolk and one day at the National Defense University learning about battlefield agility, the collaborative information environment (CIE) and the science of building a joint force, said U.S. Marine Corps Col. Daniel Rodgers, who heads the USJFCOM’s deployable training team.

This joint leadership development training is the first training joint task force commanders are receiving since the mandatory CAPSTONE leadership course that newly selected flag and general officers attend said Rodgers.

With 19 joint task forces (JTF) operating today, twice as many as two years ago, it is necessary to rapidly train a large number of senior officer and enlisted personnel to operate cohesively in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti said Giambastiani.

While the deployable training team teaches senior officers the keys for success during Pinnacle, USJFCOM kicked off a senior enlisted joint leadership program earlier this year.

In April, the two-day Command Senior Enlisted Leader CAPSTONE Joint Operations Module (JOM), held here, created an opportunity for command senior enlisted leaders to be an immediate impact player on a JTF said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Ripka, USJFCOM command sergeant major.

Together these two courses are building the core future task force of tomorrow, USJFCOM leadership said.

Navy Vice Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, commander, U.S. Seventh Fleet and Pinnacle fellow said that what he takes from this Pinnacle course are the tools necessary to organize a joint task force and an opportunity to learn from and develop personal relationships with other service and State Department leaders.

The key, according to Giambastiani, is for joint task force commanders (JTF), and air, land, and maritime component commanders to know the essentials and intricacies for operating efficiently as a joint unit (all the service collaborating) and conduct the mission that they’ve been given by the president of the United States.