Current focus: Preparing
the Army for Joint operations
Oct. 13-14
“What we learned in (Operation) Iraqi Freedom was that the pace, the optempo and the condition of the current force had to change. We had to address force-management practices to deal with a force that would remain committed for the next several years. We have 33 brigades in the (Active Component) Army – two of them are in Korea and we can’t use them, and two of them are undergoing transformation at any one time to Stryker. If we’re going to maintain 12 brigades in Iraq and one brigade in Afghanistan, you can do the math: that size a force is going to break over time if we don’t do something radically different. We’ve made some decisions that will change the Army probably with the same impact as changes we made coming out of Viet Nam. We’ve decided to increase the Army by 30,000; the secretary of defense brought that to the president and got that approved on a temporary basis at least through 2007. Now we’re going to use that 30,000 to grow an additional 10 combat brigades in the Army, a 30-percent increase in the size of the force — that’s significant — from 33 to 43 brigades in the active Army.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: TRADOC as architect of the future
Oct. 12
“Our second most important (investment) is the network, if we believe that situational awareness and exploiting the intel advantages this country has is important, and they are empowering Soldiers with knowledge. We’ve got to get that right, and it’s not just Army-to-Army speak. … Our U.S. intel capabilities are phenomenal, but … they weren’t all they could be in this operation. Soldiers still had to fight for information. We had to move to the enemy and make contact to find out where those enemy forces were. At the strategic levels, they had a good picture of where major force concentrations were, but that’s not of much use to a tank company or a cavalry troop; they need to know where vehicles are. So we have a lot of work to do. (In the future force) we hope to see first, understand first, then be able to act first and finish decisively.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: TRADOC as architect of the future
Oct. 8-11
“What (9-11) did to our plan for the future force was tell us we could no longer take all the risks we had been taking. We were heavily investing in science, technology, research and development needed to field a superior force in 2012. … If you fast-forward to what we hope to achieve in the future, empowering a Soldier with knowledge, empowering our commanders with a much better picture of where the friendly forces are and the ability to tap into national as well as strategic and tactical intel systems — if you have a picture of where he is and a picture of where you are and you can be employed rapidly throughout the battlespace, I think you’ll see a very rapid takedown of an opponent like we have in Iraq.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current
focus: TRADOC as architect of the future
Oct. 6-7
“Our most important acquisition programs right now … are those things Soldiers need to fight the last 400 meters. … Any Soldier can be in contact given the environment they’re operating in. That’s the best investment we can make.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: TRADOC
as architect of the future
Oct. 4-5
“We’re pulling a lot of things out of the future force, out of the tech base, and inserting them into the current force. Some great work has been done on detection of the improvised explosive devices; we’re detecting 80 percent of the IEDs we see in theater. You never hear about that, but we’re picking them up — 80 percent. We’re working on a lot of different microwave technologies now where you can jam, at least detect or cause to detonate these devices ahead of you. We’re using everything we possibly can to gain this technology and put it in the hands of our Soldiers being deployed right now.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current
focus: TRADOC as architect of the future
Oct. 1-3
“We will become increasingly more Joint as we move along; we will become increasingly more modernized, more sophisticated, more enabled with technology as we move from the current to the future force. When we field the Future Combat System-equipped unit of action, it will be a significant leap, but the leap will not be as significant as it would have been had we kept the current force in an un-modernized mode from 2001 through 2010. So it’s a change in the mindset. We’ll continue to invest in the current and make it more and more capable, but we believe that FCS will get us to a quantum leap in capabilities. As we learn more about current force capabilities enabling new technologies, it’s going to give us insights into what could be improved in the future.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: TRADOC
as architect of the future
Sept. 29-30
“With a force at war, …we’re looking very carefully at emerging technologies – whether they’re (Future Combat System) technologies or other investments we’ve made, and whether they’re in the U.S. Army, any of our Joint partners or coalition partners or across industry. If there are technologies that can be inserted into the current force to better enable our Soldiers to fight this fight, we’re looking at them and we’re procuring them. We have to do that because we’re deployed in great numbers. …Shame on us if we don’t take this opportunity to give them everything they need. So we’re rebalancing our investments between the future and the current. Now, we haven’t taken a dollar out of the FCS program and we won’t, but we’re looking at those technologies we’ve invested in, and when they mature, we’re pulling them back into the current force.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: TRADOC as architect of the future
Sept. 27-28
“We’re trying to maintain balance between the future and the current; right now, the current is committed to combat, and we’re not going to take any risks with the current force. There is very little we can’t do to keep this force absolutely at the peak level of performance, but there are some challenges in maintaining readiness while you have an Army at war.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: TRADOC
as architect of the future
Sept. 24-26
“As you look at the challenges we face, we are viewing war as the steady state and that peacetime will be the exception. When you consider that, how you train, how you develop leaders, how you look at your organizational constructs, what you put into the development of doctrine and combat development, how you get the balance between the current force and the future force – it all shifts.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: transforming
training venues to train in a Joint and expeditionary context
Sept. 22-23
“If you were to go to the National Training Center today, you would see a number of villages now are in that desert combat training center. We’re no longer fighting the motorized rifle regiments we were fighting at the high end in some days of the combat operation, but we’re also dealing with religious leaders in villages, we’re dealing with a mix of combatants and noncombatants in villages, we’re dealing with ambush-type environments, IEDs [improvised explosive devices] – everything our Soldiers and leaders have seen in (Operation) Iraqi Freedom, they’re seeing at the National Training Center and at the Joint Readiness Training Center. We have adapted those two wonderful training centers as well as the Combat Maneuver Training Center in Hohenfels and our Battle Command Training Program. We’ve adapted them to the environments our Soldiers are being deployed to. So they’re seeing a mix of conventional and unconventional operations every day at the combat training centers -- 24-hour-a-day environment, 360-degree-threat environment. No longer is it force-on-force movement-to-contact, etc. We still have to do some of that because we’re not going to lose that edge – that gives us the capability to do the other tasks – but (Soldiers) are in an environment where they are uncomfortable everyday.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: transforming the Army education system
Sept 20-21
“We have to account for a force that’s at war, to provide the right training, and we have to account for a much more experienced force so we’re not teaching them things they’re already bringing with them into the schoolhouse. In a time of peace, the institutional side of the Army – or of any armed force – really drives change. We have the opportunity to think about evolving operational environments, threats, what type of forces, how should they be organized, what doctrines are required to account for those changing threats and environments. And the institutional side writes the doctrine, drives it into the schoolhouse; we change how we think about fighting in the future, and there’s a digestive period on all that that’s normally three to four years or so, but change is slow. When the nation is at war and forces are deployed, it’s the operational force that drives change. … We [the institutional side] have to study (the lessons learned) very hard and pull the nuggets and drive them to change in doctrine or organizations, but it’s the operational force that’s driving change. I have Soldiers deployed to Iraq right now working with the deployed units, pulling the lessons they’re gaining, pulling lessons from others as well, such as the Israelis. … In our schoolhouses, we’re now pulling from our veterans, what did they learn in Iraq, how can we change our curricula to get it right to account for the experienced force facing the challenges they face in the days ahead. So training and education are changing.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: transforming the Army education system
Sept. 17-19
“We’re going to transition (the officer education system), and it’s not fast enough, but we’re working it hard. We’re going to transition to a six-week common core for all officers in the Basic Officer Leader Course. We’ve done it at four sites across the nation. This plan was announced last year, to be implemented in late 2005. It will be 80-percent field training and combat skills, combat leadership skills.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: transforming
the Army education system
Sept. 15-16
“No other Army in the world has a noncommissioned officer corps like this great Army. … I think one of the hallmarks of this Army of ours is the noncommissioned officer corps and our investment in quality noncommissioned officer education. We can’t have a noncommissioned officer education system that’s teaching our great noncommissioned officers the things they needed two years ago. We’ve got to be teaching them the things they need tomorrow. The lessons that are pouring out of Iraq and Afghanistan – and we’re harvesting them very well – we’ve got to plow into our NCOES. … We have a seasoned, combat-experienced force. … We’ve got to make our education system relevant to that quality and that experience of the force, and we are.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: transforming
the Army education system
Sept. 13-14
“We’re challenged to maintain our training and leader development programs at a level that fits the combat experience of this force. Right now we have many Soldiers – a majority of the Soldiers in the Army are wearing right-shoulder patches – with combat experience. As that combat experience goes up in the Army, we’ve got to make sure our training and leader development programs are relevant to that caliber of force. No other Army in the world has this experience.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current
focus: Global War on Terrorism
Sept. 10-12
“For the first time since 1941, American Soldiers are fighting directly on behalf of the United States. After Pearl Harbor and after World War II, we entered many conflicts but always on behalf of a threatened ally – to honor an alliance or humanitarian consideration – (we were) always going to the aid of someone else. But since 9/11 [2001], we’ve been fighting directly on behalf of our people. Soldiers coming out of Afghanistan and Iraq will tell you that what really makes them fight is the thought of those policemen, those firemen who went up instead of going down in New York City on that day. Soldiers are connected with this cause, and they know what’s at risk, and it steels them for this fight.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
the Army is a values-based institution
Sept. 8-9
“The enduring quality of American servicemen and –women (is) unbelievable: the values, the character, the commitment, the service. They may not like what they’re doing when it’s 130 degrees or when they’re at 10,000 feet and it’s 10 degrees, but they’re serving this nation proudly everyday and they’re getting the job done. … If you visit our Soldiers in Walter Reed, … to a person, they’re inspiring. … They want to tell you stories about their squad, their platoon. … Countless stories: young Soldiers who sit up in the bed, broken arms and all; they want to salute, they want to tell you about their fellow Soldiers, and they want to go back to their units. The connections they have to their units ... nobody is wringing their hands, no one said, ‘What’s going to happen to me,’ or this or that; they want to stay in the service. … The enduring quality and values we see in our Soldiers have served this nation very well for 228 years and continue today.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus: the Army is a values-based institution
Sept. 7
“Soldiers are the most lethal weapon, the most precise sensor we have, and I think American Soldiers are the most humane Soldiers in the world. From what we accomplish overseas every day, our Soldiers are perfectly capable of closing with and destroying up close any opponent and a moment later caring for a child or an injured opponent. That’s the unique quality we have in this force … because they’re disciplined, because we have values that will endure. No matter what changes are made in this great Army of ours, those values, that value set – loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, personal courage – will endure; that will never change. We’re willing to look at everything else to make this Army better, but we are anchored on those values.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
rigor in training provides combat-ready Soldiers
Sept. 3-6
“We’ve upped the amount of rigor, the amount of field training, the amount of marksmanship training they’re getting in the schoolhouse. … In lieutenant training, they’ll come out of OCS or ROTC or West Point, and every officer will go through a six-week common curriculum course that will be 80 percent fieldcraft and all combat-arms oriented so we develop a common base of understanding in our officer corps. Then they’ll go to their technical school, where they’ll learn to be field artillery or signal officers, but with a constant thread of soldierization built into those programs because our Soldiers who graduate from these schools right now can expect to go directly into combat.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
rigor in training provides combat-ready Soldiers
Sept. 1-2
"We are tightening up (rigor in initial-entry training). Before a Soldier raises his or her right hand, we have to ensure not only are they mentally fit and physically fit and have the right aptitudes, we’re going to test our Soldiers before they raise their right hand to ensure they have a physical-fitness foundation that will enable them to get through basic training. In the past, our basic combat training has provided some additional time for those Soldiers who couldn’t get through the physical-fitness test. We put them into a physical-fitness company and gave them a little additional time. Now I want to make sure that, before they raise their right hand, they’re at a certain level so the drill sergeants can then get them to meeting the standard before they graduate from basic combat training. We’re not going to put them in physical-fitness companies anymore. We’ll recycle them if they can’t meet the standard.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
rigor in training provides combat-ready Soldiers
Aug. 30-31
“We had become a too technically focused Army. We would take Soldiers out of basic combat training, send them to advanced individual training and make them the best mechanics, best radio operators, best satellite communications experts – but we weren’t making them the best Soldiers. That was happening when they got to their first units, where the soldierization process would continue. Can’t do that. My expectation is when they graduate AIT, they’re going right to combat. … So in basic training we’re tightening up the rigor: more field time, more rifle marksmanship, more combatives, more fitness. When they get to AIT, regardless of their skill, they’re going to requalify with their weapon; they’re going to fire every weapon they’re going to find in their first platoons when they join them, so when platoon leaders get a new Soldier out of the training base, that Soldier is ready to fight. … It may take us more time in the training base, but we can’t afford to do it any other way. Same is true in noncommissioned officer education training. It’s becoming more relevant to the experience in the force we have today as well as the operations our Soldiers are executing every day.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
rigor in training provides combat-ready Soldiers
Aug. 27-29
“The Army has stepped up to the plate, and we have invested where we need to invest in training and leader development. You’ll witness increased rigor we’ve put in our training programs: Warrior Ethos, which we put into place; the Soldier’s Creed; and we’re resourcing our schoolhouses and our units to make training real. We’re not just talking about it; we’re committed to it.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
rigor in training provides combat-ready Soldiers
Aug. 25-26
“War is the steady state, and these are our sons and daughters; when they graduate from AIT, they’re going to be ready. So the rigor is coming up in our initial-entry training.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
recruiting and training Soldiers, developing leaders
Aug. 23-24
“I’ve got great confidence that the changes, the increased rigor, the support is there; there won’t be hiccups in the recruiting area, certainly there won’t be any in the retention area. Our Soldiers are committed to this fight; they feel a direct connection to the American people in this fight. … When we ask our Soldiers why they serve today, it’s not about education; Soldiers tell us today they joined to serve. And I’m sure it’s that way across the other services. Soldiers today for the first time since 1941 are fighting directly on behalf of the American people, and they feel good about it.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
recruiting and training Soldiers, developing leaders
Aug. 20-22
“We’ve got to drive down the percentage of non-deployables in the force. … We have a large number of Reserve Component Soldiers who are not qualified in their duty MOS. In the Active Army, … when (Soldiers) come in (the Army), they are not assigned to an operational unit; they go to the training base, they go through basic combat training, advanced individual training, they get qualified in the military occupational skill, then they join their first unit. All the services do that. We account for those Soldiers in a schools account; they’re not charged against the operational unit, of course, because we’re not allowed to deploy them if they are not trained and certified. In our Reserve Components, we don’t have that (schools) account. They come in, they go to their operational units, but they can’t deploy with that unit until they’re certified. We’ve got to change that way of thinking; we’re doing that now.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
recruiting and training Soldiers, developing leaders
Aug. 18-19
“Right now our recruiting is going very well; we’re sustaining everything we need, but when we’ve got to expand by 30,000, the high bar is going up. When we add increased rigor into initial-entry training, there’s going to be a slight increase in the attrition rate because that’s the way it works out. So be it when you’re an Army at war.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
Current focus:
recruiting and training Soldiers, developing leaders
Aug. 16-17
“We truly believe no Soldier should ever go into harm’s way untrained, and we’re not going to rely on their first unit to provide that training. We have to rely on the schoolhouse to do that. It’s going to cost us a little bit extra, but that investment is going to be covered 100 percent. That’s my top priority, and that’s another significant change we’ve made to account for serving an Army and a nation while at war.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
This week:
leadership
In honor of the Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year TRADOC-level
competition
Aug. 6
“What will get you [officers] through the day will be your noncommissioned officers, your instincts and your commitment. The training will only build on the foundation you have. So trust your instincts, trust your noncommissioned officers as you go ahead. And I’ll give you the same charge Gen. Marshall gave the first Officer Candidate School class he had to graduate in 1941. He said, ‘Soon you’ll be responsible for a unit in this Army of the United States during this great emergency. Its quality, its discipline and its training will depend on your leadership.’ I believe that. Leaders at platoon level make a big difference every day, and in war make the difference every day.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
This week:
leadership
In honor of the Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year TRADOC-level
competition
Aug. 5
“There’s nothing magic about leading at platoon level. When Gen. Jack Keane, who retired recently as our vice chief of staff, was asked a question about how he felt about going into his first platoon, he said that he quickly discovered Soldiers really didn’t care where their leaders came from, or what their fathers did, or where they went to school, or what kind of degree they might have had. The only thing Soldiers care about is whether he or she is competent and do they care. And if you get the answer to both those questions right, you’re going to be successful as a leader.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
This week:
leadership
In honor of the Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year TRADOC-level
competition
Aug. 4
“You will only demonstrate [leadership] by example. You can profess to be and to feel and to believe in a lot of things, but Soldiers will believe in what they see, how they operate – not what they hear or what we talk to them about or what’s written on the company-level bulletin boards. They’ll get it from you by your example. That’s extremely important in an army because wars are fought on the ground, and they’re won on the ground. I believe in technology, … but war is about a contest of wills; it’s about the emotion of man. It’s up close, it’s personal, and it’s brutal.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
This
week: leadership
In honor of the Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year TRADOC-level
competition
Aug.
3
“The kinds of leaders we need in this great Army of ours are no different from the leaders we’ve needed for 228 years. Our leaders have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. They’ve got to be technically savvy. … We need thinkers. We need officers and noncommissioned officers who are capable of handling massive amounts of information. … And you have to understand the complex nature of the operations we’re in. This is not simple force-on-force conventional type of operations we’re operating in. … It’s a very complicated global environment we’re fighting in right now; and we rely every day on sergeants and lieutenants to sort it out, because in today’s fight, the tactical level, the operational level and the strategic levels compress. It’s globalization; it’s the CNN factor. There’s a camera with every patrol, it seems, and decisions made at the most junior level can have strategic global impact.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
This week:
leadership
In honor of the Noncommissioned Officer and Soldier of the Year TRADOC-level
competition
Aug.
2
“I’ll give you three tips … [for leadership], and they’re very simple. If I were to go back to be a lieutenant, I think I could be successful by following the Golden Rule, just treating others as I wanted to be treated. Secondly, do what’s right legally, morally, ethically every day. No matter what the pressures, do what is right all the time. Don’t look over your shoulder; you’re in charge, make the decision, and do what’s right. And third, make your subordinates successful. … You want to see every one of your Soldiers become a squad leader, become a noncommissioned officer, rise in ranks and be battalion sergeant major. If that’s your going-in position about your subordinates, you’ve got the right attitude. So: the Golden Rule, do what’s right and take care of your people.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, Training and Doctrine Command commanding general
July 16-30
“There’s nothing we can’t do when it comes to supporting our Soldiers in time of war.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
July 14-16
“At no ‘point’ in the future will we convert to a different type of force. Any transformation, any transition will be done over time. If you look at where we are today, the type of forces we have in this great inventory called the U.S. Army – at 2010 we’ll have a similar inventory. We will have completed the fielding of the sixth Stryker brigade. We will begin the introduction of the Future Combat System-equipped combat organization. ... However, for a long period of time we’re going to continue to have mechanized forces. … We’ve got to modernize those mechanized forces; we can’t cut our investment in them, we have to do it smart. What we’re looking at are the technologies we’re developing right now in the future force. What are the skills, knowledge and attributes we desire in Soldiers? What are the simulations and simulators and the virtual types of capabilities we’ll need in the future force? We’re not going to reserve any of those things for the future force. We’re a nation at war, so where it makes sense, those things we’re developing right now – and we’ve invested $1.8 billion a year to get into the future force – where it makes sense, we’re going to pull them forward and put them into the current force.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
July 12-14
“We have to have modular capabilities, organizations that are packaged around a capability a commander needs. Brigades will be deployable as a brigade combat team. … Command-and-control headquarters, division headquarters … will be a self-contained, deployable headquarters, not reliant on its subordinate units for deployment. It will be able to deploy; it will be Joint Forces Land Component Command-capable and maybe Joint task force-capable in a smaller-scale contingency. And it will be Joint. ... (The Joint manning document) for this headquarters ... will change the way we think about this. We’re no longer green; if we’re going to fight Joint, we’ve got to have Joint at division level – at least at division level, with Joint capabilities lower. It’s going to be built into that TO&E.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
July 9-12
“[As the Army moves to a system of unit manning and force stabilization], think of a maneuver brigade that’s in place for 30 months where no one ETSs or PCSs or goes to school. … Soldiers won’t get BNCOC, ANCOC, Command and General Staff College, captains career course or any of those orders while they’re in the 30-month period. This is going to delink some promotions and schools; it’s going to change how we think about NCO education and officer education. … We’ll broaden the window (for schools and promotions) to accommodate keeping units together longer. … Those operational units that are held together for long periods of time are going to be powerful organizations. It will change command tour lanes, it will change expectations on how long sergeants major stay in position, etc., but think about the power of having an Army with 43 brigades on operational cycles like that.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
July 7-9
“(We're moving) to a system of unit manning … where we put units together as units and keep them together for extended periods of time. When the unit clock runs out after about two to three years of an operational cycle, the unit stands down. We take a six-month period; invest in schools, leave and other requirements individual Soldiers have; and then at the end of that period of time, bring the unit back up; train it up; recertify (it in a) rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center or National Training Center; and then put it back in an operational cycle. ... We’ll get away from this constant turnover we have in our forces. ... We’ve got to do better. We’re a nation at war, and we will be at war for some time; we’ve got to fix the way we man our organizations.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
July 2-7
“This old stodgy organization of ours – or at least sometimes that’s the view of outsiders about the Army – has to be forward-thinking. We have to be adaptive, we have to be agile, we have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s that culture of innovation that is more about a leadership culture; it’s about the art of learning organizations learning to adapt. It’s breaking the innovator’s dilemma: why change when you’re the greatest armed force in the world? Because if we don’t change, we may not be the greatest armed force in the world in the near future.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
June 25-July 2
“The expeditionary mindset is important. We have to be ready to deploy – small units, self-contained, ready to deploy on short notice.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
June 23-25
“Warrior Ethos is about being a Soldier first; always a Soldier. It’s not about being an infantryman; it’s about being a Soldier. It’s about Soldiers who can fight and win, who can close with and destroy the enemy, who can engage and kill an enemy in close combat if they have to. That is not the world of infantrymen, Special Forces or armored crewmen; it’s the world of the Soldier. The battlefields we’re in right now are 360 degrees. Nothing is secure – you have to assume that. We can’t have convoys in the rear assuming it’s secure. … We’ve created the sense in the Army that the world is linear: our forces are arrayed up front and there’s a front and we have forces in depth, and everything behind the infantry and armor is protected. Not any more. This is Vietnam in some aspects: 360-degree threats – rear area, lines of communication, all subject to attack by this very adaptive, agile adversary we face right now in both Iraq and Afghanistan. … We’re going to take on threats to this nation that are posed every day, and we’re going to kill them where they are. Everyone is going to play a part; there are no rear lines anymore.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
June 21-23
“We’re a nation at war, and the Army is carrying the load. We have 480,000 Soldiers on active duty; we just got the President to approve us going to 510,000. At 510,000, we think we can expand from 33 brigades to 43 brigades. … If we can get 43 combat brigades, the rotation is easier, you’re deploying less, the optempo is down on the force and retention is up. Simple as that.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general
June 18-21
"A lot of people talk about the future, and they talk about all these great technological capabilities over the horizon: space and all that business. But I think – as we’re learning right now day after day, and if you read the reports from young Soldiers coming out of theater – it is all about humans. It is all about the emotion of man, and it’s a contest of wills. And it’s all about closing with and destroying, face to face, the opponent we have. … It’s the enduring quality of the American serviceman and -woman and what they’re able to accomplish under some very trying conditions – their adaptability and agility to deal with that environment.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
June 11-18
“You receive (Soldiers) and train them to embrace this proud profession that is dedicated to protecting and defending this great American way of life. You prepare them so they can deliver what Gen. Eric Shinseki, our former chief of staff, called the non-negotiable contract with the American people to fight and win our wars. So, transcending all else, they will be Soldiers first. And all of this starts in the schoolhouse. It starts with drill sergeants.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, June 20, 2003 (2003 Drill Sergeant of the Year awards ceremony)
June 4-11
“Instead of a dramatic shift from a current force to a future force, you’re going to see a gradual shift. … You will see a force that becomes increasingly Joint, more lethal, etc. That’s our intent so we can field the Soldiers who are fighting right now the best technologies we have in this great nation.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
May 28-June 4
“Joint integrated operations are the only way to go in the future. … We can fight air/ground operations better than any army in the world. … A number of initiatives are underway, working with the Air Force to make sure we have an interdependency with them in the areas of lifts, command-and-control and Joint fires. … We’ve come a long way, and we’ve demonstrated that in this most recent operation.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
May 21-28
“We’re taking a hard look at (basic NCO course) and (advanced NCO course) in terms of what we need to do with that. I’ve got veterans coming back from Operation Iraqi Freedom speaking to our noncommissioned officers at both BNCOC and ANCOC. We’re looking at the tasks we teach in each. I think we underappreciate our noncommissioned officers, and we’re too basic in the basic course. We need to push down some Skill Level III and IV tasks into BNCOC to make sure they’ve got it right. We need to bring Skill Level IV tasks down from ANCOC into BNCOC, and pull in more battle staff NCOs and some of the courses we’re teaching at the Sergeants Major Academy into ANCOC. I’ve got to have it more focused on the conduct of operations that we’re seeing in Iraqi Freedom than has been in the past.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
May 14-21
"The Brigade Combat Training Program is going through some major changes right now because we’re deploying units into harm’s way. You will see them adapting to the contemporary operating environment, which we pushed into every TRADOC school. The threats you see are no longer motorized rifle divisions, tank divisions and all that business. The threat you see replicates the threats we see throughout Southwest Asia: those regional threats that have global implications. The threats our Soldiers see on the ground are playing out every day now at our combat training centers, to include BCTP.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
May 7-14
“The Army likes to talk about tanks and Bradleys and helicopters and all that business, but the No. 1 hardware program we’re working on is called Soldier-as-a-System. (SaaS is) the 300-plus systems that are wrapped together that will assist the Soldier in fighting the last 400 meters. It is not about trucks, tanks, Bradleys, aircraft – it’s about kneepads, uniforms, web gear. It’s about optics, weapons, night vision goggles … it’s about those things our men and women need. And it’s not about the infantry Soldier; it’s about every Soldier: combat service support or combat arms, National Guard, Army Reserve or active duty. Every Soldier needs exactly the same equipment because, you know – whether it’s a reverse-osmosis water-purification unit out of Oshkosh, or whether it’s the 155th Separate Armor Brigade out of Mississippi, or whether it’s the 82nd Airborne Division – they’re all being mobilized. Often our CSS units are going in there ahead of infantry. … When you don’t have body armor, that’s not good enough. When you don’t have the night optics to operate, that’s not good enough. So the Soldier-as-a-System is our No. 1 program.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
April 30-May 7
“We’ve got to learn not to think green. We’re going to fight as a member of the Joint team again. We’re becoming more and more interdependent with the other services. We don’t have all the capabilities we need to do it alone, nor do we need them. We need to look at the core competencies of the other services and trade off some of the capabilities we may have and use our structure a little bit smarter if the other services can accomplish those types of tasks. So we’ve got to think Joint, and it’s everything from acquisition through training, doctrine, etc.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
April 23-30
“We are Soldiers first in everything we do, so we’ve got to tighten up the entry-level standards. … We measure aptitudes, we measure physical condition, we do background checks, police records and all that business, but we have to have a Soldier who is physically fit to a certain level. … When they raise their right hand and come in the service, they better be capable of being trained and capable of meeting the standard upon graduation of basic combat training without being sent to weeks of PT training. … We’re not going to send them off to PT camps anymore, we will recycle them into basic training. … We’ve had some Soldiers in those PT units for eight weeks. That’s ridiculous.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
April 16-23
“My No. 1 priority is to make sure that basic combat training and advanced individual training are resourced to 100 percent. … That is our most important mission. The officer basic course will have similar resourcing. … A lot of leadership development will change as we seek more agile and adaptive leaders. We’ve got to equip our leadership and equip our Soldiers with the tools they need. (TRADOC must) give them the mental equipment; I’ve got to teach them how to think in a very complex environment, not exactly what to think. … My third priority in training is the Noncommissioned Officer Education System. … NCOES has made us one of the most powerful organizations ever fielded. … Our NCOs will get the education they need to move to the next level.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, September 2003
April 9-16
“The operating environment has changed; the threat is 360 degrees – it’s no longer a linear-type operation in depth, it’s throughout the battlespace. That’s why the Rapid Fielding Initiative is so critical: to get every Soldier fully equipped with the equipment he or she needs as opposed to just the early deployers – what we used to call the early deployers of the combat organizations. It’s all components and it’s combat service support, combat support and combat arms that have to be fielded because the enemy doesn’t sign up for this Department of the Army Master Priority List business, and they don’t sign up for combat arms first. They don’t understand that.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
April 2-9
“The way we fought Operation Desert Storm was pretty sequential, fought after a long buildup – a classic AirLand Battle kind of fight. And, really, we deconflicted Joint operations instead of getting any synergy out of Joint operations. … Now Operation Iraqi Freedom comes along, and we’ve got simultaneity. … Simultaneous operations give us a glimpse of what we want in the future. They created multiple dilemmas throughout Iraq (for the enemy). … That’s what allowed us to do things with great speed. We had increased Joint support – fairly good Special Operations Forces and conventional integration and pretty darn good Joint integration. But we’re not there yet. What we want to move to is completely simultaneous operations, distributed throughout the battlespace, where we’re attacking in between centers of gravity and key nodes, and we’re attacking simultaneously (enemy) forces and other high-priority targets. We want the full synergy of Joint operations; we want the power of interdependent Joint capability being brought to bear against any adversary in the future. … The most distinguishing characteristic will be the interconnectivity of information systems so our commanders in the field will have solid information on the friendly force and will be able to plug into the Joint Intelligence Grid and pull down the intelligence they need on our opponent. With that kind of knowledge and with linkage of all the Joint capabilities – the greatest Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy in the world – there’s nothing we won’t be able to accomplish.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004
March 26-April 2
“No one can tell you with assurance that we won’t be attacked again, perhaps even in the near future. We – and particularly Department of Justice, the FBI and our intelligence services in CIA and others – are doing everything they can to prevent that. But our Soldiers right now are fighting directly on behalf of the American people. They are subject to go to war immediately upon graduation from advanced individual training or one-station unit training and arrival at their first units. We’ve got to make sure that when Soldiers graduate from AIT, they are ready.” – Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, TRADOC commanding general, February 2004