A rotation at one of the Army’s Combat Training Centers (CTCs) is an incredible development opportunity for Army leaders at the brigade combat team (BCT) level and below. For the three weeks from reception, staging, and onward integration (RSOI) through the rotation’s culmination upon the announcement of “change of mission,” every soldier in a rotational training unit (RTU) experiences tactical and logistical challenges. These experiences push the RTU to the limits of human, mechanical, and systemic endurance and capacity. In the reserve component (RC), these invaluable opportunities are limited. Observer Coach/Trainer (OC/T) augmentee opportunities at the CTCs multiply development opportunities for RC leaders. Expanding these opportunities will broaden RC leaders’ doctrinal foundations while strengthening the RC and active components alike.
CTCs feature a thinking, adaptive enemy opposing force (OPFOR) who applies finely honed tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) to terrain they know far better than the RTU. This presents a nearly insurmountable set of tactical challenges. The scenario is not limited to a single echelon. It encompasses an entire formation that includes maneuver enablers and division assets. At the National Training Center (NTC), as in combat, a scout team failing to detect an enemy infiltration can plausibly jeopardize the entire task force.
These challenges are compounded across dimensions and domains. This includes enemy aviation, non-lethal effects, information operations, civil considerations, and cyber warfare. It all happens in a harsh operating environment with brutal terrain and volatile weather. The basics of life – eating, sleeping and moving both on foot and vehicle –become daily problems to solve. CTCs are the pinnacle of large-scale military training challenges.
Build More Reps
Typically, only four of the RC’s 27 brigade combat teams (BCTs) are scheduled to attend CTC rotations each year. RC units, however, can increase their formations’ exposure to the experience, lessons, and training value by seizing and creating more opportunities for their leaders to serve as CTC OC/Ts. OC/Ts don’t only improve the knowledge, understanding, and abilities of RTU soldiers. They also become students themselves.
An Infantryman in a Sustainment World
I recently served as a National Guard Guest OC/T for three rotations at NTC. I served from Rotation 19-08 to 19-10. Though I am a life-long infantryman, by happenstance I was placed with NTC’s “Goldminer” team. Goldminer is responsible for training RTU brigade support battalions (BSBs). I covered both AC and RC RTUs. I worked on Goldminer’s BSB headquarters company training team and its BSB medical training team (Role II).
The function of the OC/T role I was to play was clear. I had prior CTC experience as a platoon leader at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Ft. Polk, LA. I was also and an HHC company commander who deployed as an RTU at NTC. My two decades of personal experience prepared me to help units develop by (in the parlance of NTC) “helping them see themselves.” But, what I didn’t expect was that in observing them, and helping them see themselves, I would also come to understand Army operations in much greater detail and context.
Seeing Myself Through RTU
Over the course of a rotation, RTU soldiers refine their understanding of the “how to” of combat. Similarly, over the course of observing multiple rotations, OC/Ts develop understanding of the “why.” They do this by repeatedly observing the “how to” applied under different conditions, by different units and different leaders.
The variety of perspectives and paradigms helps develop a greater sense of the foundations of doctrine. That is deeper than a mere understanding of the features and benefits of certain TTP. It is more than the process improvement that units experience through challenging repetitions at the small unit level.
Perhaps the most fundamental difference between the learning experience of RTU soldiers and that of OC/Ts lies in the time and distance, both physical and emotional. OC/Ts get away from tactical problems at hand. Meanwhile, RTU leaders must prioritize seemingly innumerable challenges as fast as possible, OC/Ts have the opportunity for a more thorough and dispassionate after-action analysis of the situation, the decision making processes they’ve observed, and the third-order effects of those decisions.
OC/Ts also benefit greatly by discussion with other OC/Ts in both formal and informal venues, with discussion and analysis continuing long after RTU leaders have shifted focus to the next series of challenges. Some of the best insights I developed came on “the OC line”, where OC/Ts establish a vehicle line a few hundred meters from the RTU, as I chatted with my fellow Goldminers about an engagement, mission, or battle rhythm event that had just transpired.
An Internship in Operations
Col. David Wright, former senior trainer of NTC’s Panther Training Team and current Deputy Chief of Ops Group A, Mission Command Training Program at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, described the OC/T experience as an internship in operations for mid-career officers and senior NCOs. “You get to see the application of book-answers to reality,” said Col. Wright. “I would tell my captains it was their chance to be field grade officers by assessing others’ execution.”
One of my California Army National Guard counterparts, Command Sgt. Maj. Luis Ferretti of 1-18 CAV, served on NTC’s “Bronco” team, training BCT staffs. Command Sgt. Maj. Ferretti participated in the same three rotations I spent on Goldminer. He noted the opportunity to compare and contrast various SOPs and TTPs between successive units.
Anyone can evaluate the efficacy of their own methods over time, in the context of their investment in those methods. It is completely different to observe and compare three entirely different approaches back-to-back over three months. Like me, he found value in evaluating the methods, standards and results of AC and RC approaches. A long-time manager for Disneyland in his civilian career, Ferretti noted that Guard soldiers often bring a different way of looking at military challenges, but the perspective of repeated looks at what works (and what doesn’t) for others creates an entirely different paradigm.
Successes & Failures
During my time as an OC/T, I saw both AC and RC units do inspiring things. Leaders from corporal to lieutenant colonel were adaptive and flexible. Their perseverance in crippling heat was amazing. Watching well-rehearsed SOPs used to get a LOGPAC organized and moving in the dark after a week of continuous operations is a thing of beauty. Young NCOs who step-up to solve problems that they could easily deem “not in my lane,” but for their professionalism, are mission savers. And a single exhausted company XO who unrelentingly hounds equally exhausted soldiers for DA Form 5988-Es is a force multiplier.
Observing the “sausage making” of operations illustrates just how vital SOPs are, and just how equally important it is that they are detailed yet concise. Perhaps more importantly, the effectiveness of leaders is best measured in the way they handle the worst times.
As for the contrast between the AC and RC, AC soldiers clearly had a more uniform understanding of doctrine and an edge in familiarity with their SOPs. RC leaders would also do well by providing emphasis and time for subordinate leaders and soldiers to do the homework of SOP familiarization. Yet, RC units were more flexible in finding different solutions. They often used civilian experience as a handrail to success.
I also saw a fair share of failures. One company-grade commander left every M2 machine gun at home station, explaining, “I didn’t think we’d need them.” It was also interesting to see where problems trended. Of the 12 companies I helped cover, just two drew AT-4 anti-tank weapons for perimeter security, even though the enemy situation template (SITTEMP) featured armored formations.
Key Takeaways
- the basics are not obvious
- implied tasks are best spelled out
- success begins in the earliest phases of planning at home station.
At the conclusion of their tours, most OC/Ts eventually PCS to staff, training or line leadership roles. They serve as living repositories of lessons learned from dozens of rotations at exactly the places where such lessons need to be applied. The RC does not normally share this benefit. By the time AC soldiers are senior enough to serve in an OC/T role, they have progressed in their career to a point where jumping to the RC is extremely unusual. Sending RC soldiers to the CTCs as OC/Ts provides a way for the RC to gain the same valuable expertise. I left NTC with a vastly expanded understanding of the breadth, depth and complexity of operations, and I have already applied my new knowledge as a 40th Infantry Division staff officer.
Expanding the Opportunities
Simply put, RC soldiers don’t naturally flow into the OC/T experience. This limits the CTC’s access to half of the Army’s personnel and means an entire category of broadening assignments (OC/T) are effectively unprogrammed career management processes for RC leaders. A post-command RC captain almost never has “OC/T” as a recommended follow-on assignment because those positions effectively do not exist.
Creating dedicated reserve component positions on the CTC’s Tables of Distributions and Allowances would give the RC a natural, long-term fit. This would require modifications to the Force Structure Authorizations and Personnel Manning Policies at the Department of the Army and National Guard Bureau. But the impacts would be significant to both RC career management and CTC manning.
These positions could take two formats: either full-time support (FTS) assignment to a team, or assignment to a team in a regular drilling capacity. In the former construct, RC soldiers would mobilize for one-year periods to fill a specific OC/T paragraph and lines. In the latter, the soldier’s drilling unit would be the CTC team with drills and annual training built around the rotation schedule.
Both options have multiple benefits. CTCs gain additional training resources. The RC gains leaders with a greater depth of doctrinal understanding. RC leaders have a more complete access to the career maps spelled out in DA PAMs 600-3 and 600-25, respectively.
Even under the current construct, both components need a dedicated communication strategy to build awareness of the value of OC/T assignments. As the 40th Infantry Division CTC Project Officer for the past year, I’ve found myself repeatedly explaining the experience and benefits of the OC/T mission, with few articles or presentations to communicate these benefits. I even had to create my own “recruiting posters”
A targeted communications program channeled through branch and RC publications and social media streams would build awareness of the developmental opportunities on the OC/T side of the CTC experience. It would also fuel momentum for the OC/T program for the RC and AC alike.
Applying Lessons Learned
Shortly after my time at NTC came to a (hopefully temporary) conclusion, I served in quick succession on the 40ID staff in a bilateral command-post exercise and a corps-level War-fighter Exercise. Even in those comparatively luxurious conditions, I looked to the lessons learned during my time as an OC/T. I emphasized and relied on our established SOPs, and recommended changes to them. It was instructive to evaluate our systems by considering them as I would have as an OC/T. My OC/T experiences helped me evaluate our own effectiveness as a staff section. It was as though I was back in the Mojave Desert on the OC Line with the Goldminers. There I was again, mulling over what was really happening beyond the obvious stressors around us.
The ability to compare our TTPs, struggles and successes with my previous neutral observations was invaluable. My OC/T experiences will serve as valuable tools that I can apply in future staff or leadership positions.
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