Joe,

A topic close to my heart!  Sometimes I feel lucky that I was able to serve in the S-3 for a unit without a full-time SOTS, prior to taking command.

First I have some observations:

-Training management training is severely lacking on the NCOES/OES that I’ve been a part of.  My experience has been with the RC transportation NCOES system and with the 3 logistics BOLC branches at Ft. Lee.  At best I’ve seen a training management project implemented at BOLC but it generally lacks much instruction, guidance, or attention.

-Training management needs to start early and from the top.  At the company level I’m trying to plan a year out during my YTC but that’s hard to do when your battalion and/or brigade are developing their plan at the same time.  Company commander’s should try to nest their training within the higher commander’s but that’s a challenge.  Too often have I had a plan to train a certain MET and conduct collective training only to be told 2 or 3 months in advance that we will participate in a battalion weapons range or an SRP event.

Here’s where I will add to your points:

1) OBJ-T and its meaning to the Reserve and Guard.

The key to all of these points is to study FM7-0 and the leaders guide to training management on ATN.  It’s important to understand these ratings and to be able to articulate your assessments to your boss, and the bosses boss.  My unit has been recently added to the Ready Force X discussion and I had to go brief my assessments in person to the CG.  The MET assessments for my company aren’t good but I made it out alive because I could spell out how I got to those assessments and what the fixes are to improve them.  If you don’t know how the assessments are derived, you will have a hard time knowing where to improve.  Not only did I survive the briefing with the CG, I found that I was getting some high level support I never received before because I could say exactly what I needed.

2) Time is the most precious resource.

I’ve seen some improvements over the last few years within a few commands.  I felt like 4 years ago we focused so much on the AR350-1 requirements and hardly hit on WTT and MET training.  Now commanders are starting to make judgements on which AR350-1 training to cut or minimize so we can focus more on MET training.  This is the reality because if you do all the requirements in 350-1 you won’t have any other time.  Planning is the best way to provide good training and prevent Soldiers from sitting around.

3) Training Meetings

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point because training meetings are the core part of planning for effective training.  My company has a training meeting call once a month which lasts about 1.5 hours and all leaders are required to attend.  This allows us to review what didn’t happen during the last drill, provide feedback on assessments, and ensure we have quality training planned and resourced for next BA.  We spend a lot of time focused on the upcoming BA and will skim over the key events for the next 60 and 90 days out.

Here’s my added tips:

Get into DTMS.

It’s really a pretty easy system to use and it has many of the resources you’d go to ATN to gather like METL, CATS, and T&EOs.  There’s planning tools in DTMS that let you take CATS for your organization and apply them to your calendar, showing you “a way” to train for your METL.  DTMS is also the system of record for inputting you MET assessments.  This task is made even easier if your training NCO is applying individual and collective tasks to the training schedules and updating the “sign-in” roster for those tasks right after BA.  Our battle rhythm is to close out the tasks and training rosters in DTMS on Monday after BA, the same time the administrator is doing pay.

Communicate.

Make sure your in the loop on taskers and OPORDS that come down and you know the key personnel in the S-3 shops up to the G-3.  These are the people that will usually give you word of some kind of change coming down the pipeline which will impact your training.  The more you stay in the loop with them then the earlier you can find out about changes and the better you can react.

Access MARRS-N

I know, yet another system to get access to.  But this is the system used to plan and allocate units for training exercises.  Just browsing through it can be an educational experience.  Your unit may, or may not, be scheduled for an exercise 2 years out.  If you see something 18-24 months away that you think is better for your unit, don’t be afraid to brief that and communicate it through the 3 shops.  The G-3/5/7 is likely to be the shop pushing the buttons and doing the actual input for your unit.

 

Budgeting.

Here’s a topic I was never shown in any NCOES or OES.  Most commands will want you to be able to forecast budget requirements for the next year.  This can range from schools, orders for range prep, and logistics requirements.  This list can become long in a hurry so I find the best way to do this is by keeping a running list.  From the beginning of developing your training plan keep a running list that you can throw things on to as you go through the thought process.  “oh yeah we need to bring Soldiers in on orders to prepare for the ranges and turn-in ammo” or “we need two Soldiers to get HAZMAT certified”.  In my experience, the more you include ensures resources for the training you want to conduct.  Sometimes we can get money for unbudgeted requirements but you definitely don’t want to count on that.

 

 

Sorry I rambled a bit…but I hope there’s something useful there.   Thank you Joe for opening up the discussion.