I recently started as an OC/T for Army Reserve forces. During the winter months we focus on helping units plan and brief their Yearly Training Plans. After observing a couple of conferences, I would like to give some insights on what I have learned and also open the floor up to everyone for their insights and help.

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

First, OBJ-T is nothing new. The Army did not create new standards for completing Mission Essential Tasks (MET). OBJ-T allows commanders to more accurately report their readiness standards. It also explains in detail how a unit can achieve a T in all of its METs. It is extremely hard to earn a T. As a former active duty commander I think my unit at best was T- at any given task. I find it almost impossible for any guard or reserve unit to be a T in any task for an extended period of time.

Second, honesty is the most important tenet of OBJ-T. Every commander has to make an honest assessment of where your unit is and what needs to be worked on. Too often, unit commanders want to go to a big training event for their Annual Training (AT). My question to them are you  ready for a CSTX or CTC rotation? Are you ready for external evaluators (such as OC/Ts) to come out and evaluate? Do you have the right METL? Finally and most importantly, what is the overall objective assessment of the unit’s METL?

2) Time is the most precious resource.

After observing units during AT or Battle Assembly (BA) weekends, Units that manage their time are by far the most effective and ready units. How do reserve and guard units get the most out of these training events? First it starts with having a good over arching yearly training plan. An effective method I have observed is when commanders pick one or two METs that they want to focus on for an entire year. Reserve and Guard units do not have the time to train all of their METs in 1 calendar year. By choosing one or two METs to focus on in during the FY, Commanders can plan what individual/collective tasks they want their units to improve upon. Additionally, using a crawl/walk/run method, commanders can ensure that when AT rolls around in the summer, their units are better prepared to conduct multi-echelon training.

Often I witness units that will only  do 350-1 training or a PT test and call it a day. Commanders need to give guidance on what they want trained during a specific event and then allow their subordinates (specifically their AGR personnel) to build a detailed training schedule that achieves the commander’s training guidance. BA weekends should build to AT. ATs should build to CSTX, and on and on. Every minute of the BA weekend counts. Units must ensure they use every minute they possible can.

3) Training Meetings

Plans are great, but they are useless if Units do not hold themselves accountable to the plans. Often, Guard and Reserve units do not find ways to have some sort of training meeting to discuss what should happen, what did happen, what will happen. The training meeting is the way to answer all of those questions. The Army has its standard for training meetings (which can be found in FM 7-0 Train to win in a complex World). However, units need to shape the training meeting to fit the unit needs. A very effective TTP  is a unit will have a training meeting and discuss what they are doing this weekend and what is on the calendar for the next three months at the beginning of the BA weekend. At the end of the weekend there will be a second meeting with just leadership that will discuss what was supposed to happen over the weekend and whether they need to add things to the following BA weekend.

Commanders in the Guard and Reserve have to fight so many other requirements, but I have found that commanding is similar whether you are active duty, Guard, or Reserve. Commanders who build good training plans and enforce those plans will find that their unit performs better and therefore will achieve a higher readiness state.

Does anybody else have any ideas to help Commanders (Active/Reserve/Guard) to build and follow training plans?

Joe