Gen. Wallace gives State of TRADOC

By John Harlow/TRADOC News Service

Gen. Wallace speech to Winter AUSA Symposium

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (TRADOC News Service, March 8, 2007) – The Commanding General of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Gen. William S. Wallace delivered the welcoming address to members at the Association of the United States Army here at their Winter Symposium.

TRADOC is the Architect of the Army, and “thinks for the Army” to meet the demands of a Nation at war, while simultaneously anticipating solutions to the challenges of tomorrow.

“We at TRADOC believe that victory starts here at TRADOC,” said Gen. Wallace. “It is not that we fight the fight, but it starts at our Centers and Schools and classrooms and ranges across Training and Doctrine Command. This is where the foundation of our great Army comes. It is the location where every Soldier, regardless of rank is assigned at some time or another in their career, whether their training has just begun or their education is advanced, this is where we develop those very capable Soldiers and leaders that you see on television and read about in the newspapers everyday.”

As the Architect of the Army, TRADOC doesn’t build the Army, but it draws up the blueprints, Gen. Wallace said. It develops the organizational designs and gives them to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. It develops doctrine both for the use of the current fight and future fights. TRADOC has an important role in designing the Army on how it is organized and intellectually, how it fights.

“The Department of the Army is working very hard to provide the resources for the current fight. The Operational Army is working extraordinarily hard to prepare for the operational environment in which they are going to be deployed,” said the general. “With the Department busy with resources and the Operational Army busy with fighting, someone has to scope out the future… and that somebody is Training and Doctrine Command. All of that is an awesome responsibility on behalf of Training and Doctrine Command and we accept that responsibility willingly.”

TRADOC is responsible for recruiting and training Soldiers and there are many challenges TRADOC faces in meeting those missions. You can’t have an Army without Soldiers and you can’t have Soldiers without recruiting, Gen. Wallace said. U.S. Army recruiting had a successful fiscal year 2006 reaching 100.8 percent of the active duty goal and 99.5 percent of the Army Reserve recruiting goal.

“Only 27 percent of the young people ages 17 to 24 actually qualify to be in your Army,” said Gen. Wallace. “The other 73 percent are disqualified either morally, intellectually or physically, to be in the United States Army.”

TRADOC conducted surveys among the youth population throughout the United States and has received some interesting answers.

Propensity is the lowest it has been in over two decades
Patriotism has steadily decreased since 2002
College is overwhelmingly the preferred post-high school choice (for both prospects and influencers) . . . educational opportunity is a major incentive.
Breaking through media “clutter” continues to be challenging
Army is perceived as “ordinary” vs. other services
Global War on Terrorism continues to have a polarizing effect on the youth market

“We found out some pretty interesting statistics,” said Gen. Wallace. “Eighty percent of the youth today said they never watch the commercials on television. Ninety percent engage in text messaging in some form or another on a daily basis, and 85 percent have access to an internet connection that they access routinely.”

TRADOC is working to find ways to communicate with this generation through text messaging and cyber-recruiting to give them a better means to understand what the Army is about.

“Most of the population of young people look at the Army as ordinary,” said Gen. Wallace. “They tell us that being a Marine is being elite but dangerous, being in the Navy is somewhat elite but somewhat safe, being in the Air Force is somewhat elite but very technical, but being in the Army is kind of ordinary.”

In the new Army Recruiting Campaign “Army Strong,” part of the message is to try to reverse the trend of the thoughts and explaining that being a part of the Army is being a part of something special, the general said.

“Being in the Army is like getting a Ph.D in strength,” said the general. “It is something that is beyond being strong. It is something that one gains only by being a member of the United States Army. Through that experience, one is not just strong, but Army Strong.”

Change is one of the constants in TRADOC. In the complex global environment facing our Army, TRADOC must look at the elements of how the complex global environment impacts national security. It also has to understand the information revolution and understand the complexity of the enemy and the way they use the information tools that are available to them, he said.

“They have the capability to execution information operations better than we do ourselves,” said Gen. Wallace. “They have the luxury to be able to influence populations around the world that are looking to be influenced by anyone who has a message that resonates with them whether or not it is true. It is that very adaptive and very complex adversary, who by the way has a sanctuary in cyberspace because of their ability to use the network to pass information, pass orders and share tactics, techniques and procedures with others who have access to them, all over the computer.”

TRADOC is drawing up the strategy to change the force structure and adapt the technology to that force, he said.

“It has always been our history to trade technology for force structure,” said the general. “We have only recently been able to reverse that trend with the recent announcement of the increase in size of the Army and Marine Corps. We understand fully that warfare is a human endeavor. That Soldiers on the ground interfacing not only with the enemy, but also with both populations has a direct impact on our ability to prosecute this fight and bring it to a successful conclusion.”

After recruiting young men and women to join the Army, TRADOC is responsible for turning them from citizens into Warriors. The responsibility of training these young men and women is even more intense with the serious possibility that soon after they complete their initial entry training, they may be going off to war.

“We have been on a path to improve our individual and basic training across the United States Army,” said Gen. Wallace. “This is based not on a path that we think is right at the Training and Doctrine Command, but on the feedback that we get constantly from the young Soldiers, leaders and noncommissioned officers who have been in the fight. “

Nearly three years ago, the concept of the Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills were initiated across the Training and Doctrine Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training schools, he explained. These are the essential skills that Soldiers determined were needed to be trained in order for Soldiers to survive and succeed on the battlefield. The training is more rigorous and relevant than it has ever been. Training now includes urban operations, convoy operations and combatives.

“Every six months we review those Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills across the population of leaders predominantly senior noncommissioned officers,” said Gen. Wallace. “They tell us what makes a difference on the battlefield. They tell us what makes a difference in the fight that they just returned from. The Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills have been adjusted three times in my time as the TRADOC commander, and they continue to evolve and keep pace with the ever changing security environment and extemporary operational environment that we find out Soldiers fighting.”

TRADOC is also looking to find new ways to teach Soldiers. The generation of young men and women who are joining our Army learn differently and retain information differently than generations of Soldiers before them.

Based on current research in adult learning theory and instructional technology, TRADOC is creating a new learning model that supports Soldiers and Leaders who are competent to perform within a dynamic operating environment. Some examples of the learning model include:

Designing a model that supports Army Force Generation
Systematically determining when to use face-to-face instruction and when to use distributed learning (dL)
Utilizing adult learning principles that maximize adaptive thinking
Designing instruction using Guided Experiential Learning
Using diagnostic testing to allow ability grouping

TRADOC is also reorganizing. The Infantry School and Armor School will become the Maneuver Center of Excellence, for example. TRADOC has already started incorporating these Centers of Excellence into the educational process. Last week, the first Captains Career Course just graduated from the Maneuver Center of Excellence. The incorporation of this learning model will evolve into the other TRADOC Centers and Schools.

The general also spoke of the evolution of doctrine, the strategy of Army Concepts, collective training, and the Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Teams and the full spectrum force that it will become.

Compared to today’s heavy BCT, an FCS BCT will have ten times more unmanned assets, six times more sensors that are all networked, two times more Infantry soldiers, three times more reliable and maintainable, next-generation manned ground vehicles, which will increase lethality and survivability, and give Soldiers 360-degree active protection.

At the end of the day, the task ahead of TRADOC is large, the general concluded. The command:

Recruits and trains the right Soldier for a campaign quality force
Adapts training and education to the rapidly evolving and dynamic joint operating environment
Establishes better linkages to the Operating Forces while simultaneously receiving constant feedback on ways to adapt
Leads the Army in developing a flexible requirements process that recognizes opportunities and seizes initiative to accelerate solutions

"TRADOC will preserve our focus on Soldiers – the centerpiece of our formations… our asymmetric advantage,” said Gen. Wallace.