MTC trains staff to optimize performance

Photo By Chuck Cannon | From left to right: 2nd Lt. Sebastian Munoz and 2nd Lt. Robert Pizzano, 46th Engineer Battalion S-3 staff officers, use the military decision making process to prepare a decision brief during their command post exercise at the Berry Mission Training Center Jan. 28.  

FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, UNITED STATES

01.31.2020

Courtesy Story

Fort Johnson Public Affairs Office

FORT POLK, La. — The U.S. Army has fought and won battles on multiple fronts around the globe for nearly 245 years. It’s difficult to imagine the time and effort it takes to plan and execute each mission.
Leaders must weigh options, intelligence and risks when determining the best course of action to achieve their objectives. Most Soldiers are trained to follow orders, focus on individual tasks and carry out the directives of their immediate supervisors. Most take for granted the processes by which those orders and directives are developed.
Army leaders employ three processes for operational planning: The Army design methodology, the military decision making process (MDMP) and troop leading procedures. MDMP is an interactive planning methodology that integrates the activities of the commander, staff, subordinate headquarters and other partners to understand the situation and mission, develop and compare options, decide on a course of action that best accomplishes the mission and produce an operational plan or order for execution.
Learning and understanding MDMP is a seven-step process that guides an organizational staff from receipt of a mission to the publication of and dissemination of orders.
Fort Polk’s Berry Mission Training Center (commonly referred to as the MTC) is equipped to educate and train staff officers and noncommissioned officers across the installation on the Strategic Mission Command Workstation and the Joint Battle Command Platform (JBCP).
Both programs provide dynamic, real time communication in a field environment. These systems share a common interface with command posts, improve collaboration and will increase lethality. Each program requires 40 hours of classroom and hands on instruction.
Once a staff understands how to use the tools, they can take MDMP to learn how to support commanders with effective estimates and decision point preparation resulting in coordinated orders, annexes and support templates.
“The training offered at the MTC is a great first step for new battalion level staffs or higher to go over the deliberate decision making process together,” said Paul Horlacher, systems trainer and site manager.
Horlacher, a retired lieutenant colonel and graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College said the training offered at the MTC is an excellent way for units to prepare for large scale exercises.
Each MDMP training event is unique to the unit requesting the training. Some units may need more time on theory, some are ready to write orders. A five day MDMP training is optimal to ensure each organization understands the common operation picture, can delineate and create operational orders based on higher headquarter maneuvers, tests battle drills and standard operating procedures and responds with fragmentary orders as missions and directives change, said Horlacher.
“By understanding and working the process regularly and consistently, a staff will be able to perform and execute the process in a real world situation,” he said.
The 46th Engineer Battalion staff is the first unit on Fort Polk to take all of the systems training and MDMP training.
"As an organization we want to be on the same page, if everyone is working from a common frame of reference we will all be better. The training from the MTC is accomplishing this," said Lt. Col. Ian Davis, commander of the 46th Engineer Battalion. “The staff at the MTC was helpful in guiding us to the right classes and were able to accommodate our busy schedule.”
The 46th Engineers are currently conducting a command post exercise with their brigade headquarters at Fort Bragg and are able to implement MDMP and utilize the SMCW (formerly command post of the future or CPoF) and JBCP systems.
"We want all those serving on staff to receive the latest training before they are expected to perform their critical task of providing the knowledge the commander needs to make decisions,” said Davis.
The training received and the exercise currently being conducted will allow the battalion to perform optimally during the upcoming warfighter exercise at Fort Bragg this spring.
The staff at the MTC encourages every unit to take advantage of the training opportunities offered.
“The completion of all training has made the 46th Engineer Battalion battle ready. Our instructors have taken a good staff and made them great,” said Gregory Graham, knowledge manager and scheduler for the MTC.
The training available uses MDMP to build a fundamental foundation for exceptional decision making.
Units are encouraged to visit the MTC or contact Graham at 531-8867, [e-mail] to learn more about scheduling training for their staff.

• Date Taken: 01.31.2020
• Date Posted: 01.31.2020 13:05
• Story ID: 361328
• Location: FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US