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Dear Doc Jargon,
My spouse is always talking about something called NTC. Sometimes it sounds like it’s a place, sometimes he talks about it as a test and other times it sounds like a thing. No matter how he refers to it, there is always a level of concern about it. By what he says, it sounds like it is pretty important. You might even say he’s a little obsessed with this NTC thing. I’d like to understand what or where it is and why it occupies so much of my husband’s attention. Can you help?
Sincerely,
Wife of an NTC-obsessed Soldier
DEAR WIFE OF AN NTC-OBSESSED SOLDIER,
The National Training Center, or NTC, is kind of a big deal in the life of a Soldier and his unit. It is sort of a final exam for every skill a Soldier knows and how well they execute those skills in relationship to their unit and the mission they are given. It is sort of a live test of a unit’s ability to perform and operate away from their home station before they deploy to any location. How well a unit does at NTC determines how the Army perceives their readiness for a mission.
Fort Irwin, California, is the location for NTC. There, an entire brigade or battalion can put into practice everything they have learned here at Fort Riley. To fit all the pieces together, it starts with each Soldier learning their individual Soldier tasks. For example, basic marksmanship and the skills specific to their Army profession are some of those things. Then those skills are joined with other Soldiers’ skills progressively through the organizational structure. So a Soldier has to do what they do well and function within a squad. The squads have to meld well into the company, the companies into the battalion and the battalions into the brigade on up to the division.
That’s why our Soldiers train and practice individual skills, then progress through unit training events to the Training Support Center here where they use state-of-the-art training aids, simulations and simulators before heading out to the field to practice putting it all into one cohesive mission based on a scenario that leaders feel would best test capabilities.
At NTC, all of that is being tested together. The results help commanders figure out where there is a weak spot, a training deficiency or a lack of resources. I hope this helps you understand why your Soldier feels the way he does about NTC and why it is important to him and the Army.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jargon
Dr. Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the
U.S. Army. Send your Army terminology questions to
fortrileypao@gmail.com.
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.02.2022 10:13 |
| Story ID: | 413852 |
| Location: | KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 632 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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