Army Schools in the 21st Century

CPT Neal Daniels and CPT George A. Holland CPT Mario A. Johnson and CPT Melissa K. Nelson

Force XXI is the Army's campaign to prepare for the 21st Century. The world is changing, the pace is quickening, and resources are diminishing. The Army must be proactive by balancing resources and streamlining systems to meet tomorrow's needs. The Army will be smaller. However, according to former Army Chief of Staff, General (Retired) Gordon R. Sullivan:

"Smaller is not better, better is better. Today's focus...is to actively create an Army for the 21st Century rather than letting it evolve on its own. "

A major thrust of Force XXI is bringing the institutional Army in line with the changing table of organization and equipment (TOE) Army, also called the operational Army. The US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) heads the institutional Army. The institutional Army is reinventing the way it does business because TRADOC's customer base - the TOE Army or the operational Army - is restructuring to become more effective and efficient.

In TRADOC, one concurrent Force XXI initiative is streamlining the Army's education system. The new educational concept for soldiers in the 21st Century is called the Total Army School System (TASS). The TASS will replace active Army, Army National Guard and US Army Reserve teaching institutions at more than 900 locations. As envisioned for Force XXI, the TASS will instruct all components. General (Retired) Frederick M. Franks Jr., former TRADOC Commander, defined the TASS as:

"a future school system which leverages the Active Component (AC) and Reserve Component (RC) infrastructure for more efficient institutional training that promotes accreditation, instructor certification, standards and regional efficiencies...."

With today's centralized Army school system, primary courses such as the Basic and the Advanced Noncommissioned Officer Courses (BNCOC and ANCOC) are held at one location, depending on the branch. For example, all Quartermaster and Ordnance courses are held at their branch's respective homes, Fort Lee, VA, and Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. Other courses such as Command and General Staff College, Combined Arms and Service Staff School, and the Officer Candidate School are held at one location by bringing many branches together. For examples, Command and General Staff College and the Combined Arms and Service Staff School are held at Fort Leavenworth, KS, and the active Army's branch-immaterial Officer Candidate School is held at Fort Benning, GA.

As part of TRADOC's overall Force XXI mission to "be the architect of America's Army for the future," the TASS is changing this centralized organization of Army schools. TRADOC organized the TASS under a regional school concept. The TASS has seven regions, and each region has six brigades. The concept is similar to a civilian university with separate schools and departments. An Army region will be equivalent to a university, a brigade to a school within the university and a battalion to a department within the school. Each region has an alphabetic name. The following list gives the states within the continental US included in each region, A through G:

Region A: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Region B: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware.

Region C: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.

Region D: Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi.

Region E: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

Region F: Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

Region G: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Washington.

For now, soldiers outside the continental US will continue their education at their proponent schools.

Each region is self-contained and can execute any school required. The TASS brigades will execute the training for each region. Each region contains a leadership brigade, officer training brigade, combat arms brigade, combat support brigade, combat service support brigade and a health services brigade. All the TASS battalions and brigades will be either US Army Reserve or Army National Guard and operate under a training division subordinate to a US Army Reserve Command. The following is a list of the TASS battalions by type and numbers of battalions:

The Total Army School System Battalions

Each region has a regional coordinating element (RCE). The RCE is an executive agent responsible for quality assurance feedback to the major commands. The RCEs' primary purpose is to manage areas such as the rates to fill training seats, students who do not show up, students who are sent back to their home stations after arrival for a school, and completions/failures. RCEs also verify corrective actions on accreditation issues, provide ammunition management for the region, and assist in various administrative functions. RCEs link the Army's AC and RC and also assess individual training readiness.

Region C was the first to stand up in October 1994. The 3283d US Army Reserve Forces School became the 3283d Combat Service Support Brigade with Quartermaster, Transportation, Ordnance, and Adjutant General battalions. The other six regions will stand up during FY96.

According to the operational concept, the TASS is a composite school system where any soldier, AC or RC, can attend any school. TRADOC will retain sole accreditation authority for all schools. With one TRADOC standard, all soldiers, whether active or reserve, will receive the same training. This will make integration of the US Army Reserve and Army National Guard into military operations easier when the RC mobilizes. All schools, except for basic training, advanced individual training, and Officer Basic Courses, regardless of region or brigade, will use the standard Total Army Training System Courses.

All AC and RC soldiers will have the opportunity to attend schools in their regions together. All officers, AC and RC, must attend a resident Officer Basic Course. Under the TASS, course instruction may include a mixture of computer disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) courses, correspondence courses, video monitoring, and classroom instruction. Some students, AC and RC soldiers, will attend classroom instruction on weekends and two weeks of specialized training within their military occupational specialty.

This follows another tenet of TRADOC's educational vision for the 21st Century:

...conduct training and leader development instruction, from the schoolhouse...linked to soldiers and units in the operating force at distant locations. A system in which the separations between the three pillars of professional development - institutional training, operational assignments and self-development - are blended by increased information connectivity. A system based on the focus and rigor of commonly understood tasks, conditions, standards and a prevalent and enduring belief that meeting and sustaining training standards is essential to training excellence.

Potentially, a future Quartermaster NCO stationed at Fort Carson, CO, might attend the BNCOC at a TASS in that region instead of Fort Lee, VA. The soldier could then save on temporary duty costs by taking classes on weekends, through CD-ROM, correspondence and video monitoring.

The proponent schools' new role under the TASS will involve accreditation and certification of TASS instructors. School commandants will be directly involved, creating another link from the AC to the RC.

Today's shrinking force structure and limited resources are forcing the Army to manage assets more efficiently. Gone are the days when the key NCO is away from a unit for months at a time to attend a military school. The TASS intends to allow NCOs to attend the necessary schools without hampering their units' missions. The dollar is what ultimately backs all training. The TASS concept aims to ensure quality training in an economical manner.

About the authors

The authors are Quartermaster graduates of the Combined Logistics Officer Advanced Course 95-11/12 at Fort Lee, Virginia.

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