Page 16 - The Dispatch August 2019

TEXAS MILITARY DEPARTMENT
ENGINEERS BUILD NEW

ANNUAL TRAINING PLAN

Soldiers from 236th Engineer Company level ground
for a motor-pool project at Stephenville, Texas
(Courtesy photo 176th Engineer Facebook)

Story By: Bob Seyller
Texas Military Department Public Affairs When the 176th engineers begin their second annual
training several months later, the intent is to begin at the
Have you ever had an annual training you thought could “run” phase, replicating the skills they learned and apply-
run better if you just had an opportunity to try again? ing them in a practical environment.
Maybe there was that exercise you needed more time to
perfect or some aspect on which you wanted a mulligan. According to Command Sgt. Maj. Toby Mendoza, 176th
With annual training behind you, you’re looking at up to a Engineer Brigade command sergeant major, the Joint Bat-
year before your Soldiers will be in a long-term collective tle Command Platform, fielded this year, is providing an
training environment. opportunity to test out the segment-training concept. The
communication platform allows Soldiers to learn a totally
Col. Paul Cerniauskas, commander of the 176th Engi- new system during the initial training segment and apply
neer Brigade, found a solution for his unit in the concept it in practice later in the year.
of “training less, more.” Cerniauskas explained that the
idea was to break the traditional two-week annual train- “During the second session of annual training we are hav-
ing timeframe into two segments separated by at least ing all companies send reports through the Joint Battle
two months. Each training period would then be spread Command Platform to their battalion headquarters, who
throughout the summer. in turn will feed that information to the brigade” said
Mendoza. “To complete the cycle, we will send reports to
“The motivation was to get after the mission essential our division headquarters.
tasks in a focused manner,” said Cerniauskas, “then make
definitive improvements in training readiness.” As the segmented annual training is launched, leaders at
the 176th are preparing to collect data on readiness out-
Cerniauskas explained that the first session would cover comes, training success and the impact to Soldiers’ careers
the same number of mission essential task-building ex- and personal lives.
ercises that would occur during a traditional two-week
Annual Training, but each exercise would come with a According to Cerniauskas, the current data is mostly anec-
condensed timeframe adding a sense of urgency to each dotal with Soldiers sharing the impact the new schedule
skill-building opportunity. has on the level of training they receive and responsibil-

16 TheDISPATCH August 2019