At USTRANSCOM, learning is essential

Learning is an essential ingredient of any successful business, says entrepreneur blogger Evan Carmichael, and the learning never stops for many U.S. Transportation Command workers as a result of the command’s Joint Training and Education Program.

The Manpower and Personnel directorate, or J1, is the lead for individual military and ancillary training and execution of USTRANSCOM's civilian development, training policies and procedures.

J1 executes training, education, development programs, and systematic identification of command military and civilian training requirements and manages training funds in support of command individual training and education requirements.

But it takes a combined effort to manage the training and education of USTRANSCOM workers.

The joint training system is a four-phase approach to training,” said Pete Zielinski, joint training specialist in the Operations and Plans directorate, or J3,  “determining your requirement, conducting planning, executing your training and assessing how we’ve done.

“It’s a system that’s maintained by the Chairman (of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and every command takes the basic format and tailors it to their individual mission,” Zielinski continued.  “So, what we do in each of those four phases is truly unique to USTRANSCOM.”

According to Zielinski, in each of the four phases there are collective components. USTRANSCOM has six joint mission essential tasks and about 90 supporting tasks to accomplish those basic six.

“The six tasks are the core of USTRANSCOM’S mission capabilities,” Zielinski said.  “(they are) Conduct deployment and redeployment operations, conduct global patient movement, produce strategic intelligence, provide sustainment provide command control communication and computer systems support and then control the joint deployment enterprise or the Joint Deployment Distribution Operations Center.”

The entire staff then asks what their directorate can do to support those tasks.

“So when we conduct collective joint training events such as an exercise, what we’re doing on the collective side is training to improve our performance,” Zielinski said.  “The whole purpose of the training and education program is to improve both our collective readiness and our individual readiness.”

Scott Hill, is the chief of the Joint Training and Exercise Division in J3.

“Every year we produce a joint training plan that outlines the next couple years of training requirements,” Hill said.  “Part of that joint training plan is the commander’s annual training guidance.”

According to Zielinski it’s a document that is part of the second phase of planning.  “What we are going to do for the next fiscal year,” he said.  “It’s part of our joint training plan.  We take a look at the guidance from the Chairman.  Then the commander has the opportunity to prioritize what’s important in the upcoming year.

“On the collective side the priority is Turbo Challenge 12,” Zielinski added.  “On the individual side, the priority remains our Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise program for members in JDDE billets.  That’s an opportunity for them to attend civilian universities and DOD institutions in order to improve their knowledge skills and abilities.”

Hill said Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, commander USTRANSCOM.approved the fiscal year 2012 Joint Education and training Program in July. “It outlines what our priorities are for training individuals and staff and collective training,” Hill said,  “and what exercises we’re going to support, what Joint Task Force Port Opening training we’re going to conduct, and what Joint Enabling Capabilities training we’re going to conduct.”

According to Hill this includes courses in management, leadership and supply chain management at Pennsylvania State university, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Tennessee. 

USTRANSCOM workers in JDDE billets are eligible to attend these courses, which are funded through the JDDE program.

“The JDDE Education program consists of more than 280 courses from more than 30 leading institutions,” said Diana Roach, USTRANSCOM Change Management team leader.  “Our budget is growing to over a half million dollars for 200 education opportunities annually across the command for military and civilian employees with JDDE requirements.

“Almost every directorate and office has JDDE requirements in many or most of their positions.” Roach added.

McNabb summed this all up in the last paragraph of the Fiscal Year 2012 Commander’s Training Guidance.

“The importance of our joint training, exercises and individual development programs cannot be overstated as we strive to improve our readiness to support ongoing operations,” McNabb said.  “More importantly, our training and education program prepares us to support operations that have yet to occur.

“With this in mind,” McNabb added.  “I charge you to execute this joint training plan aggressively and creatively so that as an enterprise we will always be prepared to deliver.”