00;00;14;16 - 00;00;39;00 Host: Mr. Stermer All statements, views and opinions are personal and do not represent the United States government, the Department of Defense, or the United States Army. Welcome to the center for Army lessons learned podcast "Insights from the Fight". The podcast dedicated to bring any lessons learned from exercises warfighters and Army fielded forces. I'm your host, Mr. Jeremy Stermer. Today we're discussing operations with some members of the Combined Arms Support Command. 00;00;39;00 - 00;00;57;05 Host: Mr. Stermer CASCOM, Mr. Stacey Lee and Mr. James Swenson. Gentlemen, thank you for both being here today as we discuss some of the challenges and tools available to units when planning and executing deployments. To start, could you each share a brief overview of your background and experience with deployment operations? 00;00;57;08 - 00;01;20;06 Guest: Mr. Lee Yeah, absolutely. First off, Jeremy, thanks for having me. This is a topic that we're passionate about. But James and I both, as we go through we're both retired military. We both spend quite a bit of time doing deployment and transportation. For me personally, I started in the Army back in 1990 as a combat engineer, ended my career and career in 2015 as LTC, logistician planner. 00;01;20;08 - 00;01;42;10 Guest: Mr. Lee I've worked logistics plans and deployment literally on the company level, all the way up to the four star deployed level was hired as I was coming out of uniform in the deployment Process modernization office, which is unique to the Army because it's the only organization in the Army that focuses solely on deployment, end to end. Other organizations focus on pieces of it. 00;01;42;11 - 00;02;04;01 Guest: Mr. Lee We focus on the deployment process overall. So our, you know, watercooler conversations or about deployment or meetings or about deployment. We're excited to actually go on and talk about what we do and how we can help the Army increase their strategic readiness. So I am married. My wife is also retired military. She retired a year after me. 00;02;04;03 - 00;02;27;11 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson I have a daughter who was a teacher down in the Virginia Beach area, and we have two goofy rescue pups and a cat, adopted. So, not sure to change. Hey, James Swanson here. Like, safely just said, with the deployment process modernization office. The analysis branch chief. So I've been here since 2018. Prior to that, I was active duty army. 00;02;27;13 - 00;02;50;04 Guest: Mr. Swenson So I was a transporter all the way through for about 26 years. So I did deployments from the operational, tactical and strategic levels. Work in all aspects of deployment. You know, like Stacey just mentioned, you know, we're happy to talk deployment with this community. And there's this kind of educate the force on what we're seeing in real time as we get out and do our site visits. 00;02;50;04 - 00;03;10;08 Guest: Mr. Swenson We have a tremendous amount of lessons learned and tips, and we're definitely looking towards the future. We are closely matched with the Army G3 on all things Army force projection. So we lead several efforts in that arena, so we can definitely share some of those things today as we discuss with you. 00;03;10;10 - 00;03;40;01 Host: Mr. Stermer Thank you for those introductions, gentlemen. In March of 2025, CALL in collaboration with the Deployment Process Modernization Office DPMO produced the Deployment Handbook. This covered planning pre-deployment activities, portions of RSOI including reception, staging, and onward movement. And it also covered Re-deployment. Can you explain the motivation behind this handbook, how it was developed and how it supports Army units preparing and executing deployments? 00;03;40;03 - 00;04;02;28 Guest: Mr. Lee So jumping back in history a little bit. In 2015 we published the CALL handbook on the Command Deployment Discipline program. It was a great little physical CALL manual size that would fit in your side pocket checklist or units all the way from company up to division installation. They talked about all the key steps to deployment. Well Kirk Foster and the CALL team. 00;04;03;00 - 00;04;27;09 Guest: Mr. Lee Hit me up about either updating that or letting it just go obsolete. As we sat down and thought through it all, there was an opportunity to actually expand beyond just, you know, one piece of the deployment process. That was kind of the genesis of what we put together in conjunction with CALL. And this is kind of exciting because when we published that, it covers literally end to end tips, tricks. 00;04;27;09 - 00;05;03;00 Guest: Mr. Lee It's got the key players kind of what their roles are. It talks lessons learned. We've got some really great, updated checklists in the annexes. But as you know, as soon as we publish something that goes static, well, what we did was we tied the CALL handbook for deployment to the "Army's deployment toolbox". So anything that you see as far as a checklist or lesson learned or form or whatever, if you see it in that static handbook, you can actually go to the deployment toolbox and you can download the latest version of it in an interval format. 00;05;03;08 - 00;05;23;08 Guest: Mr. Lee None of it is proprietary. None of it is classified until you fill in, obviously your information, but what we wanted to do was instead of having, you know, some NCO or officer or somebody trying to recreate a checklist, just go to the toolbox, download it, throw your unit's logo on it to make it specific to your location, and CALL it good. 00;05;23;10 - 00;05;47;02 Guest: Mr. Lee The only thing we here, if you make it out of it, is we were tools out to help the field do what they need to do. And I'll tell you, a lot of the tools that are resident now on the toolbox and in the handbook itself actually came from the field. We are collectors. We always look for, you know, if somebody has got some sort of checklist or some sort of tool that will help, you know, track deployment or prepare for deployment. 00;05;47;05 - 00;05;57;19 Guest: Mr. Lee We always invite them to send it to us. We'd like to post it and get it out so that the whole or it. So that's history and has the genesis behind the handbook. . 00;05;57;19 - 00;06;12;14 Host: Mr. Stermer If you were to talk to commanders, what are the critical actions that a unit can take? When we look at that planning and preparing, even before you're notified of a deployment activity that they can do in order to make sure that their unit is ready to be deployed. 00;06;12;19 - 00;06;34;28 Guest: Mr. Lee So I'll hit that they were quick and then I'll try to change, I will tell you that the very first thing is make deployment planning and planning activities and the light part of the day to day battle rhythm. You know, one of the things that we were really good at in the 90s, we got out of when we were doing, you know, just the patch tour rotations to Iraq, Afghanistan, that became just basically a spreadsheet drill. 00;06;35;04 - 00;06;57;09 Guest: Mr. Lee It didn't take a whole lot of planning for a commander to fall down, whatever their equipment lists were and what their timelines were, which they knew, by the way, 12 to 18 months out. So we got out of the habit of really putting the rigor on the operational side into deployment, planning the activities that go into it, and really just making it part of what we do every day. 00;06;57;10 - 00;07;26;02 Guest: Mr. Lee One of the most critical things a commander can do, regardless of unit type, is make your METL task number one, which is deployment, and get serious about it. You know, use the tools that are out there. You know, we mentioned the command deployment discipline program. That is a tool that is the sister tool to the command supply, command, maintenance, discipline programs that they are checklist literally for a commander to be able to lay out what the tasks are that they need to do to get better prepared and their solely for the soldier commander. 00;07;26;04 - 00;07;46;06 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson You know, there's an exercise program that goes into it, but hey, you're not going out of the park. We had the Deployment Excellence Award, so you can actually get recognized for it. Just to amplify some of the comments that you may, you know, commanders must take ownership of their deployment and no longer treated as they're just a customer deployment, which we have seen over the. 00;07;46;08 - 00;08;13;11 Guest: Swenson OEF, OIF rotations. What I mean by that is they must empower their people to drive the process. We are starting to see that throughout the force. You know, units that treat deployment as an operation where the battalion brigade S-3s throughout the operation, operational drive the deployment. Those units tend to fare a lot better than units for is just left as a task for logisticians. 00;08;13;14 - 00;08;36;13 Guest: /Swenson That brings the rigor that Stacey just mentioned into the process. It holds units accountable and really help speed up the deployment process as we move forward in this future. Future fight. Future conflicts should be about the speed and accuracy of deployment, and that's critical throughout the every phase of deployment and which we'll talk about here in a little bit. 00;08;36;15 - 00;08;59;29 Host: Mr. Stermer You've talked a little bit about how we start to think about tools that are out there. I know as a unit movement officer, the lieutenant, I planned rotations into the CTCs and then was fortunate enough to deploy into Bosnia as a unit movement officer later on in my career, deployed to numerous CTC rotations, overseas deployments, and then a couple of deployments into Iraq. 00;09;00;02 - 00;09;12;17 Host: Mr. Stermer How should commanders look at training their personnel to meet their deployment requirements? What things can they do to make sure that they are ready and are capable of executing those when it comes time to implement their plans? 00;09;12;20 - 00;09;32;02 Guest: Mr. Lee Well, first of all, it's something that I will had repeatedly throughout the podcast. Pretty much everybody in a unit, regardless of type, request access deployers toolbox, talking about UMOs there's literally a memo tab that will lay out all the requirements, the checklist, kind of what training you need. We've got examples of the orders pointing UMOs. 00;09;32;04 - 00;09;51;05 Guest: Mr. Lee You know, there's a wealth of tools on the deployer's toolbox that you just have to request access to their tools for everybody from, you know, that that junior NCO or young lieutenant who is a, you know, all the way up to corps level checklists or the movement planners at Corps. So there's something for everybody in there. So I'm going to hit that and that is live. 00;09;51;07 - 00;10;14;24 Guest: Mr. Lee So if you all have the latest checklists the deployers toolbox you know deployment is a very relational thing. So one of the key things that a commander and senior leaders in a unit can do is get to know the folks at all the nodes. I mean, it's a whole lot easier to, you know, call Steve or Mary, you know, at the ITO than to just cold call the ITO and say, hey, we're deploying. 00;10;14;28 - 00;10;48;01 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson What can you do for us kind of thing? So, you know, request access and get to know the tools that are out there. One area that I think units associate down at the company level, battalion company level can look at doing is used every opportunity. You know, a deployment training opportunity. What I mean by that is as a unit is going to a range or going to an FTX or going to some other thing, you know, as the unit is preparing in their motor pool, they can treat that as a deployment and go through the rehearsal steps and so forth. 00;10;48;04 - 00;11;13;22 Guest: Swenson And we have to think differently in how we, are using our time. So and then starts building those reps and sets for these units, you know, get people get familiar because it's really about repetition, checking, you know, a checking task and making sure Soldiers are proficient in their collective and individual task of support metal. So again, you know, money is tight, time is especially tight. 00;11;13;22 - 00;11;33;14 Guest: Mr. Swenson/Lee But you can definitely incorporate some deployment task into everyday training opportunity. Let me give you just a simple, practical tip that I used when I was a commander. Way, way back when I had more hair and less belly is just make sure that you were, you know, that was as accurate as you could get it and you were preparing is just part of your normal day to day thing. 00;11;33;17 - 00;11;57;09 Guest: Mr. Lee You know, anytime that my supply NCO made changes to my property, look, my, you know, with the deployment book my UMO was sitting right there beside him so that, you know, we're changing the configuration of a piece of equipment or adding or subtracting that, that UMO, was doing what the UMO needed to do to make sure we had it was in the right configuration, we had the right shackles, and that was literally internal to the unit putting two inches or lieutenant NATO together. 00;11;57;13 - 00;11;59;10 Guest: Mr. Lee And that increased the overall rating. 00;11;59;13 - 00;12;10;29 Host: Mr. Stermer You mentioned some of the installation support that is available to units beyond the ITO. What are the facilities on an installation that are going to help a unit execute their deployment? 00;12;11;00 - 00;12;29;06 Guest: Mr. Lee Those are more to the roles or responsibilities. Some of this is installation specific. And of course there are unique challenges to Comp 2 and 3, the way they have to know what and prepare to deploy. But I'll tell you. So for me, the top four that I picked out for, you know, the really key players first is your unit Mobility Warrants. 00;12;29;06 - 00;12;51;01 Guest: Mr. Lee They are literally for the Army a direct links into, you know, the deployment systems and processes. They have a role in training, you know, the movement personnel and how they do that. And that's true for regardless of unit type. So you know we've got a professional mobility warrant corps. The that's what they do. They don't do other things. They do deployment. 00;12;51;04 - 00;13;13;07 Guest: Mr. Lee Second, I would say, you know, each installation and it's like reserves and there's and you know all the state headquarters and the like when you know those two and three, every installation, every location has a set of installation deployment enablers. You know, you've got your installation transportation officers, you got your ASP, you've got location specific people. 00;13;13;09 - 00;13;31;12 Guest: Mr. Lee So in some cases, you know, some installations, the airfield airfields, not on the installation. So you get a different group of people if you really need to, if you can, you know, look them in the eye, make sure that, you know, I should make sure you're talking to Steve or Mary versus just some random person that you show up and don't have a relationship with. 00;13;31;12 - 00;14;04;14 Guest: Mr. Lee For the planners and commanders, I will tell you, the details are linking up with the Division Transportation Office, DTO and making sure that you're tied into the planning as early as you can is critical for making sure that you're mitigating, by the way, shortfalls and challenges that are happening in the motor pool or at the key node seems simple, but it's stuff like, you know, making sure you've linked up with the the ITO to have, you know, whoever is training the related teams, make sure you've got the right number of people, make sure they're are actually trained for that location. 00;14;04;21 - 00;14;38;10 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Good. You got your own house before you start to move around the world in somebody else's. Yeah. So again, Stacey hit it right on the head. It's really understanding your role at echelon and control the things you control. And that really comes through understanding the plan and understanding who, who are those key enablers and as deployments happen, you know, the reserve component has these teams for the deployment and distribution support teams, DDSPs. 00;14;38;10 - 00;15;04;28 Guest: Mr. Swenson Those are sometimes added and location to help advise the unit with their deployment, but those have to be requested and those are usually requested by the division or the installation. But those are SMEs, resident SMEs that work for the port. The Seaport commander. But those are valuable resources for units to leverage and the systems with their deployment. Again, it's really as commanders. 00;15;04;28 - 00;15;35;21 Guest: Mr. Swenson You should be enabling your personnel to do their job. We understand that the, unit movement officer at company level, is an additional duty, but it's imperative that commanders empower these individuals to really have the time and resources to perform their job. And, I can quickly highlight why that's critically important. Stacey mentioned the movement data because movement data is a single, single piece of information that has strategic implications. 00;15;35;23 - 00;16;06;13 Guest: Mr. Swenson We would like to CALL it a strategic corporal down at the unit. So he or she who is inputting this movement data, it's incorrect. It has strategic implications all the way through the deployment process, which impacts asset assignment. Whether it's a commercial truck or rail car, a vessel affects how those assets are being allocated and utilized. We have found over time that the movement data is not necessarily precise, and while we can absorb a lot of these mistakes today. 00;16;06;17 - 00;16;30;14 Guest: Mr. Swenson We we think in a large scale conflict where things are moving at large scale, it's going to be a significant problem. That's why it's important for these individuals who are inputting this movement data to have the absolute best training and really the, proficiency to do their job. And that comes through reps and sets and all the things we talked about previously. 00;16;30;18 - 00;16;33;00 Guest: Mr. Swenson The location of that training. 00;16;33;02 - 00;16;45;19 Host: Mr. Stermer Are there other common factors that you see as potentially stalling or delaying deployments, and that units can mitigate through training and understanding of the process beforehand. 00;16;45;22 - 00;17;08;07 Guest: Mr. Swenson The prioritization of deployment and your into your daily battle rhythm. You know, that's really embracing deployment as an operational form of maneuver. And I'll talk about it here a little bit. Why that's going to be important, especially here in the homeland. It's really embracing those task as you're know, one mental task to deploy. It's really honing your craft at a company level. 00;17;08;07 - 00;17;34;04 Guest: Mr. Swenson And echelon, those collective and individual tacit support. The deployment model. Again it's rehearsal practice, practice, practice. And I can't stress that enough. You know, units have to capitalize on training opportunities to really build those reps and sets. And it's really people change, you know. So you're always have to update your rail teams, your load movement teams, etc. you have to keep your Soldiers proficient and what's expected of them. 00;17;34;04 - 00;17;58;15 Guest: Mr. Swenson A lot of times when we go out and observe units, there's a lot of competing events when it comes to deployment. In other words, there's not a lot of white space on the calendar when it leads up to deployment. So you got SRP occurring, you got railroad operations, you got convoys trying to move out. So it's about having the right people and a bench big enough to support complete operation. 00;17;58;15 - 00;18;21;04 Guest: Mr. Swenson So it takes a lot of deconfliction. And that's why this has to be your battalion and brigade S3s as an operation. And like Stacey mentioned earlier, is building those relationships across the installation, you know, really understanding who's who in the zoo and who does what and who can really make decisions at the installation level. They're the SMEs. 00;18;21;07 - 00;18;44;05 Guest: Mr. Swenson For your location, you need to tie in with those folks. So that way it helps reduce some of the frustration when you're trying to deploy. And again, it comes back to leaders, you know, being engaged that comes through training, preparation and everything you're doing for your deployments. You know absolutely. The commander sets the tone, support to the commander, gets reported on, he gets checked. 00;18;44;05 - 00;19;08;21 Guest: Mr. Swenson/Lee So at that, the the, being set from the beginning that it's absolutely critical. Let me jump in and add to that. So the commanders deployment discipline program is the key tool for the commander to prepare for deployment. But that's actually part of, a triad. CDDP helps you prepare to deploy as a commander, the deployment readiness exercise program. 00;19;08;21 - 00;19;29;18 Guest: Mr. Lee Gives the commander a tool to test that. And then when you're talking to training, you know, you should be going through CDDP and doing the inspections and doing the checks and getting everything right. And then at least once a quarter, a couple times a year, test it out. You know, you can do EDRE1. You can coordinate with your high level command, do EDR2 literally as part of an old training cycle. 00;19;29;24 - 00;19;55;07 Guest: Mr. Lee Use CDDP to prepare, usage, EDRE to see where you got issues, go back to the CDDP and and just go back and forth and then once you actually have a successful implemented you using you've knocked out of the park, you know, the Deployment Excellence Award is the program to recognize units for knocking out the park. But if you aren't using all three of these in conjunction, then you're just hamper yourself in a you're the very things that will help you mitigate the risk. 00;19;55;07 - 00;20;14;18 Guest: Mr. Lee The stumbling during a deployment. If you're not using them, then, you know, you get what you get. And the last thing I say, most common factor and we see it over and over as we engage with units and go out and, you know, inspecting units, sloppy paperwork. All it takes is one column mixed up on a hazmat form. 00;20;14;20 - 00;20;34;08 Guest: Mr. Lee And instead of your equipment getting on a boat or a ship as a port, it's going to be frustrated. You know, if you show up, you know, at a node on installation and you can't explain the difference between regular configuration and travel configuration, and all the paperwork goes behind that, the labels and the like, you're just setting yourself up for failure. 00;20;34;11 - 00;20;47;09 Guest: Mr. Lee So, you know, part of that practicing sets of reps is making sure you tighten up the paperwork, because that's how we input all of the data in the system. That's how we get efficiency out of the system and on the ground. 00;20;47;11 - 00;21;17;24 Host: Mr. Stermer You mentioned a little bit earlier about the differences for COMP-2 units Army National Guard and COMP-3 units reserve. I think one of the challenges that they probably have that you guys help them with are that they are deploying not from installations, but maybe from an armory at in an area. Can you talk about some of the things that our Comp-2 and Comp-3 units can do to help get them ready, and then how they need to partner with their states, or other industry in order to be able to support deployments from their end. 00;21;17;27 - 00;21;39;29 Guest: Mr. Lee That's a key word in there, partner, because of the uniqueness of the guard and reserves and the challenge they have with being able to open to. And that's a different pot of money versus title-10, you know, kind of a handshake between title-32 and title-10. The vast majority of units are going to go to either a power projection platform or MFGI mobilization force generation installation. 00;21;40;02 - 00;22;00;25 Guest: Mr. Lee If they haven't worked the sync of that process and how that should work, and has done all the things that they can do as part of the pre-deployment activities while they're still on title-32 really days. It's going to be ugly. We see some some very ugly transitions from mobilization to deployment, even on our, power projection platforms. 00;22;00;25 - 00;22;22;12 Guest: Mr. Lee The uniqueness of how guard and the reserve stores their equipment and actually draws their equipment, some are some challenges that are truly unique to them. For example, you could have a National Guard or Reserve unit who is actually the people are coming to PPP or an MGFI, but their equipment is going from some concentration site straight to the port. 00;22;22;12 - 00;22;42;14 Guest: Mr. Lee So the issues with, you know, make sure you've got the right training equipment sets. So making sure that you've as a unit, as a commander have gone through and identified what is in the equipment concentration sites that you need to bring with you, because there is some stuff that, you know, you need to update, some stuff you need to get the right whatever crypto fit into it. 00;22;42;17 - 00;23;02;21 Guest: Mr. Lee So really it's it's taking it seriously. I mean, taking deployment seriously and making it part of just the normal battle rhythm events. And it's not applied to all three Compos. It just becomes more challenging for Compos 2 and 3 because of everything from they are on a three year or on a five year rearm cycle. How they access the equipment, limited time. 00;23;02;24 - 00;23;17;03 Guest: Mr. Lee Obviously commander's going to prioritize what the commanders will be graded on. So for your assembly still assembly IT paperwork says I need to be doing like insurance paperwork versus training modes. And I mean, what's the commander going to do? He or she obviously is going to. 00;23;17;03 - 00;23;37;01 Host: Mr. Stermer Focus on the. Excellent. So we've talked about how we prepare to do some of these activities in a home station, non-threatening environment. As you look at the possibility of going into some sort of, large scale combat operation where it's going to be contested, potentially all the way back to the home station as we try to do the rest of my process. 00;23;37;06 - 00;23;47;25 Host: Mr. Stermer Can you talk about security measures that you need to consider and implement when preparing to do deployments? Particularly if they are going to be going outside continental United States? 00;23;47;28 - 00;24;08;29 Guest: Mr. Swenson Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, this is, a key focus for the whole Army Air Force projection enterprise. So we've been looking at this problem set up for quite some time now. And I will tell you, one of the common themes that we are hearing is units must have the mindset that the homeland is no longer a sanctuary when it comes to deployment. 00;24;09;02 - 00;24;38;00 Guest: Mr. Swenson And what does that mean? So what it means is as the unit is moving, its equipment or personnel to a port of debarkation, you know, you have to think that it's going to be contested, not necessarily kinetically, but it's going to be challenged or contested from the start. Right. And that can be everything from as operations are being conducted on an installation through movement to the port of embarkation and all the way through the process. 00;24;38;00 - 00;24;59;09 Guest: Mr. Swenson So they have to really understand really the risk and the force protection measures that they need to apply. And so how do you how would a unit do that or understand that? Well, they need to tie in to their force protection cells whether its at the division or the installation and understand those critical vulnerabilities that are for their location. 00;24;59;11 - 00;25;26;16 Guest: Mr. Swenson And then really it's about it may sound cliche, but it's really a practice. Great OPSEC previously for some during their ERP programs, one of the the tests for critical areas they would test as a unit is doing an emergency deployment readiness exercise is social media. And email phishing attempts. So what they'll do is send out through their cyber team email phishing attempts to a unit and see how many Soldiers reply to that. 00;25;26;20 - 00;25;49;18 Guest: Mr. Swenson Talk to us about deployment, and you'd be amazed on how many Soldiers are willing to talk about their upcoming deployment. So that's one critical aspect, right? So the enemy is always listening and always watching. And through our social media platforms and our email platforms, I'll tell you we're absolutely vulnerable there. So I can't stress enough practice. Really, really good. 00;25;49;19 - 00;26;18;08 Guest: Mr. Swenson OPSEC. commanders must understand those critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, their location, and really, if they're doing this convoy operations that they're asked to convoy to a port of deportation, they have to understand how to mitigate the risk to mission and risk to force. And that really requires being tied into the Protection Branch assessments. And, being into as local, state, federal partners to help secure that route along the way. 00;26;18;08 - 00;26;32;25 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson So all routes to the port of the deportation will be approved by the state at the joint force quarters level. It's going to take, all the government approach, really to make that successful, being tied into those plans. 00;26;32;27 - 00;26;52;01 Host: Mr. Stermer Okay. So we talked a little bit about the things they need to consider at home station. When we're going into contested environments, what are the things they need to consider during the deployment. And then arrival in the theater that they have to adjust in order to make sure that they remain safe and able to execute their mission effectively. 00;26;52;03 - 00;27;16;20 Guest: Mr. Swenson Absolutely as the unit deploys, whether it's it's usually by airlift, you know, the personnel, the cargo will go by sea at the port of demarcation. They're still start falling into the battle plans of the combat commander. Usually ask the Army Service Component command. So it's all going through as to why. So as you get into it's a it's a combat operation. 00;27;16;20 - 00;27;41;06 Guest: Mr. Swenson At this point, they fall into the measures prescribed by the ASCC and that's that's part of the assembly process. Put themselves back together uncoiling a supported deportation. What we'll probably end up seeing and certainly in a large scale fight, is Units will take control of their cargo at the port of debarkation and prepare for onward moves. So that's a purely a combat operation at this point. 00;27;41;06 - 00;27;59;28 Guest: Mr. Swenson Again, go back to OIF, OEF. You know, we're not going to probably have to Kuwait. Everybody's familiar with the way we built up in Kuwait and so forth. It would be contested from the moment the ramp drops at the port of debarkation. So it's going to be a purely a combat operation in a large scale conflict. 00;28;00;02 - 00;28;22;27 Host: Mr. Stermer The Army's going through a number of transitions right now, particularly at the senior command levels, as we reorganize some of the commands, and the way they interact, what are some changes that you anticipate seeing in the deployment process coming up in the future? And how are you working to address those changes in, enabling units to be able to deploy effectively? 00;28;23;00 - 00;28;46;26 Guest: Mr. Lee A couple things, thinking through that. So the the deployment process itself, you know, the key sets, the pre-deployment activity, the planning and activities, the movement, the conceiving over movement, that process, the core process really hasn't changed. World War two. What we've changed is we've added tools to it's different environments, require different sets of tools or different ways of plan. 00;28;46;26 - 00;29;10;20 Guest: Mr. Lee Of course, now you're you look at the fight in Ukraine right now, just add the deployment piece to that, you know, but now think about us having to get into that fight that we as Army planners spend a lot of time thinking about how we're going to feel about battlefield. 00;29;10;21 - 00;29;31;26 Guest: Mr. Lee If you go back and just look at, you know, the warfighters, the table top exercises TTXs, the exercises, even the simulations, what you're going to see is we give very little time to what the deployment is going to look like, anticipating what those requirements are be or specific unit specific. So I think what's going to change. 00;29;31;26 - 00;30;08;28 Guest: Mr. Lee And actually I can tell you what is already changing is the recognition that. We're seeing some just incredible innovation coming out of especially our junior leaders, our NCOs and mobility warrants and young officers that are planning thing and executing, you know, they're bringing innovation to the fight, that's fun to watch. I'm not in uniform anymore, but getting to see these young leaders just step up and knock it out of the park, the changes we're going to have to even increase that right now, even though the, you know, we're adding some bolting on, you know, AI and human machine interface and all that was really the core of what has got to change and to 00;30;08;28 - 00;30;29;21 Guest: Mr. Lee increase the speed. The flexibility is really just capturing that innovation that's coming out of those young leaders who are out executing. You know, we as the institutional force, we've got to somehow tie in better to all of these innovations so we can get it back into, you know, what we're writing and how we're developing units and the like. 00;30;29;21 - 00;30;53;08 Guest: Mr. Lee And as the tools and resources like this, where do you start to increase access to AI with locations? Obviously, we've had some challenges on the Army side of the house, EOD side of the house, making sure that we've got the right output from the AI tool, but tying all the information systems together, we've got some stuff coming as we update the deployer's toolbox, as we're using, you know, Vantage and the like. 00;30;53;08 - 00;31;11;23 Guest: Mr. Lee We have to the CIA tool all here at CASCOM, which is the IT tools every day. I think you're as far as the physical piece of it. It's going to look pretty much the same. However, how we're enabling and how we're planning and how we're flexing, I think that's where you're going to see the impact you're already seeing is the most change in the process itself. 00;31;11;25 - 00;31;39;21 Guest: Mr. Swenson So like we talked earlier as, data analytics as our understanding of the information flow deployment improves, not only does allow us to see ourselves and see where the friction and the challenges are, but it speeds up the process. So going forward in a future conflict, it's absolutely critical to use our finite resources correctly and precisely that, that finite resources are on rail cars and in home land. 00;31;39;24 - 00;32;10;10 Guest: Mr. Swenson You know, there's a limited number of those rail powers available across the the force. So it's absolutely critical that that our data are accurate. So we can precisely put those assets where they're most needed at on time. You know, as we build combat power with the combat commander, it's going to be critical that our information learning and our data requirements are are keeping speed at the point of need for to meet those requirements to combat commander. 00;32;10;13 - 00;32;24;10 Host: Mr. Stermer You both talk a little bit about the opportunities for Soldiers to see challenges and give feedback and innovation. Is there a specific way you would like folks when it comes to the deployment process to get information back to CASCOM about the things that they're learning? 00;32;24;13 - 00;32;58;28 Guest: Mr. Swenson Yeah, absolutely. So it's exciting time as the Army transforms within, the CASCOM is the TLLM, those are the lessons learned forums that are being stood up. Those will be absolutely a critical inject point. And every center of excellence to get the feedback real time. We're developing collection plans for these TLLMs now as a unit as they go out and assess unit and look at those are critical data points that will feed back into the enterprise here to make DOTMILPF changes across to really improve the deployment process. 00;32;58;28 - 00;33;09;17 Guest: Mr. Swenson 00;33;09;17 - 00;33;17;02 Host: Mr. Stermer Before we conclude, do you have any additional observations or final thoughts you'd like to share with our audience regarding deployment, planning and execution? 00;33;17;06 - 00;33;36;09 Guest: Mr. Lee I'll kick that off. I'll give you two. But really, if you're a commander or a young leader or a, UNO, whatever, familiarize yourself with the tools that are available to CDDP, the deployer toolbox. There's a host of tools that are out there. 00;33;36;09 - 00;33;56;20 Guest: Mr. Lee The thing I would say about that is, and coming back to the deployment toolbox, there is a feature on the reporter's toolbox, a blog where you can ask questions, but there's also a way that if you you've got some product or tool or something that you think is just fantastic and it would help the Army send that to us, you know, we'll do it and we'll get it out there. 00;33;56;20 - 00;34;18;26 Guest: Mr. Lee So, you know, it's available for everybody. And then the last point I would make what the commander deems as important becomes the focus. You know, absent commanders equals lacks preparation. But engaged commanders is where you get at the unit level increased accuracy, efficiency, effectiveness. You know, what matters to the commander, matters to the unit. 00;34;18;28 - 00;34;46;08 Guest: Mr. Swenson And just to conclude on this subject is deployment training. Take that into your your everyday operations, whether it's going to a range or going to an FTX that is absolutely critical and it builds the muscle memory and familiarity at the company level, especially what it takes to deploy and I will tell you why that's important. So what we will see on a lot of our visits is units will take shortcuts when it comes to deploying to a CTC rotation. 00;34;46;08 - 00;35;07;10 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson And what I mean by that is they'll skip some steps in the process. So when it comes time to a rotational deployment, they don't really, truly appreciate the time it takes to do those steps that they miss. So again, those shifts that force the standard and really take that to heart and really take that into your training plan. 00;35;07;13 - 00;35;40;20 Host: Mr. Stermer Mr. Lee and Mr. Swenson, thank you for joining us and sharing your insights. Today. We discussed lessons for units conducting deployment operations. You can find code resources available by going to www.army.mil/CALL our CAC enabled site. There you may download products or request print products shipped to you for more insights into topics. Discuss C CALLs Deployment Handbook Leaders guide to command Maintenance and first 100 days XO, S3. 00;35;40;22 - 00;36;06;05 Host: Mr. Stermer If you have trouble finding information on our website, use our request for information tab and receive direct feedback from an analyst at CALL Only. If you have a best practice to submit or a capability gap that requires a.mil PV solution. Submit observations directly to CALL using the Quick Fire portal on our website. Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast and follow us on social media. 00;36;06;08 - 00;36;26;01 Host: Mr. Stermer I would like to thank all our CALL team members, including the author of The Deployment Handbook, Mr. Kirk Foster, and our show's producer, Ms Page Cox, for their help in executing this podcast. Thank you for listening to CALLs Podcast Insights from the fight. We are dedicated to providing you with the insights you need to lead, train and fight today and in the future. 00;36;26;04 - 00;37;44;10 Host: Mr. Stermer Join us next time for another discussion on lessons learned from the force. 00;37;44;13 - 00;38;05;27 Host: Mr. Stermer Good deal. Gentlemen, I think that's all we have. I've got to do some stuff on some recording on my own. So we'll let you guys drop off. One thing I would ask, Stace, is if you or James, if you guys can jump into the team's chat and send us any links that you would like to be put in the advertisement that we do with the podcast. 00;38;06;05 - 00;38;25;20 Host: Mr. Stermer So if you want them to be able to go to the tool box, the states that we just talked about or anything else, if you just send me a list of those links as hyperlinks, we'll add them in to the podcast advertisment at the bottom. And they'll just be available for the audience who may not write it down during the podcast. 00;38;25;23 - 00;38;26;08 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Yeah, absolutely. 00;38;26;12 - 00;38;36;10 Host: Mr. Stermer And then, I don't I'm trying to remember I don't think I have, Stacy, I don't think I have your bio yet. I definitely don't. 00;38;36;10 - 00;38;41;24 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Have my bio, but not a picture. Okay, so I think I got mine, too. 00;38;41;26 - 00;38;59;24 Host: Mr. Stermer Okay. Yeah. So just, a quick bio, and then a headshot photo that you are okay with us using. If you can just put those on the team site as well. That will be all that we need to do this. I think our goal is to have this one out around the 9th of February. 00;38;59;24 - 00;39;16;19 Host: Mr. Stermer If I or the seventh, whatever that date is on that bridge. That that first week in February, we're going to try to have this wrapped up. I usually don't send out, I don't usually send out a preview of it, before it goes out public, but as soon as we have it ready, we'll let you know. 00;39;16;19 - 00;39;43;20 Host: Mr. Stermer And then if there are particular organizations other than cash com, or Western Hemisphere Command or whoever that you would like, that you think that, you want to tag in on the social media? If you can just send those to us as well? I don't know if, I don't know if PMO has its own, website and stuff, and I'm sure it's at least got a sub tab on the cash comm site. 00;39;43;20 - 00;39;52;11 Host: Mr. Stermer But if there are any of those that you would like to, to have included and tagged in so that we can make sure that it hits them on the social media. Please go ahead and do that. 00;39;52;11 - 00;39;53;16 Speaker 3 Slash your own personal. 00;39;53;16 - 00;40;13;02 Host: Mr. Stermer And or your own personal ones as well. Well, yeah, we, we are we are struggling. I'm not going to blame it on individual person, but I in my head, I am, to be able to to get us out to the widest audience. So we're really trying to do as much as we can to try to, like, pull from folks so that we can do a better job of distribution. 00;40;13;02 - 00;40;20;07 Host: Mr. Stermer So do you guys have any other questions or final comments? Before you drop off? 00;40;20;09 - 00;40;22;01 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson I don't think we're good with. 00;40;22;03 - 00;40;35;20 Host: Mr. Stermer All right. Hey, I really appreciate your time. I think the podcast going to come out pretty good. Like I said, it'd probably be about a month before you hear it. We're trying to finish up one that we have now. Like I said, our goal is usually to get these out, the first Friday of each month. 00;40;35;20 - 00;40;55;03 Host: Mr. Stermer And yours is the one that we've got scheduled to go out in February. So about that time, you'll probably see a note from me, announcing it. And it'll go out on we distribute it through damage but ended up going out on Apple Podcast. It goes out on Spotify, Spotify, it's on the David site. It's on YouTube. 00;40;55;06 - 00;41;09;06 Host: Mr. Stermer And then we usually social media put it out on LinkedIn, Facebook and some other stuff. So we'll make sure that you see all those, and then you can kind of distribute it out to as many folks as you can. Thanks, gentlemen. I appreciate your time today. 00;41;09;08 - 00;41;15;24 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Yeah. Thanks. 00;41;15;27 - 00;41;17;12 Host: Mr. Stermer All right. Intros, outros. 00;41;17;14 - 00;41;21;28 Speaker 3 And your. Did you want the transcript to get going? 00;41;22;01 - 00;41;28;11 Host: Mr. Stermer Well, we want the recording to keep the owner to you. Recording? 00;41;28;13 - 00;41;48;28 Host: Mr. Stermer Unit movement. Officer Yamo. Thank you. Collaboration. At this point, I'm going to have you guys say a couple phrases. And then page is probably got a few more that she's going to hit you with. Stace, can you say Division transportation office? 00;41;49;01 - 00;41;52;11 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Division. Transportation office. 00;41;52;13 - 00;41;55;13 Host: Mr. Stermer Deployment readiness exercise. 00;41;55;15 - 00;41;57;18 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Employment readiness. Exercise. 00;41;57;21 - 00;42;00;14 Host: Mr. Stermer Tabletop exercise. 00;42;00;16 - 00;42;02;17 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Tabletop exercise. 00;42;02;19 - 00;42;15;05 Host: Mr. Stermer And then, for James, can you say, Transformation and lessons learn. Managers. 00;42;15;08 - 00;42;18;29 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Transformation and lesson learned managers. 00;42;19;01 - 00;42;21;20 Host: Mr. Stermer Okay. And then page, do you have some more that need. 00;42;21;20 - 00;42;23;24 Speaker 3 To I do I'll do. 00;42;23;26 - 00;42;25;24 Host: Mr. Stermer Can you guys hear her okay. 00;42;25;26 - 00;42;26;22 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Yeah okay. 00;42;26;25 - 00;42;32;02 Speaker 3 I'll do I'll have James go first. Has to be driven. 00;42;32;05 - 00;42;37;04 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Has to be driven. Usually, usually. 00;42;37;07 - 00;42;40;04 Speaker 3 Make that into everyday operations. 00;42;40;07 - 00;42;42;08 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Make that into everyday operation. 00;42;42;12 - 00;42;47;26 Speaker 3 Perfect. And then, Stacy, for you, I have whole army. 00;42;47;29 - 00;42;49;07 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson All army. 00;42;49;10 - 00;42;51;01 Speaker 3 Whole army. 00;42;51;04 - 00;42;53;12 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson All army. Okay. 00;42;53;15 - 00;43;16;09 Speaker 3 And then so this is a little more than just a restatement you kind of cut out when you were explaining, your CI toolkit. If you could briefly in the one sentence, just restate yourself. We had, like, a weird speaker flourish for that. So if you could reintroduce your, your tool, that would be most appreciated. 00;43;16;11 - 00;43;19;25 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Oh, the voice looks. 00;43;19;27 - 00;43;21;12 Speaker 3 In the eye one good. 00;43;21;15 - 00;43;24;29 Host: Mr. Stermer No no no. Yeah. The I when you have this would you say SDC. 00;43;25;00 - 00;43;25;23 Speaker 3 CIA. 00;43;25;23 - 00;43;27;05 Host: Mr. Stermer CIA. 00;43;27;07 - 00;43;34;20 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You, 00;43;34;22 - 00;43;42;22 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson May have to send that to you because it's the sustainment, enterprise. 00;43;42;24 - 00;44;08;27 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson For those that don't know what they mean, it's a tool. It's available on the Cars.com website. If you go to the the cast on main page, you actually see a link to it. What they've done is they, they're using, tools like vantage, to build in, for supply, maintenance, deployment and the like, various modules that you can download. 00;44;08;29 - 00;44;30;08 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson I may have the terminology a little off, but so if you want something to track like main assets or if you want to track, you know, people that are planning, chances are there is a module that you can go in, all your savings accounts, you can actually pull that module over. It'll populate your data once you get it. 00;44;30;15 - 00;44;49;17 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Set up. Yeah. And then you can actually use it, without having to go through a whole process of, you know, creating something new or doing it on something that is basiCALLy static, like Excel or PowerPoint or like, yeah, I'll hold it up. It's the same estimation dashboard tools. 00;44;49;19 - 00;44;50;00 Host: Mr. Stermer Okay. 00;44;50;00 - 00;44;52;15 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Perfect. I think you said that's excellent. 00;44;52;15 - 00;44;58;03 Speaker 3 I have one more. Oh, Stacy, if you could also say artificial intelligence. 00;44;58;06 - 00;44;59;24 Guest: Mr. Lee/Swenson Artificial intelligence. Perfect.