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home > July 16, 2007 issue > article
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| Photography by Gary Landsman |
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| Steven Boutelle |
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Education key to readiness
By Retired Lt. Gen. Steven W. Boutelle
Special to Defense Systems
Education of our force needs to start at the beginning, even before young people enter the services
Educating our men and women, both civilian and military, is absolutely key to Army readiness and our future capabilities. As defense resources decline, funds for educating our force will be more important than ever.
At Fort Gordon, Ga., we have revamped the entire LandWarNet University, spending about $51 million over the past 18 months. We have added 51 temporary classrooms, and are now converting classrooms to an everything-over-IP environment. All services are involved. Fort Gordon is a joint IP environment of routers, switches, voice over IP and secure video teleconferencing. It is the home of the Joint Satellite School where the new Joint Communications Planner’s course is taught to officers, warrant officers and senior noncommissioned officers serving on Joint staffs.
Technology in our business continues to accelerate, thus denying the opportunity for soldiers to return to Fort Gordon each time a new version of an operating system or router is released. Part of our recent investment was building a robust online e-learning and simulation program. Now, soldiers deployed around the world can go online to LandWarNet University and get training on new systems, devices and commercial upgrades to routers, switches, operating systems, and other systems. Training is available to all Defense Department members.
Our Army e-Learning Program has proven extremely popular, with more than 450,000 Army users registered. More than 2,600 free Web-based courses are available. We have 30 Rosetta Stone foreign-language courses with more than 88,000 Army members registered. Currently, 26,000 are taking classes on information assurance, TCP/IP, firewalls and Lean Six Sigma courses.
When enlisted soldiers complete an e-learning class, the system automatically records their completion and forwards the results to the Army Human Resources Command for promotion points — as well as retirement points for Army Reservists.
Under the Army Knowledge Leaders program, the chief information officer annually selects about a half-dozen of the best civilian college graduates in software and electrical engineering. They are placed in a two-year civil-service program with accelerated promotions. We move them around the world and teach them about the Army. We are producing a lot of superstars for the next generation of leaders, and they are in high demand.
Our senior Army leaders, unlike younger soldiers, have not grown up with IT. They especially need to understand the network and the networked battlefield because they make decisions about IT and allocate resources.
Two years ago, the Army chief of staff began requiring senior leaders to attend a battle command workshop. We teach them about information technology on the battlefield, how the cyberfight affects the kinetic fight, and how the military and our adversaries apply IT.
So far, we have graduated 360 Army and Marine Corps generals, Navy flag officers and members of the Senior Executive Service.
We must ensure that all our soldiers and civilians keep learning to meet the needs of the country and to maintain a competitive edge in the global marketplace.
Boutelle, who served as the Army’s chief information officer since 2003, retired from the service June 21.
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