1. Train the Force I
Introduce the class by discussing Training, its importance to the success of the army. This lesson will first focus on the principles that drive the training throughout the Army.

2. Army's Strategic Responsibilities
In an era of complex national security requirements, the Army's strategic responsibilities now embrace a wider range of missions that present even greater challenges in our training environment. In the strategic environment, operations may include combined arms, joint, interagency, and multinational considerations. These operations require the Army to train to be a part of joint, interagency, and multinational considerations, and military operations other than war.

3. Three Domains
Training is a team effort and the entire Army has a role that contributes to force readiness.
The Army uses the Leader Development Model for training, which include three domains:
INSTITUTIONAL DOMAIN, which is conducted in the Army's Schools and Training Centers
OPERATIONAL DOMAIN, which is conducted in the Unit and
SELF-DEVELOPMENT DOMAIN, which is conducted individually
THE INSTITUTIONAL DOMAIN is composed of two types of training.
Initial Military Training (IMT) provides the basic skills, knowledge, and task proficiency to become a soldier who can contribute and survive on the battlefield.
Professional Military Education develops Army leaders. Officer, warrant officer, and NCO training and education is a continuous, career-long, learning process.

4. Operational Domain
The OPERATIONAL DOMAIN covers soldier and leader training in the unit.
The unit commander is responsible for the wartime readiness of all elements in the formation. The commander is therefore the primary trainer of the organization.
The professional NCO Corps is responsible for the individual training of soldiers, crews, and small teams.
The unit is responsible for improving and sustaining unit task proficiency.
The operational mission and major training events develop leader, individual soldier, and unit readiness.

5. Self-Development Domain
The SELF-DEVELOPMENT DOMAIN addresses the life-long learning process. Institutional and operational training alone cannot provide the insight, intuition, imagination, and judgment needed in combat. In no other profession is the cost of being unprepared so high.
Share with students the distributed opportunities that will help them develop themselves.

6. Principles of Training
Commanders are Responsible for Training
NCOs Train Individuals, Crews and Small Teams
Train as a Combined Arms and Joint Team
Train for Combat Proficiency
Train to Standard Using Appropriate Doctrine
Train to Adapt
Train to Maintain and Sustain
Train Using Multiechelon Techniques
Train to Sustain Proficiency
Train and Develop Leaders
The principles of training are:
Commanders are responsible for training.
The commanders are responsible for the training and performance of their soldiers and units. They are the primary training managers and trainers for their organization.
Be present at training to maximum extent possible.
Base training on mission requirements.
Train to applicable Army standards.
Assess current levels of proficiency.
Provide the required resources.
Develop and execute training plans that result in proficient individuals, leaders, and units.
NCOs train individuals, crews, and small teams.
The NCO is responsible for continuing the soldierization process of newly assigned enlisted soldiers.
Identify specific tasks that support the unit’s collective mission essential tasks.
Plan, prepare, rehearse, and execute training.
Evaluate training and conduct AARs to provide feedback to the commander on individual, crew, and small team proficiency.
Train as a Combined Arms and Joint Team
Through force tailored organizations (task organized), commanders and their staffs integrate and synchronize the battlefield systems to achieve combined arms effects and accomplish the mission.
Leaders must regularly practice habitually associated combat arms, combat support, and combat service support capabilities.
Teams can only achieve combined arms proficiency and cohesiveness when they train together.
Train for Combat Proficiency
Realistic
Performance-Oriented

7. Train to Sustain Proficiency
Range of Proficiency
CTC
Rotation or
AT Period
EXEVAL
FTX
UCOFT
TEWT
FCX
Band of Excellence
Sustained Mean
STX
JANUS
CCTT
Improvement
Train to Sustain Proficiency
Sustainment training enables units to operate in a Band of Excellence through appropriate repetition of critical tasks.
Once proficiency is attained, leaders must structure training plans to retrain critical tasks at the minimum frequency necessary to sustain proficiency.
Sustainment training is the key to maintaining unit proficiency through personnel turbulence and operational deployments.
The Band of Excellence is the range of proficiency within which a unit is capable of executing its wartime METL tasks
Unsustained Mean
Sustained
Unsustained
SASO Deployment
Personnel Turbulence
Time

8. Battle Focus
A critical aspect of the battle focus concept is to understand the responsibility for and the linkage between the collective mission essential tasks and the individual tasks that support them. The diagram on the screen depicts the relationships.
The commander and the CSM or 1SG must jointly coordinated the collective mission essential tasks and individual training tasks on which the unit will concentrate its efforts during a given period.
The commander assigns to officers the primary responsibility for collective training, and to NCOs the primary responsibility for individual, crew, and small team training.
The Top-Down/Bottom-Up Approach to Training is used to ensure that training is coordinated through the unit, and that senior leaders receive feedback about what training is needed.
The guiding principle of Army training is battle focus, which means deriving peacetime training requirements from assigned and anticipated missions.

9. Army Training Management Cycle
METL: a mission essential task is a collective task in which an organization must be proficient to accomplish its wartime mission.
All units company level and above, develop a METL.
MTOE and TDA detachments organized with a commander, develop a METL.
A Joint force commander develops a Joint METL using the Universal Joint Task List.
Commanders establish a METL for directed missions, such as humanitarian assistance. In this case, where non-standard tasks are involved, the commander establishes tasks, conditions, and standards using lessons learned, mission guidance and professional judgment.
Developing the METL, and identifying the available resources, are the beginning of the Army Training Management cycle.

10. Train the Force METL

11. The Army METL Shape the security environment
Respond promptly to crisis
Mobilize the Army
Conduct forcible entry operations
Dominate land operations
Provide support to civil authorities
Army organizations cannot achieve and sustain proficiency on every possible training task. The commander must identify those tasks that are essential to the accomplishment of the unit’s wartime operational mission; this is the Mission Essential Task List, or METL. For example, this is the Army's METL.
What does a Battle Focused METL do for us?
Identifies those tasks that are essential to the accomplishment of the unit’s wartime operational mission
Provides the foundation for the unit’s training program
Who develops a METL?
All company level and above units develop a METL that is approved by its designated wartime commander.
Why have a METL development process?
Reduces the number of tasks the organization must train
Focuses the organization's training efforts on the most important collective training tasks required to accomplish the mission
Enables subordinate commanders and key NCOs to crosswalk collective, leader and individual tasks to the mission.
Leads to "buy-in" and commitment of unit leaders to the organization’s training plan.

12. The METL Development Process
Inputs
The METL development process is as follows:
The commander collects the required inputs as they apply to the unit's circumstances. These inputs provide the total list of possible training tasks.
The commander analyzes these inputs, taking into account higher commanders' guidance and subordinate commanders' analysis, and identifies the critical warfighting tasks.
Upon the higher commander's approval, this results in the METL, which is the final list of tasks critical for mission accomplishment.
Discuss with the Cadets how the Inputs are used to develop the METL – give some practical examples from your own experience.
Show or describe your unit’s METL Development Process.

13. The five METL fundamentals are:
Derive the METL from the organization's wartime plans and external guidance.
The METL must apply to the entire organization. It should not include tasks assigned solely to subordinate organizations.
Each organization's METL must support and complement the METL of higher headquarters.
The availability of resources does not affect METL development. The METL is an unconstrained statement of the tasks required to accomplish wartime missions.
Commanders direct operations and integrate the BOS through plans and orders. The BOS are the physical means used to accomplish the mission.
The METL provides the foundation for the organization's training plans. After the METL is approved, the next step is for the Command Sergeant Major or First Sergeant, in conjunction with the key NCOs, to develop a supporting individual task list for each mission essential task. The commander is responsible for developing a training strategy that will maintain unit proficiency for all tasks designated as mission essential
After review and approval of the organizations' METL, the senior commander selects battle tasks. A battle task is a mission essential task that is so critical that its accomplishment will determine the success of the next higher organization's mission essential task.

14. METL Development Process – (Sample)
Brigade Mission
At C-day, H-hour, Brigade deploys: On order, conducts combat operations assigned by higher headquarters.
Brigade Tasks
The METL provides the foundation for the organization's training plans.
The commander is responsible for developing a training strategy that will maintain unit proficiency for all tasks designated as mission essential.
NCOs develop a supporting individual task list for each mission essential task.
Directed Missions:
When a unit is directed to conduct a mission other than its assigned wartime operational mission, the training management cycle still applies. The commander still conducts mission analysis: (example based on a future stability operation)

15. METL Development Process (sample)
Brigade METL
Brigade Staff METL
All METL tasks are equally essential to ensure mission accomplishment.
All tasks may not require equal training time or resources.
The commander allocates resources to ensure the organization’s METL proficiency remains within the Band of Excellence.
Check on previous learning:
Ask the Cadets to remind you what the Band of Excellence is - The Band of Excellence is the range of proficiency within which a unit is capable of executing its wartime METL tasks

16. Training Objectives
After mission essential tasks are selected, commanders identify supporting training objectives for each task. The resulting training objective consists of—
Task: Clearly defined & measurable activity
Condition: Circumstances & environment
Standard: Minimum acceptable level of proficiency

17. Battle Tasks
After review and approval of subordinate organizations' METL, the senior commander selects battle tasks.
A battle task is:
a staff or subordinate organization mission essential task that is so critical that its accomplishment will determine the success of the next higher organization's mission essential task
Battle Tasks are -
Selected by the senior commander
Selected for each METL
Integrate the BOS
Highest priority for resources
*Note: Detachment METLs may become battle tasks for higher level commands (Battalion through Theater Army)

18. Division Battle Tasks (sample)

19. The commander uses two inputs to start the training planning process: the METL and the training assessment. The training assessment compares the organization's current level of training proficiency with the desired level of war-fighting proficiency.
The commander, assisted by staff, then develops the training vision, goals and priorities. The commander then develops a training strategy to accomplish each training requirement. This strategy is then refined into specific training plans.

20. Training Plans Three Types: Fundamentals: Long-range Planning
Short-range
Near-term
Active Component (AC)
1 – 10 yrs or more
Quarterly
6 – 8 Weeks
Reserve Component (RC)
2 – 5 yrs or more
Annually
4 Months
Fundamentals:
All three types of training plans share the same fundamentals. Properly developed training plans will:
Maintain a consistent battle focus
Be coordinated with habitually task organized supporting organizations
Focus on the correct time horizon
Be concerned with future proficiency
Incorporate risk management
Establish organizational stability
Make the most efficient use of resources
Commanders identify tasks that support the METL. The training assessment compares the organization's current level of training proficiency with the desired level of war-fighting proficiency. This desired level is defined in MTPs and other doctrinal literature.
The Commander must determine the current proficiency level of the unit and consider any external influences that may affect unit proficiency (i.e. turnover, etc.) as part of the planning process. He then compares the organization's current task proficiency with the Army standard. The commander uses subordinate input in making the final determination of the organization's current proficiency on each task (figure 4-2). Commanders assess current METL task proficiency by rating each task as—
"T" (trained)—The unit is trained and has demonstrated its proficiency in accomplishing the task to wartime standards.
"P" (needs practice)—The unit needs to practice the task. Performance has demonstrated that the unit does not achieve the standard without some difficulty or has failed to perform some task steps to standard.
"U" (untrained)—The unit cannot demonstrate an ability to achieve wartime.
Maintain a consistent battle focus
Be coordinated with habitually task organized supporting organizations
Focus on the correct time horizon
Be concerned with future proficiency
Incorporate risk management
Establish organizational stability
Make the most efficient use of resources

21. Now, the commander must make preparation for training. This includes:
Select the tasks to be trained
Plan the training
Ensure the trainers are trained
Perform a recon of the training site
Conduct a risk assessment
Issue the training plan
Rehearse and conduct pre-execution checks.
Provide examples of things the Cadets should consider for the Example METL we showed earlier.

22. Training is normally executed using the crawl-walk-run approach.
In crawl-walk-run training, the tasks and the standards remain the same; however, the conditions under which they are trained change.
Progression from the walk to the run stage for a particular task may occur during a one-day training exercise or may require a succession of training periods over time.
Properly presented and executed training is
Realistic
Safe
Accurate
Well structured
Efficient
Effective.
An After Action Review is immediately conducted after any training.
Commanders and Senior Leaders have a special role during training execution. As much as possible, they should personally observe and provide guidance during training events. The most beneficial senior commander and staff visits to training are unannounced or short notice, so that they can observe training as experienced by soldiers, and prevent excessive visitor preparation.
NCOs are responsible for individual skill training, as well as crew and small team training. They are also responsible for cross training. The NCOs also are charged with providing the first-line feedback on training, which is crucial to keeping a unit's level of proficiency within the Band of Excellence.
The recovery process is an extension of training, and once completed, it signifies the end of the training event. Recovery includes conduct of maintenance training, turn-in of training support items, and the conduct of AARs that review the overall effectiveness of the training just completed to enhance future training. Recovery from training is complete when the unit is again prepared to conduct its assigned wartime mission.

23. Training evaluations are a critical component of any training assessment. Evaluations measure the demonstrated ability of soldiers, commanders, leaders, battle staffs, and units against the Army standard.
All training must be evaluated to measure performance levels against the established Army standard.
Evaluations can be done in several ways, or in a combination of ways.
Informal evaluations are typically done during the training.
Formal evaluations are pre-scheduled with dedicated evaluators.
Internal evaluations are conducted by the organization itself.
External evaluations are conducted by a headquarters higher in the chain of command, or outside the chain of command.

24. The After Action Review, or AAR, is a structured review process that allows participating soldiers, leaders, and units to discover for themselves what happened during the training, why it happened, and how it can be done better.
The AAR consists of four parts:
A review of what was supposed to happen, according to the training plans
The establishment of what actually happened during performance of the training task
The determination of what was right or wrong with what happened
The determination of how the task should be done differently the next time.
Remind the Cadets about the following regarding
the AAR:
Is a structured process
A professional discussion
Is not a critique
Is derived from METL based training objectives
Emphasizes meeting the standard (vs. success or failure)
Encourages self-discovery of lessons learned in the event (uses leading questions…)
Allows large groups for maximum learning.

25. How to Conduct a Training Meeting

26. Company Training Meetings
Training meetings are non-negotiable—they are key to near-term planning.
Training meetings create the bottom-up flow of information regarding specific training proficiency needs of the small unit, staff, and individual soldier.
Training meetings are planned and appear on the training schedule.

27. Training Meeting Objectives
Phase I - Assessment
Phase II - Coordination
Phase III - Future Planning

28. Training Meeting Participants
Company Commander
Executive Officer
First Sergeant
Platoon Leaders
Platoon Sergeants
Training NCO
Maintenance Team Chief
Supply Sergeant
NBC NCO
Food Service Sergeant
Slice leaders/ Attachments
Others designated by the Cdr

29. Training Meeting Agenda
Assessment
Completed Training (Previous Week)
Platoon Assessments Given
Training Shortfalls Addressed
METL Updated
Identify Tasks to Be Retrained
Coordination
Near Term Training (4-6 Weeks Out)
Command Guidance (New or Unscheduled Requirements)
Pre-Execution Check Review
Future Planning
Short Range Training (3 Months Out)
Platoon Leader/Platoon Sgt. Input
Review Battalion Long and Short Range Calendar
Review / Highlight Applicable Training Guidance

30. Training Schedule Requirements
Day and Time Training Starts and Ends
Soldiers to Be Trained
Subject to Be Trained (Soldier, Leader, Collective Tasks)
Location of Training
Trainers, by Name
Training References
Uniform and Equipment Required
Comments and Remarks (e.g. Opportunity TNG, Safety)

31. Training Event Worksheet
Training Schedule Information
Activity or Event
Target date and time
Location
Trainers
Text references
Uniform and Equipment
Reason for training
Supports METL task
Supports platoon collective task
Current training assessment
Coordination
Training area
TADSS availability
Class I/III/V
Other

32. Preparation for Training
Prepare yourself for training
Know the task
Rehearse, on site if possible
Make training hands on
Prepare the resources
Training aids
Get equipment
Prepare support personnel
Support personnel know their mission
Evaluators/OC’s know roles
Prepare the soldier
Who will be trained
Assess proficiency
Prerequisites
Task/condition/standard

33. Training Meeting Focus