Army Force Management School, Part V

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The instructors teaching the Army Force Management Course are contractors. Each is an employee of a company called L3-MPRI, a division of L-3 Communications Corporation, and each is a retired Army officer with an advanced degree. Each probably has more than 30 years experience in the Army if you combine their service time with their experience afterwards as defense contractors.

I learned this morning that one of the instructors is a retired signal officer, Dr. Gregory Hamlett. Dr. Hamlett recognized right off the bat that I was from Fort Gordon and wanted to know if I worked in the towers (Signal Towers). I am hoping I will get an opportunity to have a conversation with him later in the course to get his thoughts on signal doctrine. He taught two classes this morning, the requirements validation and approval process and materiel development roles and missions.

A lot was thrown at us today. In addition to Dr. Hamlett's classes, we learned about materiel acquisition strategies and contracting; the materiel oversight and review process; and two courses on materiel acquisition, pre-systems acquisition and systems acquisition and sustainment.

Tomorrow afternoon we are expecting the director of materiel from the Army G-8 Force Development staff to come speak to us.