Posted on 04/20/2017 9:02:00 AM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA -- As the future of warfare continues to evolve, on a local level, it’s nice to know that one thing is certain: “the future looks bright” at Fort Huachuca.
These words were shared by Gen. Mark Milley, the 39th Army chief of staff, during yesterday’s visit to the Fort.
“(Fort Huachuca) is the heart and soul of our intelligence community,” he said.
Milley’s visit, which he said was initiated by U.S. Rep Martha McSally, was established so that he could gain a better understanding of Fort Huachuca’s mission and role within the Army as well as an opportunity to get a better perspective of the unique operational environment including its maintained airspace.
“For many months, I’ve been badgering him, ‘You’ve got to get to Fort Huachuca and see the Fort in its current role’. I wanted him to see what a national treasure the Fort is,” McSally said.
In addition to supporting the Army, the Fort serves as home to training and operations for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), military intelligence with the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, and cyber-security with the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM)/9th Army Signal Command. Fort Huachuca also serves as the headquarters for the Army Military Radio System, the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) and the Electronic Proving Ground (EPG).
“[The visit] is recognition that missions here are critical to the Army,” said Sierra Vista Mayor Rick Mueller.
Before arriving at the Fort, Milley visited Mesa and Tucson to tour the Arizona Cyber Warfare Range, the Boeing facility and Raytheon. In addition touring those areas, Milley also visited U.S. Army Materiel Command in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama and Anniston Army Depot in Anniston, Alabama.
Milley, a native of Winchester, Massachusetts, assumed his current duty on Aug. 14, 2015. Prior to that, he served as the 21st Commander of U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
During his tour, Milley had the opportunity to sit down with men and women from various fields and training at the Fort.
“Profound, just profound…” Lt. Matthew Bruns, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania said of his interaction with Milley. “I’ve never even spoken to a general before, let alone, a 4-star general. It’s a big deal.”
Milley also touched upon the importance of his tour of the Fort in terms of the evolution of warfare and readiness -- both current and future outlooks.
He said, though the future is never known, he felt with a high degree of certainty that based on the fact that it’s estimated there will be 8 billion people on the planet, the terrain waged in warfare will be more of that in highly-dense urban areas. And with that in mind, he hopes to optimize training for those environments as well as other technological avenues including utilizing unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) such as “flying down an alleyway”.
Milley also offered praise to NETCOM, the Army’s single information technology service provider for all network communications. McSally echoed his sentiments and said that she was optimistic in the future of the Fort as well and the opportunities for growth.
“To be able to have the general here, boots on the ground, he can get a firsthand look at what we do here,” said Tanja M. Linton, media relations officer for the Fort Huachuca Public Affairs Office.
Before his departure, Milley recognized Fort Huachuca soldiers at Libby Airfield by presenting each with challenge coins.
“I just did my job...that’s all,” said Sgt. Erika Davis, who calls Dallas, Texas her home, of receiving a challenge coin. “But, it was an amazing experience.”
I remember in 2001 when the Army CoS Shinsheki visited the 101st in 2001 for our Division Warfighter AAR. He said he attended because he put that much importance on Warfighter exercises.
All I could think was here was the guy responsible for making the US Army wear the Monica Berets.
I really liked Sierra Vista.
Made some very good Ham Op friends there years ago.
And nobody has found the secret gold yet as far as we know.
since when was there a 39th Army?
Trained at Holabird just before USAINTS moved to huachuca.
Good to see some positive feedback on the Fort.
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