United States Army
January 25, 2015
TRADOC commander visits Allied Spirit I in Hohenfels, Germany
By Capt. Christopher Bradley, Joint Multinational Readiness Center
HOHENFELS, Germany: U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, Commander Gen. David Perkins visited here to observe Exercise Allied Spirit I and share his vision on the Army’s new operating concept, or OC, ‘Win in a complex world,’ Jan. 25.
Perkins visited with Soldiers from all five nations participating in the exercise, and discussed leader development, training and the challenges inherent in multinational interoperability.
During a visit to the 1st Mercian Battalion from the United Kingdom, Lt. Col. Mark Ellwood, battalion commander, stated that training exercises like Allied Spirit provide freedom for commanders to try new solutions to military problems, and work leader development at every level.
…
More than 2,000 participants from Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States are participating in the exercise through Jan. 31.
Allied Spirit I is designed to provide multinational interoperability training at brigade and battalion levels to enhance U.S. and alliance effectiveness.
Perkins had the opportunity to elaborate on this idea and discuss the Army’s new operating concept in a question and answer session with the staff and observer coach trainers of the Joint Multinational Readiness Center, which is headquartered at Hohenfels.
The TRADOC’s job is to ask the really big questions, and the Army’s operating concept provides a framework for us to answer those questions going into the future, Perkins said.
The Army and its sister services are responsible for “synchronizing and delivering national power” to “seize, retain and exploit the initiative and maintain relative advantage over all enemies,” Perkins said.