Gen. Abrams: 'We're not very good at our fundamentals'

The images seemed out of place Wednesday morning as Gen. Robert B. "Abe" Abrams addressed the crowd at the second day of the Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning.

But the general was making his point visually as well as verbally.

After showing slides of soldiers and strategic alignments, a slide popped up on the PowerPoint presentation of a coach working with a Little League baseball player on hitting and fielding.

Abrams, who recently took over the U.S. Army Forces Command, was crystal clear in his message to about 2,000 soldiers in McGinnis-Wickam Hall.

"At its core we are not very good at our fundamentals," Abrams said. "We are not providing the time for our subordinates to, a). learn what right looks like; we are not showing them what right looks like; and we are not giving them the opportunity to practice what right looks like."

He then referenced the Little League coaching photos.

"This is exactly what we need to have happen to revitalize our tank/gunnery program, our small arms program, our machine gunnery programs," Abrams said.

There are reasons, and Abrams alluded to them.

"We have spent the last 14 years working on other things," he said of the ongoing fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But that does not mean the Army can continue to ignore basic fundamentals, Abrams said. He then repeated the doctrine that states commanders are responsible for training company-level units and below on individual and small-unit skills.

"Who is responsible for training their units? Commanders," Abrams said.

It is all about leadership development, a theme that has run through the Warfighter Conference.

And Abrams was clear about the best way to develop those young leaders, again turning to a baseball analogy.

"The best way to train leaders is to keep throwing them curve balls," Abrams said.

And those curve balls must come in practice as well as in combat.

"We can't hold a commander responsible for things they are not trained or prepared to do," Abrams said.

There will be more battalion-level, live-fire exercises in the coming year, Abrams said.

"We have gotten a little risk adverse on live-fire exercises," Abrams said. " We need to make safety and risk a commander's business and not a bureaucrat's."

That sentiment drew strong support from the audience.

"We need to put artillery in where commanders can see the affects of artillery," Abrams said.

Addressing the conference via video link from his post in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. James Rainey, former commandant of the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, said training was an art form.

"The young folks today are smarter and more comfortable with adversity," Rainey said. "If we give them the time and resources -- and show them what right looks like -- we are going to be just fine."

Rainey, making light of his criminal justice degree from Eastern Kentucky University, pointed out it was development that creates leaders.

"I don't think it is all about IQ and college pedigree," Rainey said. "Good leaders are dedicated to self-development. Intellectual humility is more important than IQ. You have to humble yourself and know you can learn something from a private or an Afghan officer."

For the second consecutive day, a recent Maneuver Center of Excellence commander came back to address the conference. Lt. Gen. Bob Brown, responsible for Army leadership development and currently commanding general of the United States Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, talked about the human element Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who left his command at Fort Benning about 15 months ago, is now director, Army Capabilities Integration Center and Deputy Commanding General, Futures, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. He talked Wednesday about leadership in the Army of the future.

"You have to be able to think ahead of where they are," McMaster said of the enemy. "You have to be thinking ahead in time and space and ask yourself what is going to change."

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 5:11 PM with the headline "Gen. Abrams: 'We're not very good at our fundamentals' ."