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7th WTB brings officer education to Camp Bondsteel

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Maj. Erick Vega, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, and Cpt. Melvin Arreaga, Bayamon, Puerto Rico, both of the Puerto Rico National Guard, work together on a case study of the countries involved in the 1956 Suez Crisis using the Ends-Ways-Means methodology during Intermediate Level Education, Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, Sept. 30. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Jorge I. Medina-Cintron, Puerto Rico National Guard)

Lt. Col. David R. Craine, Geneva, Ohio, 7th Warrior Training Brigade, explains to the class the concept of the National security strategy concept flow and the relationship between national and military strategy, during Intermediate Level Education, Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo, Oct. 7. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Jorge I. Medina-Cintron, Puerto Rico National Guard)

October 25, 2010
Lt. Col. Vincent Buggs, 7th Warrior Training Brigade

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo – The 7th Warrior Training Brigade, from Grafenwoehr, Germany, conducted Intermediate Level Education training Sept. 24 to Oct. 4 at Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo.
 

The 7th WTB is an Army Reserve command, which is comprised of three instructors and one intern, is aligned with Joint Multinational Training Center in Grafenwohr, Germany, and 7th Civil Support Command, in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
 

Lt. Col. David Craine, 7th WTB commander, of Geneva, Ohio, has facilitated a new concept in operational teaching of field grade officers.
 

“Our goal is to provide first class training wherever the Soldier is conducting missions,” Craine said. “It is much more cost effective and efficient to take a handful of instructors to the students than the conventional way of doing business”.
 

“The key was getting buy-in from Command and General Staff College located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas” Craine said. “We were able to coordinate with their quality assurance team and during one of our earliest rotations they accompanied us into theater and accredited the classroom.”
 

ILE is a graduate level course for senior captains and majors that meet certain criteria. The biggest hurdle is accessing CGSC’s Blackboard site.
 

“I have taught the ILE course for over 5 years from conventional school house platforms like Grafenwoehr and Fort Dix, N.J., to remote locations in rural Maine to Kosovo,” Craine said.
 

“A big challenge is the connectivity. Once you bridge that, we are ready to go, wherever the Soldiers need us,” Craine said. “I believe it is key to ensuring our fellow deployed officers continue their educational goals even down range.”
 

Distance Learning is available, but CGSC focuses on the experiential learning model and that is hard to replicate through distance learning. As the Army continues to become a truly expeditionary force, we too as instructors must adapt into Mobile Training Teams and provide the best training for the war fighter no matter what the location.”
 

The training has been proven with great results that Soldiers should not have to defer their education due to deployment.

This mission in Kosovo was a fully integrated Army Component mission; the active component provided facilities, Army Reserve provided instructors and National Guard and Army Reserved Soldiers received the education.
 

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