Boutelle relays messages of Army's senior leaders, talks about future of Regiment

Army Communicator, Winter, 2003 by Ryan Matson

Two Signal Corps leaders spoke at this year's Signal Symposium, Dec. 3, in Alexander Hall.

LTG Steven Boutelle, United States Army chief information officer, G-6, and MG James Bryan, director of Signal Corps Transformation for the Department of the Army, Chief Information Office, G-6, both talked about the Army's senior leadership and visions for the future of the Signal Corps.

In his 58-minute speech, Boutelle talked about a wide range of topics--satellites, consolidating servers, basic training, the ongoing threat of global terrorism, but focused mainly on the new Army Chief of Staff, GEN Peter Schoomaker, and where he sees the Army going under his leadership.

"What I thought I would do is bring you in on where the chief is taking us, and what's happening in our Army," Boutelle said.

He said that since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Army staff has transformed.

"For relevancy we have to change," Boutelle said. "Fact: people don't like change, they like to operate within their zone of comfort. Some of you aren't going to like what we're doing. That's OK, if you don't like it, you can find a better place to be, because if we don't change, we're irrelevant."

Schoomaker's changes will come rapidly, Boutelle said.

"Any new boss who comes in, he takes three to six months, puts his plan together, and the next three and a half years executing," he said.

"We're about two months into this new boss and he's laid out his 15-plus-one imperatives."

Boutelle said the Army is undergoing the challenging process of balancing resources between providing what the warfighters need in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places and still making the smart decisions of knowing where to invest in the future.

When looking at the new senior leadership of the Army, Boutelle pointed out many similarities. First, Boutelle noted, they are mostly new to their positions.

"There's a common thread that runs through most of that group up there," Boutelle said as he pointed to a slide with the Chief of Staff of the Army and his support staff. "Not any one up there, with the exception of the G-8 has been there more than six months, actually four months."

"The second is that those people who were brought in, mostly are light fighters and special forces people. Schoomaker retired as the commander of the Special Operations Command in 1999."

Boutelle said he sees the new Chief of Staff as a person who returned to duty due to concern and a sense that he could provide urgent help.

"He picked up his cell phone and somebody asked him, 'How would you like to be Chief of Staff of the Army?'" Boutelle said. "How'd you like to get that phone call after being out of the Army for four years?"

"He did not come back to self-actualize, he did not come back for a promotion, he didn't come back with his own agenda. He came back because he believes the nation is at risk. He will tell you that his greatest fear is that he looks out his nice bay window there from quarters one and sees a mushroom-shaped cloud over Washington."

One of the main messages Boutelle said Schoomaker is trying to convey is that the threat of terrorism is still ongoing and the Army continues to fight everyday.

"When the Al Qaeda tried to take down the World Trade Center the first time, they only killed one person," Boutelle said.

"We know now they started planning immediately after that, and five years later took it down. On September 11, they had a tactical strike, they killed 3,000 people. They missed the White House, they missed the Capitol, and for all practical purposes, they missed the Pentagon. We know--you can read an open source in the papers, and the U.N. (United Nations) report that came out yesterday--that they are being resourced and we have not been able to curve their resourcing. They're gaining in momentum in dollars, and they're planning. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow and it may not be next year, but you're at war, your nation is at war and your Army is at war. That's one of the messages the chief tries to put through."

"Each of you needs to help us with the civilian populous to understand that," he said.

People are starting to assume the country's problems with terrorism have come to an end, Boutelle said.

"I know when I travel around the nation to see family and friends, it's like, 'It's over, you kicked the Taliban out of Afghanistan and now let's just figure out what we're going to do in Iraq, and it's over.' It's not over, and it's not going to be over for your generation and generations after that."

To combat this threat, Boutelle said the Chief of Staff will make sure the force has proper capabilities.

"He's going to resource our networks and our systems," Boutelle said. "He understands. He knows what this is about."

One of the immediate changes that will take place under Schoomaker's direction, Boutelle said, is the restructuring of basic training.

"So now in basic training, when these Soldiers come out of there, they will know what it's like to have live fire go over their heads, not once, many times," Boutelle said.