McCoy new site of finance training center

By Lacey Justinger, Triad Contributor

      Fort McCoy will claim another specialized role in mobilization, with the creation of the first continental United States Financial Management Warrior Training Center, a footprint of the U.S. Army Financial Management School at Fort Jackson, S.C.

Members of the Massachusetts National Guard's 726th Finance Battalion train at a mobilization finance class at Fort McCoy. (Photo by Lacey Justinger)

      "Fort McCoy will be the finance training center that all Reserve and National Guard Soldiers come to," said Lt. Col. Cheryl L. Hackett, the Operations Officer with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security.

      Lt. Col. Ed Fonseca, the Total Force Integrator with the U.S. Army Financial Management (FM) School, said previously there was no central point to conduct and coordinate FM mobilization training -there were eight different locations all with distinct types of training.  "Fort McCoy was chosen because it had the resources necessary to consolidate all FM training and it is home to the U.S. Army Reserve Pay Center," he said.  "We just needed a building that we can call home.  This is where all FM Soldiers will come; one building, one location."   

      The center will be housed in building 1421, which after renovations will have four state-of-the-art classrooms, each holding up to 32 students.  Classrooms will be staffed by two or three instructors who will be available 24-hours-a-day during mobilization.  The building will have access to seven computer servers providing all of the latest finance software. 

      The specialized training serves as refresher courses for Soldiers on current FM issues like combat pay, Army Knowledge Online (AKO) records access, disbursing operations, accounting and active- component pay verses Reserve and National Guard pay.  Standardized courses will be taught equally to Soldiers of all ranks.

      "Feedback from overseas suggested that the FM Soldiers were not spending enough time on finance systems," said Capt. William Hill, the senior instructor for FM mobilization training at Fort McCoy. "With four fully automated classrooms, Soldiers will spend a lot more time on finance systems and software.  When the Soldiers deploy overseas the left seat/right seat training can be spent on SOPs (standing operating procedures) and unique scenarios, because they'll already know the basic fundamentals of the job."

      The FM Soldiers will have a five-day mission readiness exercise with tactical and technical scenarios at the end of classroom training during which they will be evaluated, critiqued, validated and certified to perform their jobs in-theater.

      Fonseca said the highlight of Fort McCoy FM training is the mock office and disbursement center.  It was designed to replicate in-theater finance offices with a vault, a kiosk and three cashier cages for accounts payable and military pay.  FM units will learn to serve customers and provide support utilizing in-theater policies and SOPs.   

      "The large majority of FM Soldiers coming through Fort McCoy are cross leveled, so they don't know or understand how a finance office should look," said Hill.  "They can't visualize document flow, customer flow, separation of duties and internal security.  We show them here so that when they arrive overseas, they can continue to improve their office."

      Previously, FM units would be shuffled around the post due to scheduling conflicts, from building to building, classroom to classroom.

      The efficiency of the training was compromised with the manual hours it took to set up and tear down classrooms, computers and networks day-to-day, limiting the hands-on time with the systems.  The units also did not have access to a disbursement training area.  

      Hackett said that the Fort McCoy Financial Management Warrior Training Center will remain in building 1421 "until this mission goes away."

      "This provides us with an opportunity to spend more time using finance systems," said Hill.  "Our ultimate goal is to reduce the learning curve overseas. We emulate as much as we can here so that FM Soldiers will be better prepared to accomplish their mission overseas."

      "This is hands-on training, which they need; it's a replica of the real experience, without being shot at," said Fonseca.  "We want them to feel the pressure at the end of the day to balance their vault and to ensure the proper accountability of cash and vouchers.  Units may be there until late in the night to figure out a proper balance.  That's a real life simulation of what happens in-theater."

      The financial training center has kept busy throughout the winter, even with no designated building or Soldiers mobilizing through Fort McCoy.  Units like the 726th Finance Battalion, a National Guard unit that is mobilized out of Camp Atterbury, Ind., attended their specialized training at Fort McCoy.  After the 26 day training, the unit will return to Camp Atterbury to finalize its mobilization training and deployment.  

      Building renovations, including a new roof and an outer wall face lift, will be completed and operational in March. 

      Already the finance class schedule and mission readiness exercises are booked through late 2007, with Reserve, National Guard and for the first time in Fort McCoy history -- Navy finance units.

(Justinger is a public affairs specialist for Eagle Systems and Services Inc., contractor for CONUS Support Base Services.)