[ISN] Army pilot program graduates students

[InfoSec News]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk at c4i.org>

http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/articles/2006/05/19/news/news03.txt

By JOHN RICHMEIER
Times Staff Writer
May 19, 2006 

Often referred to as the intellectual center of the Army, Fort 
Leavenworth is home to a new education program that focuses on looking 
at things from different perspectives.

The University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies held a 
graduation ceremony Thursday for its first red team leader's course.

Red team is a term used to describe a group that looks at something 
critically and objectively, according to UFMCS Director Greg Fontenot.

He said red teaming provides commanders alternative viewpoints of 
plans and concepts including in the context of partners and 
adversaries.

George Hethcoat, UFMCS operations officer, said the program is about 
looking at the world through a different set of eyes.

Speaking at Thursday's ceremony, Lt. Gen. John F. Kimmons, Army deputy 
chief of staff for intelligence, said the military has left the era of 
simple cause and effect analysis.

"This is not point and shoot," he said. "We are behind that."

He told the graduates they have to hold assumptions and truisms up to 
a bright light.

He said understanding things in the proper context becomes an issue of 
life and death on the battlefield.

Eighteen people graduated from the pilot course. Only 16 attended 
Thursday;s ceremony because two students graduated early.

The inaugural class included active duty military personnel from the 
Army, Navy and Marines as well as members of the Texas Army National 
Guard and civilian employees of the Department of Army.

One student was said to be with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

One of the Army officers who graduated Thursday is attending the 
School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth and took the 
red team leader's course as an elective, Hethcoat said.

The UFMCS, an organization of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, 
was established at the fort last year. The pilot red team leader’s 
course began in January.

During Thursday's ceremony, Fontenot called the UFMCS a "university 
without an athletic director, without a stadium but with high 
ambitions."

Another 18-week course is scheduled to begin in July.

"This is graduate-level study," Fontenot said after Thursday's 
ceremony.

He said UFMCS also is planning a nine-week "stop-gap" course for 
people who already have some red team skills.

He also spoke of plans for future years for a six-week members' course 
for people who will be part of red teams but not leaders as well as 
what he called a practitioner's course.

Instructors for the red team leader's course are referred to as 
seminar facilitators.

Hethcoat said classes are give and take exchanges.

"We don't have anything related to lectures," he said.

He said the program periodically will have panels. The inaugural 
course featured a terrorism panel that included representatives of the 
Department of Army, the FBI, local law enforcement and the DIA as well 
as a former terrorist.

During the first 18-week course, officials looked at areas of the 
program that need to be tweaked, Hethcoat said.

"You provided us the feedback that we needed to improve the program 
and we thank you for that," Robert Reuss told the graduates during 
Thursday's ceremony.

Reuss is TRADOC's assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence.



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