Security News > 2006 > May > Army pilot program graduates students

Forwarded from: William Knowles 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. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* _________________________________ Attend the Black Hat Briefings and Training, Las Vegas July 29 - August 3 2,500+ international security experts from 40 nations, 10 tracks, no vendor pitches. www.blackhat.com

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