22 ARMY n November 2009

A portrait of a stern, khaki-clad

MG Leonard Wood hangs out-

side the command group offices

in the gleaming modern headquarters of the

U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center (MAN-

SCEN) on the Missouri fort that bears his

name. MG Wood bridged the frontier Army

Photographs and TextBy Dennis Steele

Senior Staff Writer

Using the latest technology, a soldier trains on a virtualcombat convoy simulator (VCCS) at the U.S. Army ManeuverSupport Center, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.The VCCS trains an

entire vehicle crew to react as a team to various threats,including improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

November 2009 n ARMY 23

of the 19th century and the emerging world-

power Army of the 20th century, pulling the

force into the modern era with his determi-

nation and vision.

“As we are trying to develop our leaders

for the 21st century, he is a great example,”

said MG Gregg F. Martin, the MANSCEN

and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general.

“Leonard Wood was one of the great lead-

ers of our country, a fascinating man,” he

continued. “He was a certified licensed sur-

geon his entire career, possessing a deep pro-

fessional expertise in his function. Warrior

spirit: He gets orders, goes out to the Arizona

territory, gets into a cavalry outfit and is awarded theMedal of Honor. As a doctor in the base camp, he said,‘This is not good enough; I’ve got to get out into the fight.’He was a real warrior. During his career, he rotated be-tween being a doctor and a cavalryman, and established

the Rough Riders [along with] TeddyRoosevelt, who made them famous.But what you don’t hear is that he be-came the military governor [of Santi-ago, Cuba] and worked on stabilityoperations, infrastructure, educationand health care. He became the Chiefof Staff of the Army, transformed usfrom a constabulary frontier Army tothe World War I Army and institution-alized the Reserve Officers’ TrainingCorps. Here is a soldier who under-stood the role of good citizens andmilitary education in a democracy,and ended up being the governor-general of the Philippines. He was anamazing guy.”

In many ways, MG Wood’s legacyembodies the spirit and direction of Fort Leonard Wood to-day—balancing the gritty work of preparing soldiers andleaders for combat with the intellectual pursuits of schol-arly research and development.

Over the past few decades, Fort Leonard Wood has

24 ARMY n November 2009

New arrivals beginthe transition fromenlistee to soldier,

processing into theArmy and basic

combat training atFort Leonard

Wood.

A soldier checks acircuit diagram

during electriciantraining.

Above, new soldiers get fitted for theirboots at the fort’s reception station.

Soldiers go through a gradedpractical exercise to become engineer electricians duringadvanced individual training at Fort Leonard Wood.

inched its way from a clapboard basic training post to amultifaceted base that is a model for joint and interagencycooperation. Progress has taken place largely under theradar, however; the fort has remained shackled to a jaun-diced, outmoded and undeserved reputation of being abackwater franchise—the moniker Fort Lost in the Woodscontinues to plague its image, if not its efforts.

“I think we’ve had a bit of a bad rap,” MG Martin said.“My message is that we’re not lost in the woods anymore.We’ve been found.”

The catalysts for modernization were the base realign-ment decisions of the 1980s and 1990s that brought theArmy’s military police (MP), chemical and engineer cen-ters to Fort Leonard Wood. During the past decade, jointtraining activities with the Marine Corps, Navy and AirForce have been attracted to the fort, as have training activ-ities from federal, state and local law-enforcement andfirst-responder agencies since 9/11.

“It is a very dynamic and diverse place,” MG Martin ex-plained. “There’s an amazing array of activities and train-

26 ARMY n November 2009

Mike Smith, aretired first ser-

geant, continues totrain military police(MP) soldiers at a

Fort Leonard Woodmilitary operations

in urban terrain(MOUT) site.

Above, Chemicalbranch officers

train in a live nerveagent environment

at the ChemicalDefense Training

Facility, one of thefew live chemicaland nerve agent

training facilities inthe world.

Right, duringMOUT training, an

MP soldier pulls hisfire-team buddy

into a building.

Below, a robotprobes for IED or

mine threats as itssoldier operators

go through theroute reconnais-sance clearance

course at FortLeonard Wood.

ing, and different organizations and specialties. Here, thereis everything from basic combat training to one-stationunit training to Army Individual Training; the biggestNCO academy in the Army; the warrant officer courses;and all the officer courses and leader development fromMilitary Police, Engineers and CBRN [chemical, biological,radiological and nuclear]. We train from private all theway up to colonel with all the pre-command courses aswell as all the cutting-edge functional courses that are hav-ing a direct effect on what’s going on downrange and inthe fight right now.

“There is a huge joint presence here, the largest Marine de-tachment off a Marine base in the world, and the same withthe Air Force and Navy,” he added. “The combination of allthese different levels, echelons, services and branches—aswell as the FORSCOM [U.S. Army Forces Command] pres-ence—create an environment that is extremely dynamic. …In addition to being a physical engine of educating, trainingand developing leaders and warriors, we’re also an intellec-tual engine, developing doctrine and concepts, organization,

November 2009 n ARMY 27

A Husky metaldetecting andmarking vehicleleads a route-clearance patrolduring R2C2training.

Above and left, a sol-dier uses a joystickof a portable controlstation to control arobot during the routereconnaissance andclearance course(R2C2). R2C2 stu-dents employ robotsto find and defeatIEDs.

Below, advancedvehicle simulatorsstand in the JointTactical VehicleSimulator Facility.All Army truckdrivers—and truckdrivers from allmilitary services—are trained at FortLeonard Wood.

Below, the forkedprobe arm of amock Buffalovehicle trainerunearths a mineduring R2C2training.

new materiel, and science.”Proponency for the Engineer, MP and

Chemical branches resides at Fort LeonardWood, as does proponency for defeating im-provised explosive devices, countering weap-ons of mass destruction and developingnonlethal technologies.

In recent years, the fort has become hometo advanced technology development, har-nessing cooperative efforts by the military,

Right, soldierstraining as

engineer bridgecrewmembers at

Fort Leonard Woodlift a bridge section.

Below, bridgecrewmember

trainees heave asection into place.

Right, a soldierattending basiccombat trainingclimbs a cargo

net ladder.

Below, Air Force,Army and Navy

students work withadvanced global

positioning systemequipment while

training as surveyors.

An Army diver goesthrough his first

phase of training atFort Leonard

Wood.

28 ARMY n November 2009

A soldier fromBarbados listensto instructionsduring the sur-veyor course.Soldiers frommany alliednations attendtraining at FortLeonard Wood.

November 2009 n ARMY 29

Fort Leonard Wood has established itself as ahigh-tech research and development center forthe Army by forging a cooperative relationship

among academia, private industry, regional economicinterests and the military. It is home to the LeonardWood Institute and its companion institution, the Uni-versity of Missouri Technology Park.

The Leonard Wood Institute is a congressionally es-tablished nonprofit dedicated to building collaborationby funding research to meet the Army’s identified tech-nology needs, resulting in a stronger overall technologybase and a boost for the local, state and regionaleconomies. It receives direct funding from Congressthrough a cooperative agreement with the Army Re-search Laboratory—the only such enterprise in the

Army. (The Navy has a similar project.)The institute focuses on needs and opportunities at

Fort Leonard Wood and the U.S. Army Maneuver Sup-port Center. Results, however, could yield muchbroader application.

Project funding is allocated through three programs: n Collaborative research and development (R&D),

competitively awarded and currently funding 50 pro-jects (26 by universities and 24 by private business) to-taling $30 million.

n Special projects R&D, aimed at meeting unantici-pated Army requirements and currently funding fiveprojects totaling $1.5 million.

n Early-stage business R&D, aimed specifically at as-sisting small Missouri-based companies with high po-

tential, funding 10 projects totaling $600,000. A number of other projects will be funded later inthis fiscal year.

Adjacent to the Leonard Wood Institute is theUniversity of Missouri Technology Park, whichhas a long-term lease for 60 acres (expandable to250 acres) on Fort Leonard Wood and is designedto attract and facilitate industry partners to estab-lish R&D activities at the park.

The Fort Leonard Wood Institute and Universityof Missouri Technology Park collaboration is de-signed to benefit all parties. The Army gains byhaving a streamlined conduit for developing tech-nologies that soldiers need, businesses with goodideas get the opportunity to develop and intro-duce products, and the region gains jobs and in-creases its economic base.

On Point for Homeland Security

A Unique Collaboration

F ort Leonard Wood’s 4th Maneuver EnhancementBrigade (MEB) has assumed responsibility as theconsequence management reaction force to sup-

port the homeland-security mission under the DefenseDepartment’s joint task force-civil support. In an emer-gency, the 4th MEB’s primary responsibility is to assistthe federal, state and local response to a chemical, bio-logical, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive(CBRNE) attack on the United States as the CBRNE con-sequence management response force under U.S.Northern Command. It will also be the operations ele-ment on call to respond if Defense Department assis-tance is required for a natural disaster. The 4th MEB isthe U.S. Army Forces Command element based at FortLeonard Wood.

The brigade commander, COL Rob Risberg, explainedthat the unit’s headquarters will serve as the joint taskforce’s operations task force to assess, plan and coordi-

nate DoD assistance at the site of an emergency, initiallyhaving the assets of a first-responding aviation brigadetask force and medical brigade task force, and a special-ized military search-and-rescue task force.

In part, the mission statement is to save lives, mitigatehuman suffering and facilitate recovery. It calls uponthe 4th MEB to work alongside and assist Federal Emer-gency Management Agency efforts and to work strictlyunder the guidance of state and local authorities.

In addition, the 4th MEB’s 94th Engineer Battalion iscurrently an alert unit on-call for DoD response to aweather emergency such as a hurricane, flood or tornado.

“You don’t see much about it in the media, but DoD isputting a lot of effort into supporting people at home inaddition to the warfight,” COL Risberg said. “It’s a mis-sion that no one wants to execute, but it’s an importantmission because it’s a mission to come to the aid of ourfellow Americans.”

academia and private defense companies at the Universityof Missouri Technology Park and its companion LeonardWood Institute, a congressionally authorized nonprofitagency established to rapidly facilitate collaboration and in-novation to develop advanced technologies.

Fort Leonard Wood has fashioned itself as a platform forprogress that would make its namesake proud. M

30 ARMY n November 2009

Right, drill sergeantsfrom the 787th Mili-tary Police Battalionoversee combativestraining during MP

basic combat training.

A soldier and ma-rine train together

during the interser-vice nonlethal indi-

vidual weapons instructor course

(INIWIC) con-ducted by the fort’s

Marine Corps Detachment.

Below, a soldierarmed with a simu-lated tear-gas spray

can warns role-players during anINIWIC exercise.

Engineer equip-ment operators

train at FortLeonard Wood.

Right, an engineerin training.

Above, soldiers conduct a trainingexercise at the 1LT Joseph Terry Chemical,

Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN)Responder Training Facility at Fort

Leonard Wood. Here, a CBRN responder-course student is decontaminated.