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Joint Warfighting Center

KEYSTONE

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USJFCOM hosts Keystone course for command senior enlisted leaders

U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Warfighting Center is hosting the Keystone training course in Suffolk, Va., designed to educate command senior enlisted leaders on joint doctrine and the joint operational art. Robert Pursell has the story.

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Narrated by Robert Pursell, USJFCOM Public Affairs
Featuring:Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mike Balch, U.S. Southern Command command sergeant major and Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Jack Johnson from the18th Wing of Kadena Air Base in Japan

Pursell:  Senior enlisted leaders from across the Department of Defense and from other countries continued the Keystone training course in Suffolk, Va. today at U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Joint Warfighting Center as part of an effort designed to educate command senior enlisted leaders or CSELs who could eventually work as part of a joint task force or JTF commander’s team.
 
Keystone, one of three courses sponsored by USJFCOM and the National Defense University or NDU, plays a critical role in the continuing development of senior military leaders.  Capstone is for newly selected flag and general officers, while Pinnacle targets two- and three-star joint task force commanders.

Keystone occurs twice a year consisting of a two-week schedule.  It kicks off in Washington, D.C. at NDU, then participants make their way to the JWFC for the joint operations module of the course for four days.  It wraps up by visiting other combatant commands.

Army Command Sgt. Maj. Mike Balch, the U.S. Southern Command command sergeant major is one of the senior mentors for Keystone.  He explained how he and the rest of the mentors use the joint operations module to educate CSELs on joint doctrine and the joint operational art.

Balch: We take it in and dissect the whole life cycle of a JTF.  We start off with forming it, how to do the operational design of an operation, forming the JTF, planning for the JTF, putting together its mission statement, employing the JTF, sustaining it and logistically getting it there.

Pursell:  Air Force Command Chief Master Sgt. Jack Johnson, from the18th Wing of Kadena Air Base in Japan and one of the 48 participants, explained what he saw as a major benefit of the course.

Johnson: It’s been exceptional.  As a senior enlisted leader, most of the important things that benefit us are the relationships.  Not just relationships that we’re building here amongst the senior enlisted leaders, but the relationships that we have the opportunity to build with the other services, with other agencies, and things of that nature.  The second thing is the education.  The education that we’re gaining here is better preparing us for the building of relationships which makes us more effective enlisted leaders…and quite honestly, better advisors and leaders to the bosses that we serve.

Pursell: The course includes a number of seminars and small group exercises that emphasize critical joint force commander issues and lessons learned.  Senior mentors, observers/trainers, and various subject matter experts support the fellows in their efforts.

For more information on this and other ways U.S. Joint Forces Command is supporting the warfighter, visit us on the web at www.jfcom.mil.

For U.S. Joint Forces Command, I’m Robert Pursell.