Posted on Jan 30, 2019
Do we spend too much time on DTMS training schedules? What’s the purpose? Is it a waste of time? Why?
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CPT (Join to see) please explain what you believe to be a waste of time. Help me understand this issue, as I was far removed from DTMS when I retired in late 2016.
The Purpose of DTMS: DTMS allows users to communicate and coordinate across the chain of command. It also features calendars to plan and schedule training. DTMS also maintains individual and crew training records.
To appreciate this, you'd have had to function in Black Boot BDU days. All that stuff, was maintained in a manual unit training file and a gazillion spreadsheets that in a collaborative sense, weren't. You spent half a Company training meeting correcting the shadow clerk's lists for everything. There were also a boat load of PPT slides due to BN and BDE about your training calendar, each more brilliant in their novelty and cheesery than the last. Wouldn't it be great if all that were standardized and shared without shuffling them up through a opaque network of Comandeered Ops NCOs to the S3 so they can tell the BN CDR the 5Ws on what everyone is doing. Then there is the perennial goat screw that's USR and QTB. Unless you had to build a weapons stats slide in Harvard Graphics 2.0 to be printed on a VGT transparency, save your comments. Defining what is "qualified", percentages, number of weapons vs number of people, etc sounds cut and dry until you cut a FRAGO to simplify and standardize to six companies and troops and you get six different sets of slides.....if this system rips any of that out of people's hands, worth it.
If this works half as good as this article looks, you need to praise and hallelujah. https://www.army.mil/article/140988/new_dtms_improves_training_management_tracking_soldiers_training_records
If it isn't doing those things reliably or it is flat missing the boat on what you need, I would wear out the help line number.
If your unit and HHQ isn't using it, but making you put everything in it, then I can see the frustration. Sometimes you need to go CPT to CPT with action officers to build a followership and make the juice worth the squeeze.
The Purpose of DTMS: DTMS allows users to communicate and coordinate across the chain of command. It also features calendars to plan and schedule training. DTMS also maintains individual and crew training records.
To appreciate this, you'd have had to function in Black Boot BDU days. All that stuff, was maintained in a manual unit training file and a gazillion spreadsheets that in a collaborative sense, weren't. You spent half a Company training meeting correcting the shadow clerk's lists for everything. There were also a boat load of PPT slides due to BN and BDE about your training calendar, each more brilliant in their novelty and cheesery than the last. Wouldn't it be great if all that were standardized and shared without shuffling them up through a opaque network of Comandeered Ops NCOs to the S3 so they can tell the BN CDR the 5Ws on what everyone is doing. Then there is the perennial goat screw that's USR and QTB. Unless you had to build a weapons stats slide in Harvard Graphics 2.0 to be printed on a VGT transparency, save your comments. Defining what is "qualified", percentages, number of weapons vs number of people, etc sounds cut and dry until you cut a FRAGO to simplify and standardize to six companies and troops and you get six different sets of slides.....if this system rips any of that out of people's hands, worth it.
If this works half as good as this article looks, you need to praise and hallelujah. https://www.army.mil/article/140988/new_dtms_improves_training_management_tracking_soldiers_training_records
If it isn't doing those things reliably or it is flat missing the boat on what you need, I would wear out the help line number.
If your unit and HHQ isn't using it, but making you put everything in it, then I can see the frustration. Sometimes you need to go CPT to CPT with action officers to build a followership and make the juice worth the squeeze.
New DTMS improves training management, tracking Soldiers' training records
Improvements to the Army's premier training management tool make it easier for commanders to plan exercises and keep track of their Soldiers training records. The new version of the Digital Training Management System, or DTMS, launched at the end of ...
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CPT (Join to see)
LTC Jason Mackay Sir, i do not think dtms in general is a waste of time. I am actually a fan of it being the system of record. What I have issues with is the amount of time spent on training schedules. I think that commanders training guidance should be published which will allow company commanders to publish their unit training plan. I don’t see the purpose of training schedules except to micromanage when things will be done. In reality, the dtms training schedule is not followed.
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LTC Jason Mackay
CPT (Join to see) - commander's training guidance has got to be the corner stone.
Pre DTMS, By design, unit training calendars are restrictive, but they are designed to ensure the resources and training audience are there. They stem from a SATB which lays the course and a contract between the commanders that they will get resources. Steered at QTBs and Course corrected. Ammunition runs off an annual forecast, bounded by STRAC with quarterly slosh. You have to tell the ASP the month you are using the munitions. FORSCOM does a lot better of JIT, and installation wide, your sister units can screw you all up with delinquent documents, unforecasted training etc, taking your Class V. Training areas/ranges and getting them is like a knife fight in a closet. A good TRM NCO will jump on areas as soon as they are available, in the blind. Then they have to trade with other units or get a dreaded co-use by the time training guidance and SATBs happen. As a CSS BN S3 as a CPT, the TRM at Division was like a prison beat down. I had to fight to save my BN CDR's vision and get resources. It sucked. Training support systems are always in high demand. So when a company decides at random to try and have a major training event to fix all their problems without the minimum 7 week coordination, they will meet with disappointment.
The schedule should be the spit in the hand handshake. You will do the training well and ensure it's maximized, in exchange, I will ensure it has ammunition, terrain, and time (my Staff will not be loading you down while you are doing it). It that understanding that you get your turn as a unit to train, then support others while they get theirs. If training calendars are not followed or used, I'd ask why. What are people doing. Army units train.
Pre DTMS, By design, unit training calendars are restrictive, but they are designed to ensure the resources and training audience are there. They stem from a SATB which lays the course and a contract between the commanders that they will get resources. Steered at QTBs and Course corrected. Ammunition runs off an annual forecast, bounded by STRAC with quarterly slosh. You have to tell the ASP the month you are using the munitions. FORSCOM does a lot better of JIT, and installation wide, your sister units can screw you all up with delinquent documents, unforecasted training etc, taking your Class V. Training areas/ranges and getting them is like a knife fight in a closet. A good TRM NCO will jump on areas as soon as they are available, in the blind. Then they have to trade with other units or get a dreaded co-use by the time training guidance and SATBs happen. As a CSS BN S3 as a CPT, the TRM at Division was like a prison beat down. I had to fight to save my BN CDR's vision and get resources. It sucked. Training support systems are always in high demand. So when a company decides at random to try and have a major training event to fix all their problems without the minimum 7 week coordination, they will meet with disappointment.
The schedule should be the spit in the hand handshake. You will do the training well and ensure it's maximized, in exchange, I will ensure it has ammunition, terrain, and time (my Staff will not be loading you down while you are doing it). It that understanding that you get your turn as a unit to train, then support others while they get theirs. If training calendars are not followed or used, I'd ask why. What are people doing. Army units train.
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