FORT CAVAZOS, Texas — The U.S. Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, made her way to Fort Cavazos and had a lot to say about her two-day visit.
”My very first trip as Secretary of the Army was to then Fort Hood — I came out in I think June of 2021,” Sec. Wormuth said.
She spent two full days at Fort Cavazos reviewing III Corps and the installation.
Starting with mission readiness since 40 percent of the Corps will be deployed soon.
”3rd Armored Corps is busy, busy, busy and doing a lot of hard work to develop our readiness and out lethality,” Sec. Wormuth said.
“I had the opportunity to go see a paladin live fire. I got to actually fire a tank myself — not something I get to do every day.”
All demonstrations of III Corps' transition from counter insurgency style fighting, like Iraq and Afghanistan, to large scale combat for near peer threats like Russia.
Beyond combat capabilities, she also said the post is coming a long way in efforts to take care of soldiers and families.
”The 1st Cavalry Division actually has a program called the Pegasus Integration Program,” said Sec. Wormuth.
“That's an 8-day program to receive new soldiers coming into 1st CAV and get them all set before they ever go to the unit. I think that really rigorous reception approach is going to set us up for success.”
The People First Center was only an idea during her last trip.
Now, it's making big strides in training junior leaders.
”How to help frankly, our soldiers build up their life skills,” Sec. Wormuth said.
“Build up their resilience and be able to talk about uncomfortable things that I think can help us get ahead of things like suicides.”
While plenty of good work is happening at Fort Cavazos, there are still challenges to overcome.
The low recruiting numbers are taking a toll on soldiers, for example.
”Because we don’t have our manning levels where we’d like them to be, our soldiers feel like they're doing the work of one and a half or even two soldiers,” Sec. Wormuth said.
Shining and even bigger spotlight on the Army’s recruiting crisis.
Sec. Wormuth also highlighted things like much needed upgrades to motor pools so they can better handle the newer vehicles the Army is producing.
Most of what Sec. Wormuth saw at Fort Cavazos was positive, but she said there are things that need some work with recruitment at the top of the list.