The U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command held its annual AMCOM 101 Workshop, Nov 16-17 in the Bob Jones Auditorium at Redstone Arsenal. More than 200 members of the Army aviation community participated in presentations and discussions in-person and online focusing on readiness, training and sustainment across the aviation enterprise.

“There is a tremendous wealth of combat aviation experience throughout the AMCOM enterprise” said Maj. Gen. Tom O’Connor, AMCOM Commanding General. “One of our central tasks as leaders is to enable readiness at the point of need; AMCOM 101 provides opportunities to educate our Soldiers on the reachback they have in order to facilitate their maintenance operations and execute their missions.”

AMCOM 101 provided an overview of the command, the capabilities and resources it offers, as well as opportunities for connecting face-to-face with knowledgeable experts across the Army combat aviation field. The forum also afforded participants a chance to learn about training opportunities, and new aviation technology being developed in support of Soldiers and its integration into their field.

“An important part of AMCOM 101 is to synch up and see what other issues units are having and how we can work together to figure it out,” said 1st Sgt. Edward McStine, Bravo Company 46th Aviation Support Battalion, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade First Sergeant, Joint Base Lewis McCord, Washington. “I’ll be able to take back a lot of techniques, order processes, how to make things more efficient and most important, leverage the networks and relationships developed here to make things happen at the operational level.”

On the first day, the aviators and support personnel received briefings and discussed several strategic topics, such as readiness, observations from the field, support from home stations, reporting, policies, and others. Following the panels, the attendees separated into smaller groups for breakout sessions on various aviation topics.

“AMCOM 101 has given me a better understanding of what happens throughout different levels of maintenance in the aviation enterprise and how the different resources that are available to us help build our readiness,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Freddy Rivera, 5-17th Air Cavalry Brigade, Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea. “I’m going to take back all the opportunities I can to capitalize on and add value for our Soldiers and their training.”

On the second day, AMCOM hosted panels on various topics, including field level maintenance support, sustainment-level maintenance, training and inspections, airframe-condition evaluations, corrosion, the Corpus Christi Army Depot, training opportunities and quality control. These included underscoring the importance of investing in training as well as highlighting the various training opportunities and diagnostic capabilities available through Corpus Christi Army Depot, LAR-University, AMCOM Corrosion Lab and Letterkenny Army Depot. At lunch, the group attended professional development sessions for commanders, warrant officers and noncommissioned officers, respectively.

“We have the resources. We have the capabilities,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5, Patrick O’Neill, AMCOM Aviation Branch Maintenance Officer and workshop advisor. “AMCOM is a slice of Redstone Arsenal and we’re trying to let people know there’s a lot of stuff going on here and where to find it.”

AMCOM has hosted 101 for aviation annually since 2014. Each year, following the forum, the AMCOM leadership solicits feedback from the participants. They then use that feedback to further improve next year’s event.

For more information about AMCOM 101, email the AMCOM 101 Support Team at [email protected].