Dozens of noncommissioned officers (NCOs) gathered at Fort McCoy in mid-October to take part in Defender University training with the 649th Regional Support Group.

The group, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a group that consists of two movement control battalions with a host of 20 units underneath of them, consisting of transportation companies, movement control teams, quartermasters, and maintenance,” said Command Sgt. Maj. David Sayers, command sergeant major with the 649th.

“We have units all the way from Fort Sheridan, Ill., down to Mount Vernon, as well as we have units in Waterloo, Iowa, with detachments spread out across northern Iowa,” Sayers said. “It consists of about 1,183 soldiers and 20 units.”

With the Defender University training, Sayers said they came to Fort McCoy to get a variety of training accomplished.

“We came up to Fort McCoy to train on skill level 2 and skill level 3 progression in order to develop our Soldiers, specialists, and sergeants for promotion under Army Regulation 600-8-19, Paragraph 3-6, that states all Soldiers must have skill level 2 and skill level 3 proficiency in their digital job book in order to qualify for promotion.”

And that was the basis for Defender University.

“We developed an NCO professional development program called Defender University where we invite our Soldiers to come up and attend and conduct training in four areas, utilizing a round-robin format, as well as build the capability of our NCOs to teach, train, mentor, and instruct from a cadre perspective,” Sayers said.

The NCOs completing the training were from multiple units within the 649th.

“We had representation across all the 649th minus a few units that are currently deployed, but everybody sent representatives to include participants and cadre,” Sayers said. “We had 34 candidates or participants going through the training, and 22 cadre members who serve as primary instructors, support, as well as mentors.

“Our first sergeants are paired with respective platoons to provide senior NCO guidance and mentoring during any white noise training,” Sayers said.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”