Four months into her role as the commander of the Aviation and Missile Command, Maj. Gen. Lori Robinson gathered her principal advisors for a strategic meeting, during which she gave guidance, laid out expectations and listened to their needs and priorities.
The day-long leader forum occurred at AMCOM headquarters on Redstone Arsenal, Alabama earlier this month. The robust agenda included deep dives into data analytics initiatives and the financial outlook, as well as updates from each staff section where leaders discussed their top priorities, challenges and focus areas.
AMCOM Strategic Planner Ben Moe coordinated the meeting and set the agenda based on guidance from Robinson. He said the intent was to synchronize the leaders and ultimately develop the FY25 campaign plan. Moe said the CAMPLAN will ensure AMCOM remains relevant and capable of supporting and delivering ready combat formations anywhere in the world despite the rapidly changing, complex environment and potential uncertainty in all theaters.
During her opening comments, Robinson told the leaders that she felt it was essential to bring them together to focus on the objectives of the CAMPLAN and build it from the bottom up based on their feedback. She attended the AMC leader conference in September, where acting AMC Commander Lt. Gen. Chris Mohan brought together all AMC command teams and staff to share his guidance and perspectives. Robinson said the AMCOM plan would be nested with AMC’s plan, which is ultimately aligned with Army senior leader guidance.
In addition to the directors based at Redstone Arsenal, the command teams from AMCOM’s subordinate elements at Corpus Christi Army Depot in Texas, Letterkenny Army Depot in Pennsylvania and the AMCOM Combined Logistics Command at Fort Novosel, Alabama, also attended.
Deputy to the Commanding General Don Nitti said this was the first time in a while that the AMCOM leaders gathered in a forum to discuss the way ahead, and he encouraged them not to leave without voicing their concerns.
“It’s a lot of listening, but it’s also an opportunity to express your challenges,” he said. “We all have challenges within our lanes, and they may not all be visible at the appropriate level, but we need to understand what you are fighting through as we lay out our strategy for the future.”
Robinson said she chose to highlight two specific areas in the forum. She chose the budget because everyone should be resource-informed, and most, if not all, challenges link back to funding. The other area was data analytics, which Robinson said drives the Army right now.
After discussing guidance from AMC and Army senior leaders, Robinson presented the findings from the recent command climate survey completed by the AMCOM workforce. She promised to discuss those results in detail at a future command town hall and present an action plan to address some areas for improvement identified in the survey.
However, for the majority of the eight-hour meeting, Robinson listened. She asked questions for clarity but mostly listened to the challenges and priorities and took notes on where the AMCOM command team could assist.
The FY25 AMCOM Campaign Plan will be developed based on feedback and information collected during the fall leader forum, and Robinson expects it to be published soon. Once published, the plan will be available on www.amcom.army.mil.