Interview with Maj Terrance Latson

MAJ Terrance Latson served as the battalion logistics officer (S4) with the 2nd Forward Support Battalion (FSB) of the 2nd Infantry Division (ID) in 2004 and 2005 at Forward Operating Base (FOB) TQ, and as company commander of the 226th Quartermaster Company in 2007 and 2008 at FOB Q West, both in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). In this November 2010 interview, MAJ Latson discusses his pre-deployment training and its gaps, some of the challenges of deploying pre- and post-modularity, and how he directed the training for his second deployment as the company commander. MAJ Latson concludes his interview with the suggestion, “You can no longer train for your conventional tasks. Do not just allow your Stryker Brigades, your heavy brigades, and your infantry brigades to go to a training center. Allow units who are already training an opportunity to get away from the flagpole and actually conduct training at a CTC. Give that commander an opportunity time to make an assessment on what his/her Soldiers [can do] versus conducting that training at home station. I think that would be a good investment. For example, there is no sustainment brigade that goes to NTC or JRTC with the exception of the leadership-training program. How does a brigade actually train to support if they’re taking an administrative approach to training; if they’re not putting Soldiers on the road and through scenarios and really testing them on how they’re going to react in those scenarios?”