{"id":28133,"date":"2019-10-14T20:54:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T20:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/14\/how-training-and-deploying-oconus-is-changing-for-soldiers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:18:25","slug":"how-training-and-deploying-oconus-is-changing-for-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2019\/10\/14\/how-training-and-deploying-oconus-is-changing-for-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"How training and deploying OCONUS is changing for soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Soldiers no longer have the luxury of deploying to a war zone<\/a> and falling in on equipment already in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, they\u2019re going to be expected to learn some skills not found in their manuals, according to Maj. Gen. Steven Shapiro, who helms Army Sustainment Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re learning how to tie down tanks; They\u2019re learning how to convoy across a continent,\u201d Shapiro said Monday at an Association of the U.S. Army panel. “That\u2019s a level of readiness they don\u2019t get sitting on their installation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army leaders will have to change how they plan to move their forces as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlattening out your footprint and having resiliency in your plan,” Shapiro said. “If you lose a rail line, there\u2019s three or four more rail lines, if you lose a route, there\u2019s three or four more routes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes are part of the Army\u2019s effort to prime its units and the theaters they deploy to for division-level exercises like Defender 2020<\/a> in Europe this spring, as well as potential real-world conflicts with great power rivals like China and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\t