 Welcome to the US Army Europe podcast. I'm Jesse Granger. We're coming to you from V spot and army airfield today And joining us is the chief of staff of the army general Raymond Odierno sir. Thank you for joining us great to be here Okay, sir. So I know your time is very valuable. So we want to get right into our questions for you here So now given the recent announcement of the realignment of forces DOD wide Do you believe the future structure of the US Army in Europe is the right mix of capabilities to meet the nation's requirements? Well, I think we're still working our way through this I think some of our initial decisions that we've made I think we have a very strong structure here that will continue to support both UCOM and AFRICOM as they continue to work their miss regional missions And so I'm satisfied with this. We'll continue to look at it. We'll continue to adjust But there'll be minor adjustments from here on out and I wanted to ask Why does the army and senior leaders such as yourself see the need to keep such a versatile mix of units here in Europe? Well, I think again as I said we have two major combatant commands here We have UCOM and also we have our NATO partners that are here It's important for us to continue to train and work with them You know, we have we're working with them in Afghanistan. We work with them in Libya So clearly us being able to work with NATO and have the right kind of forces here to work with them Helps us to project power if necessary with our partners in order to solve security problems around the world frankly So it's important for us to stay engaged with them It's important that we have the right structure here on the ground that allow us to do that I've heard the area here described as kind of a launching pad for some of the Well, I mean and first off it's it's proximity, you know It's in great proximity to some of the areas that we're concerned with so whether it be Africa whether it be the Middle East You know it it is a great place for us to have some capability in in case we have to conduct operations So that combined with our work with our NATO and other allies that are in Europe is very very important now on some of your priorities and guidance in a recent editorial Yes, you spelled out the three principal roles for the US Army now in terms of prevent shape and win How do you see user units? America's boots on the ground in Europe Supporting those three essential roles for the US Army, you know when we talk about prevent prevent is about having the right mix of capacity modernization and readiness in order to deter those from making bad decisions miscalculations and so Having a force forward in Europe that's working with our allies that has the right Capabilities has the right characteristics has the right modernization readiness levels helps us to let people know We still have a force forward that can help us to quickly launch into other parts of the world So that's very key as we talk about shape Well, we'll continue to shape the environment in AFRICOM and UCOM as well as in Sencom and the units here in usurer Can help us to do this and that's about building partner capacity It's about doing a combination of exercises at all levels It's about building military to military army to army relationships with many other nations And so with the forces stationary it can help us to do that in many areas And then of course when we talk about when it's about being dominant and decisive And with the great training areas that we have specifically the the JMTC up at Graf for Hohenfelds It gives us the capability to train and have a to maintain a significant amount of readiness That will enable us if necessary to win dominantly and decisively now as we move toward a leaner army What would you say to young troops who want to stay army and have a successful career as a soldier? Bottom line is you have to do your job and there's lots of opportunities. The army is going to continue to have incredible opportunities for all our soldiers You know a credible mix of opportunities whether it be IT, whether it be intelligence, whether it be a combat medic Whether it be an infantryman, whether it be in the arm or whether it be in the artillery You're going to continue to have great potential for promotions and to continue to improve yourself And I always talk about what makes the army successful is when we provide the opportunity for individuals to improve themselves Which adds to the greater collective and you'll still have those opportunities So just because the armies could get a bit smaller does not mean you won't still have those opportunities So in my mind there'll be plenty of opportunities for all our soldiers as we continue to move forward Now as you well may know here in Europe we have a pretty robust army values communication campaign going What is the importance of those values in relation to the profession of arms? As part of the army profession it really is about our values, our moral and ethical values It's also about what I consider to be the basic component and fundamental foundation of the profession which is trust And so what this values campaign is doing is emphasizing those areas which we think are inherent in our profession Which is moral and ethical behavior, which is trust between soldiers, trust between soldiers and leaders Trust between soldiers, their families and the army and trust between the army and the American public And as we sustain these capabilities and we ingrain those in all of our soldiers it makes us a stronger institution The military is the number one institution in the eyes of all Americans today, the most trusted institution We want to sustain that and continue to move forward, but it's also important as a professional We have to take care of each other, our brothers and sisters in arms we must take care of And that includes everything, that includes whether it be sexual harassment, sexual assault Whether it be taking care of each other, make sure we're all trained together, trained properly to meet our missions We must constantly work together, we must always have each other's backs and that's the center point of our profession Upcoming on your trip you're going to go see the 5th Corps wrap up their final train up for Afghanistan At the Joint Multinational Training Command, which you mentioned before As our general calls it, the crown jewel here in Europe Can you talk about the importance of having JMTC in Europe in regards to readiness and interoperability with our partner nations? Again, what it allows us to do is train with our NATO partners So there's been so many cases where as we get ready to deploy to Afghanistan we can bring some of our NATO and other allies here in Europe to JMTC To train with US forces, to train with 5th Corps is going to go in as the higher headquarters So the first time they're working together is not when they get to Afghanistan, they're able to do that here That's invaluable and this is probably the premier place to do that in integrating our NATO and other allies here in Europe with our US forces and our headquarters So to me it's incredibly important and it gives us a capability that we cherish and a capability that helps us to be more successful downrange in Afghanistan Sir, that takes care of the main questions. We had one other one if you feel like touching on it, just about sexual assault awareness month As I said, I'm incredibly proud of my army and I think we have the best army in the world, but we still have problems we have to work through And one of them is sexual assault, sexual harassment, and it's about culture It's about having the culture that will not tolerate something like sexual assault and sexual harassment among our forces It's not consistent with our values, it's not consistent with the trust that we expect to have between soldiers And so I think it's important during this month that we reflect on this And we try to do everything we can to ensure that all soldiers, male or female, feel comfortable serving and feel that they will not be unduly harassed And that they do not have a threat of assault, especially from another soldier To me that's incomprehensible and it's something that's so inconsistent with our values Okay, I think that takes care of everything we had. Is there anything else you want to touch on, Sir? The only thing I would say is I want to thank all the families here and soldiers here in Europe for their great sacrifices We continue to have many soldiers deployed out of Europe into Afghanistan and other places around the world You continue to do so much to help the army move forward. You're a great contributor to that I'm very proud of your sacrifices and what you continue to do to make us the best army in the world I want to thank all of you for that And so that's all the time we have for the U.S. Army Europe podcast Thanks again to General Raymond Odeirno for joining us today Thank you for having me And for the U.S. Army Europe, I'm Jesse Granger. Thanks for downloading