Email   Print   Share By Capt. Monika Comeaux, DCOM-SPO/NTM-A Public Affairs Officer

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Brig. Gen. Clark W. LeMasters Jr., deputy commander of support operations under NTM-A and the commander of the 13th ESC responds to a question during the DCOM-SPO Commander’s Conference Friday at Camp Eggers, Afghanistan. The conference ran Friday and Saturday, allowing all regional support command teams to participate and interact with each other and with the staff of their higher headquarters. Capt. Monika Comeaux, DCOM-SPO/NTM-A Public Affairs Officer

Participants of a two-day Commander’s Conference organized by the DCOM-SPO under NTM-A listen to a strength-management brief Saturday at Harrison House on Camp Eggers. The conference allowed participants to get to know each other, ask questions and share their best practices and experiences with each other. Capt. Monika Comeaux, DCOM-SPO/NTM-A Public Affairs Officer

CAMP EGGERS, Afghanistan - Six regional support command teams came together Friday and Saturday at Camp Eggers for a conference to cover various topics and meet their higher headquarters’ staff sections.

The Deputy Command of Support Operations under NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan organized the commanders’ conference, which was the first one since all RSCs welcomed new commanders. DCOM-SPO has more than 150 Soldiers under its wings, deployed from Fort Hood’s 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary).

“The purpose of the conference was to bring the six new commanders and command sergeants major together at the NTM-A headquarters and to provide them with guidance and essential information to accomplish the mission,” said German army Col. Karl Habel, DCOM-SPO chief of staff. “This conference provided a good opportunity to get to know each other.”

The conference covered various elements of the NTM-A mission, including updates from the Deputy Commanding General of Operations, Deputy Commander-Army (coalition section that oversees training and equipment fielding for the Afghan National Army), Deputy Commander-Police (coalition section that oversees training and equipment fielding for the Afghan National Police) and Combined Joint Engineering. They also reviewed the proposed logistics transition plan for all regional support commands.

The 13th ESC has Soldiers not only in the NTM-A DCOM-SPO headquarters but also in all of the subordinate RSCs who participated. The conference allowed 13th ESC leaders at Eggers to gain insight in the challenges and issues the RSCs and fellow 13th troopers face on a day-to-day basis.

Lt. Col. Stuart Furner, Regional Support Command-North deputy commanding officer, said that the most useful part of the conference for him was “seeing everybody on the staff, so you know whom you are talking to on the other end of the emails.”

Stuart also did a lot of networking and obtaining information about his fellow RSCs. “It is important to know that every RSC is unique, and everybody has different challenges. It was good to see how everyone else is working through those challenges,” he said.

Sgt. Maj. Mark Huston, the RSC-West sergeant major, found the J1 (human resources/personnel management) piece the most useful.

“There was a lot of information put out about awards and noncommissioned officer evaluation reports and different processes, and as a sergeant major, a lot of that administrative stuff is my responsibility,” he said. “Now, I know whom to call, whom to talk to, and we got some good policy guidance on what the general is expecting and that helps a lot.”

Huston also found it very useful to meet the different staff sections but wishes he had more time.

“I would like to see a little more time so we can get together as a small group, maybe a little time in the evening, a little more personal time because to be a honest, at these conferences a lot of the stuff that gets done, gets done in the hallway in-between,” Huston said.

The most beneficial part of the conference for the staff was “the commander’s feedback about the reality on the ground and how we can do better to support them in their challenging missions out in the regions,” said Habel, adding that he received positive feedback about the conference. “I think the commanders and command sergeants major appreciated the conference.”

He credited the success of the conference to his staff. Habel hopes to have the next conference sometime in December, once a good part of DCOM-SPO’s new personnel rotated in.