Editor's Perspective

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Some huge changes are lurking on the department’s training horizon. Marine Corps General James Mattis, commander, USJFCOM, told a House Armed Service Committee panel that the U.S. military must develop its capability to wage irregular warfare for the foreseeable future. With the exception of SOF, regular forces’ training programs are not tailored to deliver the tenets of irregular warfare—to enable forces to win the support of the relevant populations, promote friendly political authority, and erode adversary control, influence and support. Mattis also told the HASC panel, “We must make irregular warfare a core competency, and this is Joint Forces Command’s top priority right now.”

We’re certainly going to learn more about this challenge in the 2009 Quadrennial Defense Review and in other administration policy documents—and how training will be an enabler. MT2 will report this and related developments during the QDR process. In my purview as editor, I want to pass along a personal note regarding a community member who will shortly be leaving government service. Dr. Bob Wisher, director, Advanced Distributed Learning, led the department’s efforts to establish policy for advanced distributed learning. While Dr. Wisher will modestly tell you that he had the support of an outstanding ADL co-lab network, he personally pushed forward the sharable content object reference model and other foundations of ADL. The next time you attend I/ITSEC or ITEC, look at how many placards on industry booths note their products are SCORM-conformant. Enough said. Dr. Wisher, well done and best wishes to you in your next endeavor.

On the topic of ITEC, Jack Kerrigan, KMI Media Group president and CEO, and I will attend the 2009 conference. We look forward to receiving your insights and learning about your latest successes. Be ready!

Marty Kauchak, Editor

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