Conducted during a February 2007 trip they made to the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth in order to keep themselves "abreast of the latest doctrinal changes" and acquire the latest information and tools in order to continue professionally developing deploying National Guard and Reserve leaders, this joint interview with Lieutenant Colonel Chuck Olsen and First Sergeant David Atkins focuses on their work as part of Fort McCoy, Wisconsin's Observer Trainer Mentor (OTM) Leadership Training Program. Olsen, the program director, begins by outlining the OTM concept, saying it teaches leaders how to think, not what to think, and distinguishes it from the more common observer-controller/trainer (OC/T) concept. In 2006 alone, he said, "We trained 95 units and [had] 2,600 leaders come through our program…. These are engineers, postal units, medical units and logistics units ranging everywhere from two-star generals all the way down to that detachment commander, that lieutenant," Olsen said. Among the many skills covered and evaluated by the OTMs include everything from the military decision-making process and how to write operations orders to team building, physical fitness, developing a command philosophy, establishing effective family support groups and fostering strong commander/first sergeant relationships. As for Atkins - an Iraq combat veteran who served with the 48th Brigade Combat Team - he's the Leadership Training Program NCOIC and also with what's called Operation Warrior Trainer which, as he explains, is a program "for mobilized National Guard members who come back from theater and who continue on as Title 10 to train other soldiers deploying to theater." Atkins describes in detail such popular and helpful classes on often-overlooked subjects such as "Why We Fight" and "Killology," and discusses the principal challenges that deploying Reserve and National Guard units (and the leaders thereof) face, chief among which is "baseline discipline." Asked what makes a good OTM, Atkins said that you "have to be willing to share your knowledge in a way that challenges them but also gives them the tools to be challenged with. You give them the information they need to be successful, and then you expect them to be successful." Added Olsen, who called his OTM job the most enjoyable he's had in his 19 years of Army service: "My philosophy is only three things: know your stuff, call it straight and give a damn. And I'll tell you, an OTM who doesn't give a damn won't be on my team long." The First Army commander, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, "has said, 'We don't ship stupid,'" recalled Olsen, "and part of my job is to carry out that policy."

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