CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Fort Campbell officials reported an overall decrease in COVID-19 cases in a live-streamed town hall featuring Sergeant Major of the Army Michael A. Grinston, who was visiting the post.

During his visit, Grinston shared fond memories of his time there with soldiers. He also discussed Army initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion within the branch, a matter he considers to be of great importance.

The town hall panel also included Maj. Gen. Brian Winski and Sgt. Maj. Bryan Barker.

COVID-19 cases down

Maj. Gen. Winski reported a 2% to 3% rise in COVID-19 cases for Montgomery County, Christian County and surrounding areas this week; however, he reported a steady decline each day over the past seven days on Fort Campbell.

Winski called July “a high-water mark” for cases on post and was overall positive on the progress in combating coronavirus.

“Every decision that we make has the input the commanders, command sergeants major across the installation and, of course, our medical professionals.”

‘You can’t telecommute to combat’

When asked how COVID-19 has affected mission readiness, Grinston said that the Army has adapted well but must push forward

“The main purpose of being here is to see ‘Are we safely training given the conditions that we have?’ The conditions are COVID’s not going away. We can’t just isolate the Army for a year. I don’t think the world’s gonna let us do that. You can’t telecommute to combat, and you can’t just go on the internet and figure out how to do your skills,” said Grinston.

In regards to mission readiness, Grinston said the Army remains as prepared as ever, but must continue training initiatives to stay that way.

“We were at a very high state of readiness coming into COVID, and that was very helpful for the Army. If you look at all the brigades that we had that were ready to deploy in March, we really didn’t see any degradation in that. … If we were to keep going, then we would start to see the readiness of the Army start to go down. You do have to train.”

Leading by example

When asked what role the Army plays in country’s effort to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, Grinston said the Army leads by example.

“We have our own scientists … and they said this helps. We try to lead, and we go with what they are telling us to do. We have been wearing masks in the Pentagon for a while now,” said Grinston. “We had to figure out how to do things, but what we have tried to do is listen to what the scientists are telling us. This is the best way you can mitigate the risks that you have been given.”

Building inclusion in the Army

Grinston also talked about new initiatives to foster inclusion and unit cohesion in the Army, including Project Inclusion and “This is My Squad.”

“This is My Squad” is an initiative to foster stronger relationships on the squad level, similar to what is seen in many special forces units.

“The goal for This is My Squad is to change the culture of the Army so that we really and truly understand each of our people that are sitting next to us. … That makes us stronger as an army. The goal is to change the culture of the Army where we focus in on junior leaders. The end state is to build a better leader that has a positive effect to build better, cohesive team,” said Grinston.

According to Grinston, Project Inclusion was put in place by the Secretary of the Army to promote honest discussions about racism. The initiative includes Army leaders holding listening sessions to discover new ways of promoting equality and inclusion in the branch.

“How’d we start this topic, what does that look like? One of the things that I have learned through Project Inclusion as we have had these discussions is to start with, ‘Tell me how you grew up?'” said Grinston.

“We are looking at not just having conversations, but finding actions we need to take. … It’s very clear, the studies show that we need to do this. We are actually going to do something to move the Army forward. We don’t have it all right, I think we have a lot of inclusion in the Army, but there are some things we need to do better,” said Grinston.