British Army staff officer visits Fort McCoy to bolster U.S., U.K. interoperability

Warrant Officer 2 (W02) Paul Barnes, hailing from the British Army’s Land Warfare Centre, made a pivotal visit to Fort McCoy in May. His mission? To champion the importance of international cooperation and interoperability in military operations between the U.S. and United Kingdom.

From immersive installation tours with Fort McCoy Garrison leadership to insightful presentations covering warfare doctrine and lessons learned from the British Army’s studies on the war in Ukraine, Barnes’ itinerary was packed with engagements aimed at fostering deeper cooperation between the British and American military.

“The purpose of my visit to Fort McCoy was to come over and do some personal development for the U.S. Army, bringing experience of doctrine and warfare development from the U.K. perspective to show what it’s like to work in an international environment,” said Barnes.

“Another purpose was to showcase Fort McCoy’s training capabilities, specifically the ones that can enhance interoperability like the Noncommissioned Officer Academy (NCOA) and the Medical Simulation Training Center (MSTC),” added Fort McCoy Deputy Garrison Commander Lt. Col. Michael Corkum, who first met Barnes in Turkey at the 2022 NATO Land Operations Working Group.

“It was great catching up,” Corkum said. “Having WO2 Barnes here was a fantastic opportunity to strengthen the bonds between our nations and enhance our mutual understanding of each other’s military capabilities and training methods.”

During his time at Fort McCoy, Barnes was particularly impressed by Fort McCoy’s NCOA, where he witnessed firsthand the depth of training offered while serving as the senior enlisted advisor alongside Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Messenger on the academy’s Battle Staff Course’s Combined Arms Rehearsal — marking the first time an international ally was integrated into the rehearsal.

“The NCOA is an amazing and unique thing. The particular course I saw dealing with staff work is something we just don’t have (in the British Army). I’d like to see us collaborate in that,” he said. “I can see the real value of that for NCOs of all nations.”

“He was a great partner in the combined arms rehearsal. He was my right-hand man — my senior enlisted leader,” said Messenger. “We got to see the NCOA Battle Staff Course present a brigade operation attacking an enemy force, and the insights he provided were invaluable to the students. He had a number of interesting questions, thoughts, and ideas that helped forward the conversation and create a more confident, lethal, and great planning force.”

Fort McCoy itself left a lasting impression on Barnes, who praised the installation’s welcoming community and described it as a “little gem tucked away.”

“Fort McCoy has been a revelation,” Barnes said. “The facilities here are superb. The ranges, the airborne trainers, the air assault trainer, the airfield, helicopter landing pads, the combined arms areas that you can use for exercising — you’re dealing with something that’s quite a size compared to some of our areas back home.”

Corkum highlighted the significance of Barnes’ visit and the opportunities it can bring to Fort McCoy and the British Army.

“Based on his visit, WO2 Barnes is recommending the U.K. establish a partnership with both MSTC and the NCOA to send U.K. medics and NCOs here to attend these courses alongside our Soldiers, which is an incredible opportunity,” explained Corkum. “The ability for Fort McCoy to lead the way for the U.S. Army Reserve and U.S. Army in multinational partnered training and interoperability is huge.”

Reflecting on the alliance between the U.S. and U.K., both Barnes and Messenger emphasized the importance of their nations’ historic bond forged through decades of shared sacrifice and cooperation.

“We’re coming up to the 80th anniversary of D-Day. That was the U.K. and the U.S., with our Canadian allies…all working, training, and fighting together,” Barnes said in May. “And I think that’s the essential basis of all this — is we know that when war comes, the U.K. and the U.S. will stand together because of our relationship.”

“We’ve been partners for decades, and where we go, they go,” declared Messenger. It’s so important that one of our primary allies continues to work with us…so that when we go forward together in terms of the United Nations, NATO, and different alliances and partnerships—we continue to have that same success we’ve seen over decades of working together.”

Throughout his visit, Barnes continuously highlighted the critical importance of interoperability in modern warfare, which he succinctly defined as working together.

“Interoperability is absolutely key to everything the military does. Why? Because we will never fight wars on our own again,” Barnes stressed. “Interoperability is the very center of what we should be doing in NATO…and in ABCANZ (American, British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand) as an alliance.”

Corkum and Messenger explained that the best way to create militaries that are interoperable is by continuously training together.

“Technical and procedural interoperability domains are good, but at the end of the day human interoperability domain is where we all live and work…and it’s generally the easiest to solve,” said Corkum. “We improve human interoperability by working together on a habitual basis, and that’s how we can improve it with partners like the U.K.”

“The whole key is to continue to get (Allied) militaries together that we’ll see in wartime, together in peace time—so we can forward our training, our narrative, and our working together in order to have a more effective and lethal force,” Messenger said.

Barnes advocated for more allies in Europe to also leverage hands-on opportunities to better interoperability between NATO nations.

“Our doctrine in NATO tends to be that people have a good understanding of it. But here, when you work with allies tightly, you can learn what you can gain from it,” Barnes added. “We should look at greater training opportunities, greater educational opportunities — to literally try to share the same breathing space so that we can use our friendships, our experiences, and our knowledge to benefit both sides of any encounter.”

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”