The Director of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. William J. Troy, told U.S. Army Operational Test Command leaders that he learned a lot from them during his visit to the west Fort Hood command Dec. 9.

“This may be just another day for you,” he said, “but it’s a great day for me. You face a huge challenge every day because it is obvious that operational testing is so much more complex than most of us realize.”

Starting off with a command briefing by Dr. Peter Laky, the command’s acting personnel officer, Troy met with USAOTC test and staff directors before heading to the Test Technology Execution Complex Integration Facility on main post for a briefing on how technology is used in operational testing.

“OTC has always been an expeditionary, deployable force,” Laky said. “We test where the Soldiers are; they are our real customers.”

Some of that testing is conducted in Iraq and Afghanistan by OTC’s Forward Operational Assessment teams, Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, OTC commander, told Troy. “These teams are the tip of the OTC spear. Our FOA teams do some of our most vitally important work.”

Another key project for OTC is standing up a new test directorate at Fort Bliss, MacWillie said.

“We’re in the process of forming our Network Test Directorate in support of the Army’s focus on network integration,” he said. “We’re building it from inside OTC without any new allocations.”

Lieutenant Col. Jeffrey Erickson, chief, operations branch, Test Technology Directorate, showed off OTC’s instrumentation, modeling and simulation capabilities at TTEC that enable both live and virtual support to operational tests.

“We take pride that we’re exportable,” Erickson said, pointing out fuel cells developed by OTC with private industry that provide a “green” power source for instrumentation. He also noted OTC’s partnership with the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, through which they’ve developed more affordable and efficient technology.

“I’ve found that when your resources are tight,” Troy said, “you become more innovative.”

Troy ended the visit with a question-and-answer lunch with OTC senior leaders.

“Part of the reason today’s discussion with you has been so interesting to me,” he said, “is because of your focus on the network.”