It truly was old home week at the Rotary Club of Killeen Wednesday as Killeen native Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie talked to members about the future of Army operational testing.

The commander of the U.S. Army Operational Test Command, located at West Fort Hood, is a graduate of Rancier Middle School and Killeen High School, and his parents, Don and Judy MacWillie, who attended the Oct. 19 meeting, live in Killeen. The senior MacWillie is past president of the Noon Rotary Club and was secretary to the general staff at USAOTC when it was known as the TRADOC Combined Arms Test Activity.

According to MacWillie, the Army's gotten smart on technology and how to exploit it.

"It used to take eight years to field new equipment," he said. "Technology makes that obsolete now.

"We can buy equipment off the shelf," he said. "Devices like the Droid and the I-PAD—this is what soldiers are going to have, and we don't have to wait eight years to get it to them."

A primary focus of the Army is "building a network," MacWillie said.

"It's not an easy job to build a mobile, self-healing network that is secure against our enemies and can text, send and receive images and accommodate all sorts of applications."

But the Army is up to the challenge, he said, and the "seasoned OTC workforce has a huge role; we have a pretty big load on our shoulders.

"We're on the road a lot," MacWillie explained, "since Fort Hood soldiers aren't available to participate in tests as they did in the past. We test all over the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I have 22 to 26 teammates—forward operational assessment teams—who deploy every six months to assess equipment in theater," he said. "And I have around 650 soldiers and DA civilians at Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, Fort Sill, Fort Bliss and Fort Huachuca who test everything from aviation to communications to armored equipment."

MacWillie compared USAOTC to the Universal Laboratories (UL). "We're the military version of UL," he said. "We make sure everything soldiers get is the best our nation has to offer."

USAOTC employees are "a lot of smart folks who are your neighbors and friends," he said. "OTC's economic effect on Central Texas is about eighty-five million dollars annually."

Thanking the club for their efforts in the local community, MacWillie encouraged them to keep "doing what they're doing; Rotary is a great organization," he said, "and I'm pleased to see that you're recruiting the younger generation.

"I'm a Paul Harris, too," he said, pointing to his Rotary pin, "thanks to my father." (The Paul Harris Fellow is a Rotary International award that is earned by members but can also be given in honor of a family member.)