ARLINGTON, Va. - A 12-year quest was fulfilled May 7 when the West Virginia Army National Guard won the top 2008 Army National Guard Army Communities of Excellence (ACOE) award and $750,000.
"We've done everything in the world to try to win this thing and to find out what the people have done that did win it," Maj. Gen. Allen Tackett, the adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard, said during a ceremony at Arlington Hall, the Army National Guard Readiness Center.
Learning from others is one of the keys to the ACOE program, Guard officials say. The ACOE encourages states to adopt each other's best practices in a constant effort at improvement.
"It's about innovation," said Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army Guard. "You take a different look at things and you end up saying, 'Why in the world didn't I think about that earlier?' "It's a remarkable effort at continuous improvement."
Vaughn challenged states to learn from each other's best practices. "Keep copying each other," he said.
The ACOE is a program of the Army's chief of staff, and West Virginia represented the Army National Guard at the Army level.
The program assesses excellence at Army installations in customer service and satisfaction, according to National Guard Bureau officials. Army installations and organizations are measured against the Army Performance Improvement Criteria (APIC) rather than against each other. APIC, in turn, is modeled after the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Program and the Presidential Quality Award Criteria.
It applies relevant business criteria to continuously improve the Army's ability to create combat power in peacetime and war.
"We firmly believe that there is a strong relationship between our use of the criteria and the business results that we continue to achieve," Tackett said. "It is no coincidence that since adopting ACOE we have enjoyed a decade of unprecedented organizational success."
Tackett cited some of the highlights:
- The West Virginia National Guard's end strength has increased each of the last 11 years. The ranks have increased by more than 1,100. In 1995, the West Virginia Army Guard was at 90 percent strength; it is now at 120 percent of its authorized strength.
- The state has been No. 1 in the nation in readiness for 11 straight years.
- The state has built eight new readiness centers. More are planned.
- Most units have mobilized. "We have mobilized warriors from every unit except for the 249th Army Band," Tackett said, adding that dual-trained band members also have played a vital role as engineers operating equipment during domestic responses while engineer units were overseas.
"These and many other successes are not coincidental," Tackett said. "They tie directly to our use of the ACOE process. We have adopted ACOE as our permanent management doctrine."
The ACOE program has been one tool that's helped the National Guard achieve a historic level of excellence, leaders said.
"As a team, we can't be beat," Tackett said of America's National Guard. "When I sit in a room with 53 adjutant generals from across America and the team that we have at the National Guard Bureau [I see] an unbeatable team. There's never been a time in our nation's history that the Guard has risen to the occasion the way we have in this Global War on Terrorism. I don't think there's anyone in America that could say today that money was wasted by putting it in the National Guard because, quite frankly, this nation couldn't have fought this Global War on Terrorism if it hadn't been for the professionalism of those young kids out there across America who belong to the Guard."
Vaughn echoed those sentiments.
"We've never been through a time where the pride in the force and the pride in serving in the Guard has been as strong," he said. "The warfight has a lot to do with that. The Soldiers feel so committed to the nation, to doing what they're asked to do when called, there's so much pride in that in the communities, and it's got to be expressed by a quality organization ready to deliver for them back on the home front."
The Army National Guard's 2008 ACOE Award winners:
- Overall: West Virginia.
- Gold: Georgia (1st place), Arizona (2nd) and Iowa (3rd).
- Silver: Texas (1st), Wisconsin (2nd) and Nevada (3rd).
- Bronze: North Carolina (1st), Arkansas (2nd), Wyoming (3rd).
- Honorable Mention: California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico and South Carolina.
- Feedback only: Ohio (Ohio won the overall award in 2006 and so was not eligible to compete in 2008).
- Special Category: Camp Grayling, Mich.; Camp Guernsey, Wyo.; Camp Navajo, Ariz.; Camp Ripley, Minn.; the Lavern E. Weber Professional Education Center, Ark.; the Western Army National Guard Aviation Training Site ("Gunfighter University"), Ariz.