The Total Army School System (TASS)

The Seven Regions of the Total Army School System

TASS Defined

The Total Army School System is a composite school system comprised of the Active Component (AC), Army National Guard (ARNG), and the United States Army Reserve (USAR) institutional training systems. The TASS, through the Army's training proponents, provides standard training courses to America's Army, focusing on three main points of effort - standards, efficiencies, and resources.

The TASS is comprised of accredited and integrated AC, ARNG, and USAR schools that provide standard institutional training and education for the Total Army. TASS training battalions are arranged in regions and functionally aligned with the proponent schools for the mission they are charged to instruct.

 

TASS and the Massachusetts ARNG

Located at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, and principally operated by the Massachusetts Army National Guard, is the Region A 1st Field Artillery Training Battalion. A TASS training battalion, the Region A 1st Field Artillery Training Battalion conducts all Field Artillery MOS Qualification and Noncommissioned Officer Training for and throughout TASS Region A includes New York, New Jersey and all five New England states.

The Region A 1st Field Artillery Training Battalion operates under the guidance and direction of the United States Army Field Artillery School (USAFAS) and the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Under the TASS concept, soldiers who are stationed in Region A requiring Field Artillery MOSQ and NCOES training attend training with the Region A 1st Field Artillery Training Battalion.

Though the Field Artillery Training Battalion is likely the largest TASS mission operating at the Massachusetts RTI, The TASS umbrella also extends over the OCS program and the Common Core Noncommissioned Officer Education System.

In 1995, when the concept for the TASS was initially developed, then Army Chief of Staff General Gordon R. Sullivan sought to enhance the "One Army, One Standard," or "Total Army" concept. With the near full implementation of the TASS almost four years later, soldiers attending training at ARNG and USAR institutions are now receiving the same training as that of their Active Component counterparts.