Transformation at the Army’s installations must prioritize the needs of the warfighter, according to Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer.

In remarks during a panel discussion April 17 at an Association of the U.S. Army Hot Topic on transforming Army installations, Weimer emphasized the Army’s role, saying, “We exist to fight and win, … so we have to be ready to fight.”

“We are a people-centric platform,” Weimer said. “We are going to close with and destroy the enemy when the nation calls.”

Weimer pointed out that while quality of life has been a top priority “for at least the past two solid years,” it’s time to strike a balance by prioritizing the quality of the places where soldiers work and train.

“Soldiers want to see something about their workplace,” Weimer told attendees at the daylong forum, urging a harder focus on areas such as motor pools, training ranges, rail heads and central issue facilities. This also means training harder and more often at home station—especially at night—to give soldiers the repetitions and muscle memory they’ll need for combat.

To get a pulse on the needs of units and soldiers across the force, Weimer said he goes to their first sergeants. “If I go in with a bunch of preconceived ideas of what the installation is struggling with and where, I’m usually setting myself up for bias that’s not always true,” he said. “First sergeants will tell you the truth.”

Installations are “not a one-size-fits-all type of scenario,” said panelist Brig. Gen. Kirk Dailey, director of operations in the office of the deputy Army chief of staff for installations, G-9. Each installation has different challenges that cannot be addressed with one solution, he said.

“It’s understanding the requirements and then the prioritizations … across the components because things vary across installations,” Dailey said.

Pointing to military construction reform taking place across DoD, Dailey noted that the Army must improve the way it works with industry, and the civilian skills resident in the reserve components should have “a place at the table.”

Command Sgt. Maj. Jorge Escobedo, senior enlisted leader for Army Sustainment Command, said changes taking place at each installation’s central issue facility will help outfit soldiers with the equipment they need to be ready and lethal. “The current practice that we have in the CIFs is just not sustainable,” Escobedo said, explaining that there’s an excess of legacy equipment “that is never going to get issued” to soldiers.

Army Sustainment Command is working to identify the baseline equipment soldiers need for “the remainder of their career” so that when they get to their unit, the Army can be responsive to “those regional items” depending on their location.

“What we’re doing right now is transforming it to a new platform that is going to allow us to get some predictability and some precision as we look at equipment, end-to-end supply chain visibility,” Escobedo said.