RESERVE COMPONENT

JOINT ENDEAVOR: The RC MI Perspective

Nearly 200 U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard MI soldiers are finishing their 270-day deployments in support of the Army's mission in Bosnia. A second 270-day rotation is entering the theater. Most of these Reserve Component (RC) soldiers are backfilling in U.S. European Command for Active Component (AC) soldiers as analysts, counterintelligence agents, and linguists. However, a number are working in Bosnia-Herzegovina and adjacent countries as part of Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR. The RC augmentation comes from the USAR's 1st MI Center in Phoenix, Arizona; 338th MI Battalion (Tactical Exploitation) at Fort Meade, Maryland; 272d MI Company (Linguist) in Bell, California; and the ARNG's 300th MI Brigade (Linguist) in Draper, Utah. The senior RC MI officer deployed in the first rotation was Lieutenant Colonel William P. Foster, commander of the 1st MI Center.
The effort has been judged a success thus far; quality is high, the augmentation permits more support in country, RC soldiers are working live missions, and the backfill concept works. The results validate the RC MI Force Design Update (FDU) unit structure which stands up at the beginning of Fiscal Year 1997 (FY 97), providing augmentation elements to the team level, as required, via derivative unit identification codes.
The mobilization did reveal a number of areas and issues which must be addressed and corrected if we are to retain RC soldiers and maximize their utility to the operation. These are as follows: There is a recognized need to marry the AC requester to the RC augmentation at the beginning of the mobilization process, both for training and sponsorship. Pending job or duty position, weapons, uniforms, and transportation requirements can all be identified with the initial request for RC augmentation. In several cases, there was no clear identification of the AC chain of command. Having a RC ombudsman in the theater would help resolve many problems arising post-deployment.
The AC finance system was not prepared to support RC soldier requirements. Soldiers must identify and initiate financial entitlements and ensure they are processed prior to deploying. AC finance offices must coordinate with their RC counterparts. RC soldiers arrived with incomplete records. RC soldiers should handcarry their validated records.
The records for the RC soldiers could not be loaded into the automated Standard Installation-Division Personnel System (SIDPERS) upon their arrival at their AC unit. The U.S. Total Army Personnel Command and the U.S. Army Reserve Command and National Guard Bureau need to establish a mechanism to incorporate the RC soldiers into SIDPERS.
RC soldiers sometimes felt abandoned, not supported by their AC chain of command. This issue encompasses most of the previous items. This perception, whether real or not, is critical to performance, morale, and retention. The AC must take ownership of their RC augmentees, recognizing that these are now their soldiers, not temporary hires. At the same time the AC chain of command must acknowledge that the USAR and ARNG report in to their gaining units with a special set of personal and personnel issues that need to be addressed if we want them to be full members of the force. The RC MI FDU provides MI augmentation as cellular functional teams, the way the AC has requested. However, this emphasis toward smaller modular-team augmentation carries some baggage with it. There is typically not a senior leader with a RC background present. The teams come into an existing AC unit. It thus becomes the AC unit commander's responsibility to take care of these former RC soldiers. For this and other operational reasons, it would be unwise to break the teams down to individual fillers; that is what the individual ready reserve and individual mobilization augmentees are. The teams have trained and worked together, and maintaining team integrity could forestall many of the problems mentioned above.

ASAS Fielding to the Reserve Components

The Army will distribute sixteen All-Source Analysis Systems (ASAS) to the Reserve Components in FY 97 through FY 99. The USAR's Army Reserve Intelligence Support Center (ARISC) at Fort Gillem, Georgia, as well as each of the ARNG's 15 Enhanced Brigades will receive systems. The Army will field one system to each unit according to the distribution priority shown in Figure 1; the figure lists the fiscal year and quarter in which fielding will occur.

Revised Dates for PCC and PAC

The two-week MI Precommand Course (PCC) gives identified MI commanders and G2 designees a review of major doctrinal, organizational, and process developments ongoing at the MI Proponent and in the intelligence community as a whole. The senior noncommissioned officer (NCO) equivalent of the PCC is the Pre-Assignment Course (PAC). Class dates often parallel each other so that commanders and sergeants major may attend together. Traditionally, a number of seats are set aside in each class for the ARNG and USAR. Currently planned class dates are shown in Figure 2; please call or E-mail the POC to confirm dates and quotas. The POC for the PCC is Mr. Ken Welsh; you can contact him for more information at (520) 533-6527, DSN 821-6527, FAX 821-0540, or E-mail welshk@ huachuca-emh98.army.mil. Staff Sergeant Thompson at the NCO Academy is the POC for the PAC. Readers can contact her at (520) 533-4245, DSN 821-4245, or FAX 821-4244.
Colonel John Craig is the USAR POC. Readers can contact him at (520) 533-1176, DSN 821-1176, and via PROFS/ E-mail craigj%hua1@huachuca-emh11. army.mil.

Major Steve Ponder is the ARNG POC; his telephone number is 821-1177 and his E-mail address is ponders@aol.com. Their fax number is 821-1762, and the mailing address is Commander, USAIC&FH, ATTN: ATZS-RA, Fort Huachuca, AZ 85613-6000.