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.