The 3d Battalion, 7th Field Artillery (Light),
25th Infantry Division (Light), at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii,
was the 2005 winner of the Phoenix Trophy, the Department of
Defense’s highest award for field-level maintenance of
weapon systems and equipment.
While deployed for exercises and missions throughout the U.S. Pacific Command’s
area of responsibility and the continental United States and to Afghanistan
in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the 3d Battalion successfully maintained
more than 4,300 pieces of equipment, logged more than 95,000 miles, and delivered
8,000 rounds of artillery and mortar fire in training and combat while maintaining
an operational equipment readiness rate of 97 percent.
Six units received Secretary of Defense Maintenance Awards in the categories
of small, medium, and large units. Another Army unit, the 428th Transportation
Company, an Army Reserve unit from Jefferson City, Missouri, was the winner
in the medium-unit category. The Phoenix Trophy is presented to the overall
winner of all categories.
‘WARRIOR
MEDICS’ GET NEW COMMAND
The Army Reserve Medical Command (ARMED-COM) was activated at the new C.W.
Bill Young Armed Forces Reserve Center in Pinellas Park, Florida, on 16 October.
The new command—the largest medical command in the Army—provides
command and control for more than 28,000 Soldiers (dubbed “Warrior
Medics”) in 258 medical units across the United States.
The command centrally manages all Army Reserve medical units and Soldiers and
ensures that they are fully trained to deploy quickly in small, precisely organized
units that are able to adapt to a specific mission. Consolidating the Army Reserve’s
medical expertise in one command will help reduce the time required to bring
Reservists onto Active duty and make it easier to locate Reservists with specific
skills, said ARMEDCOM’s Commander, Major General Keneth Herbst. “Most
Army Reserve Soldiers in the medical field [practice their specialties] on a
day-to-day basis, but [they] also have to be able to perform [their] warrior
skills, the collective unit skills. And that’s absolutely critical.”
The extensive capabilities that Army Reserve medical professionals bring to
the force have been demonstrated in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Herbst
said, noting that many Reservists are leaders in the civilian medical community. “Our
surgeons are very often the surgeons who are directing the trauma training programs
at the best institutions in this country,” he said.
ARMEDCOM is organized like the Army Reserve regional readiness commands, except
that it is based on function rather than geographic area. Its major components
are the Medical Readiness and Training Command, headquartered at San Antonio,
Texas; the Army Medical Department Professional Management Command, headquartered
at Atlanta, Georgia; and four Medical Area Readiness Support Groups. The groups,
located in New York, Tennessee, Illinois, and California, oversee Army Reserve
medical units in specific regions.
INTERIM SYSTEM UPGRADES IMPROVE
SUPPORT UNTIL GCSS-ARMY (F/T) FIELDING
According to current projections, the Army plans to begin
deployment of Global Combat Support System-Army (Field/Tactical)
[GCSS-Army (F/T)] in late fiscal year 2007. Until then, the
Project Manager Logistics Information Systems (PM LIS),
which is the materiel developer for GCSS-Army, is executing
several interim initiatives to bridge the gap between currently
used logistics information management systems—some
of which arrived in the field well over 20 years ago—and
the new system. The PM LIS solution will include software
enhancements and consolidations and Web-based technology.
One initiative is the fielding of the Property Book Unit
Supply Enhanced (PBUSE) to much of the Army. This is a property
accountability and unit supply management system that is
replacing the Unit Level Logistics System (ULLS) S–4
and the Standard Property Book System-Redesign (SPBS–R).
Another interim solution, the ULLS-Aviation Software Change
Package (SCP) 06, has successfully passed the developmental
testing phase and is now in the fielding stage. By making
use of new technology and taking into account changes in
aviation logistics processes, SCP 06 will provide quality
logistics support for the Army aviation community through
the transition period to GCSS-Army (F/T).
The Standard Army Maintenance System-Enhanced (SAMS–E)
is another interim improvement to Army logistics in advance
of GCSS-Army (F/T). SAMS–E also has successfully passed
the developmental testing phase and, once deployed, will
simplify current business processes and provide information
more quickly and accurately to commanders on the maintenance
posture of their units. Upgrades to the Standard Army Retail
Supply System (SARSS), including the use of radio frequency
identification (RFID) technology and the Materiel Release
Order Control (MROC) capability, will bridge another gap.
These capabilities currently are being fielded.
GCSS-Army (F/T) will be a single management information system
that will provide frontline forces with real-time logistics
information. In part because it incorporates lessons learned
during Operation Desert Storm and the initial stages of Operation
Iraqi Fredom, GCSS-Army (F/T) will provide commanders with
the logistics support they must have to make informed decisions.
GCSS-Army (F/T) eventually will replace 16 stovepiped legacy
supply and maintenance systems that have operated independently,
lacked interoperability, and required input from separate
sources.
ARMY AWARDS FIRST DEMONSTRATED
LOGISTICIAN DESIGNATIONS
The Army recognized the pilot group of 29 Demonstrated Logisticians
on 18 October in a ceremony at the Army Logistics Management
College (ALMC) at Fort Lee, Virginia. The recipients earned
recognition under the Army Designated Logistician Program,
which was developed in a partnership between ALMC and SOLE—The
International Society of Logistics.
The new designation program complements other educational and
certification programs and provides progressive and sequential
recognition in the various stages of development of multifunctional
logisticians. The program recognizes three levels of designated
logisticians: Demonstrated Logistician (DL), Demonstrated
Senior Logistician (DSL), and Demonstrated Master Logistician
(DML). Each designation has a standard list of requirements
that are based on academic education, lifelong learning, mandatory
learning, and a blend of two categories of experience (enablers
and functionality, which will be documented as specific job
experiences of 3 to 7 years, depending on the designation).
Examinations are not required. The program is open to military
and civilian logistics personnel in all ranks and grade levels.
The certificates were presented to the pilot group by Tom Edwards,
the Deputy to the Commander, Army Combined Arms Support Command,
and Sarah James, the Executive Director of SOLE—the International
Society of Logistics.
Officers and warrant officers who have been awarded DL, DSL,
and DML designations are authorized to include the designations
in their Officer Record Briefs and Official Military Personnel
Folders.
For more information on the Designated Logistician Program,
visit the ALMC Web site, www.alu.army.mil.
NCO LEADER DEVELOPMENT COURSE REVAMPED
The Army has renamed its former Primary
Leadership Development Course as the Warrior Leader Course
(WLC) and revised the course
curriculum to provide Soldiers with the small-unit tactical
skills required to succeed in the Army’s modular force
structure. The WLC trains noncommissioned officers (NCOs)
to visualize, describe, and execute squad-level operations
in contemporary operational environments. To accomplish this,
it includes lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WLC students receive detailed squad-level combat leader training
from instructors who have squad leader and platoon sergeant
experience and are certified to teach the entire curriculum.
The training is learner-centered and outcome-based and serves
to reinforce small unit tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Combat skills are evaluated in a 96-hour situational training
exercise (STX) that includes 9 battle drills and 39 warrior
tasks. The new format is expected to produce more competent,
innovative, adaptive, and agile combat leaders who can perform
in the current operational environment. The course will be
constantly updated to meet world threats by incorporating
experiences from the battlefield.
MODULAR FORCE DESIGN INCLUDES TRADITIONAL NUMERICAL DESIGNATIONS
The Vice Chief of Staff of the Army announced in September
that the final modular force design developed for the Army
includes unit designations that preserve the historic lineages
of many of its Active component regiments and divisions. During
the development of the design, the Army had used terms such
as unit of employment (UEy or UEx) and unit of action (UA)
to describe various units and their levels of responsibility.
The design is now complete, and those terms have been dropped.
The Army will retain the historic terms of army, corps, division,
and brigade.
The army, which had been referred to as a UEy during development
of the modular force design, will be able to function as the
Army service component command or a joint force land component
command in support of a regional combatant command. Numerical
designations under the design include the following—
Army Training, Readiness, and Mobilization Command (1st Army),
an Army Reserve unit to be located at Rock Island, Illinois.
U.S. Army Central (3d Army), headquartered at Atlanta, Georgia,
which is the Army component of the U.S. Central Command.
U.S. Army North (5th Army), headquartered at Fort Sam Houston,
Texas, which will be the Army component of the U.S. Northern
Command.
U.S. Army South (6th Army), headquartered at Fort Sam Houston,
Texas, which will be the Army component of the U.S. Southern
Command.
U.S. Army Europe (7th Army), headquartered at Heidelberg, Germany,
which is the Army component of the U.S. European Command.
U.S. Army Pacific, headquartered at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, and
the Army component of the U.S. Pacific Command, will become
8th Army after 8th Army stands down in Korea.
The corps and the division, both previously re-ferred to as
a UEx, will consist of a headquarters of about 800 Soldiers
commanded by a three-star general and a headquarters of about
1,000 Soldiers commanded by a two-star general, respectively.
The corps and divisions will have structure and personnel required
to serve as joint task forces or joint force land component
commands without the need for extensive force augmentation.
Divisions will be command and control headquarters only. Modular
brigade combat teams or combat support brigades will be assigned
to a corps or division to provide the capabilities needed
to support a joint force commander.
What were termed units of action (UAs) will become heavy,
infantry, or Stryker brigade combat teams with increased intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance and network-enabled battle
command capabilities.
The elements previously referred to as support units of action
(SUAs) will be organized into combat aviation brigades, fires
brigades, battlefield surveillance brigades, combat support
brigades (maneuver enhancement) or sustainment brigades.
DEFENSE HUMAN CAPITAL CONFERENCE PLANNED
The HCM [Human Capital Management] for Defense 2006 conference
will be held 6 through 8 February at the Renaissance Hotel
in Washington, D.C. The theme will be “Seamlessly Transforming
DOD Personnel Into the Workforce of the Future.” The
conference will address aspects of the strategic management
of human capital, which is the number one issue on the President’s
Management Agenda. For more information, see the conference
Web site, www.hcmd2006.com.
HUMVEES RECEIVE SAFETY UPGRADES
To enhance combat operations and
increase Soldier safety, the Army is installing five upgrades
in high-mobility, multipurpose,
wheeled vehicles (humvees) at forward repair sites in Southwest
Asia. The upgrades include a fire suppression system, improved
seat restraints, an intercom system, a gunner’s restraint,
and single-movement door locks. Vehicles undergoing repairs
or receiving up-armor will automatically receive the new safety
upgrades.
Although these upgrades initially will be installed in humvees,
the Army is adapting some of the new equipment to other medium
and heavy tactical vehicles. The entire tactical fleet will
receive the fire suppression system. New gunner restraints
will be installed on all vehicles with gun-mounted turrets,
and most tactical vehicles will receive the new seat restraints.
Adding intercom systems to tactical vehicles with turret gun
mounts will improve Soldiers’ ability to communicate
when under fire.
Technical teams from the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command
are visiting sites throughout the theater to train installers
and provide technical expertise on the safety improvements.
Rapid response initiatives such as these reflect the Department
of Defense’s commitment to respond immediately to battlefield
conditions.
|
A 5-ton
truck from the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
in Miesau, Germany, drives into the belly of a Russian
AN–124 Condor cargo aircraft at Ramstein Air
Base, Germany, on 17 October. The truck was part
of the lead element of Task Force 212, which
deployed to Pakistan to join the multinational earthquake
relief effort. |
|
U.S. FORCES PROVIDE AID TO DISASTER VICTIMS
In addition to fighting the Global War on Terrorism, U.S.
forces are active participants in humanitarian operations
around the world. During September and October of last year,
they participated in relief operations for the victims of three
major hurricanes and an earthquake.
Immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of
the United States on 29 August, Army and Air National Guard
personnel deployed to the areas of Louisiana, Mississippi,
and Alabama devastated by the storm. On 3 September, the 5,000-member “Joint
Task Force All American,” which was made up of Soldiers
from the 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,
and the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and Marines,
began providing assistance. By 8 September, 41,500 National
Guardsmen and 17,500 Active-duty personnel were working in
the states affected by the hurricane. Relief efforts included
search and rescue; security; traffic control; and food, water,
and ice distribution. Army Corps of Engineers personnel began
repairing breached levees and removing floodwaters. In addition,
about 400 Reserve Soldiers deployed to the area to provide
helicopter, truck, and mortuary affairs support.
Before Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Texas on 24 September,
Texas National Guard Soldiers refueled 260 buses to be used
for evacuating residents and also refueled privately-owned
vehicles that ran out of gas on the highways outside of Houston.
In the hurricane’s wake, Joint Task Force All American
provided search-and-rescue and humanitarian assistance in western
Louisiana. The 1st Air Cavalry Brigade and the Army National
Guard provided supplies to the southeastern Texas counties
that were hardest hit by the storm.
When Hurricane Stan hit Guatemala on 4 October, the United
States sent UH–60 Black Hawk and CH–47 Chinook
helicopters and C–130 transports to assist in delivering
food, water, plastic sheeting, and medi-cal supplies to storm-ravaged
areas.
After a devastating earthquake in Pakistan and parts of India
and Afghanistan in October, the United States joined a multinational
support effort by sending to the area an Army Reserve unit
that had been preparing to deploy to Afghanistan and by deploying
the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital from Miesau, Germany.
|
Above, New
Mexico and Arkansas National Guard members maneuver
a 3,000-pound sandbag, sus-pended from a UH–60
Black Hawk helicopter, onto a levee breach in Belle
Chasse, Louisiana. The breech was caused by Hurricane
Rita when it passed through the area on 24 September.
Below, Soldiers from the 2nd
Battalion, 104th Cavalry, Pennsylvania Army National
Guard, hand out food, water, and baby supplies to
New Orleans victims of Hurricane Katrina. |
|
 |
Information Interface Improves Visibility of
Air Shipments
The Air Mobility Command (AMC) and Defense Logistics Agency
(DLA) now have earlier visibility of cargo destined for troops
overseas. In August, AMC and DLA introduced an electronic interface
between DLA Distribution Standard System (DSS) and the Global
Air Transportation Execution System (GATES) that improves the
information flow between DLA’s consolidation and containerization
points (CCPs) and Air Force aerial ports of embarkation (APOEs).
With the help of the U.S. Transportation Command in its role
as the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) Distribution
Process Owner, DLA and AMC are seeking to speed up the delivery
of equipment and supplies by using the new interface.
An increasing number of DOD air shipments are consolidated
and loaded onto 463L pallets. When a 463L pallet is ready for
onward movement, it is considered “capped” and
given the status code “C.” The electronic interface
then allows CCPs to notify GATES users at the APOEs of the
estimated time of arrival of capped cargo almost immediately.
The CCP sends two additional updates through DSS to GATES:
the first when the truck destined for the aerial port is completely
loaded, and a second when the truck actually departs the CCP.
Using the interface makes information available to everyone
from the air clearance authority to the load planner and speeds
the process for aerial port cargo handlers as well as airlift
mission planners. Planners at the Tanker Airlift Control Center
at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, can monitor cargo bound
for various APOEs and adjust flight schedules to improve efficiency.
NEWEST STRYKER VARIANT INTRODUCED
Last summer, the newest variant of the Stryker combat vehicle,
the mortar carrier version B (MCV–B), was delivered to
the Yakima Training Center in Washington for testing by Soldiers
of the 3d Brigade, 2d Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis.
The new Stryker variant replaces the MCV–A, which carried
mortars that had to be unloaded and set up to fire. The MCV–B
is very much like the basic Stryker vehicle, except that it
has a 120-millimeter mortar mounted in the crew compartment
that can be fired from inside the vehicle through doors on
top that swing open. The vehicle also has a digital fire-control
system that can receive fire missions and help its five-man
crew aim the mortar more accurately.
In addition to the mounted 120-millimeter mortar, each MCV–B
carries a second mortar that has to be unloaded and set up
for firing. At the battalion level, the MCV–B carries
an 81-millimeter mortar; at com-pany level, the MCV–B
carries a 60-millimeter mortar.
“
The Soldiers like it; it’s easy to maintain, and it’s
pretty simple,” said Brian Jenne of the Army Training
and Doctrine Command Systems Management Office at Fort Lewis. “They
like not having to dismount the weapon. It’s also very,
very accurate; they like that the best,” he added.
All feedback is not positive, however. Soldiers would like
to have a hatch in the mortar doors on top of the vehicle,
an option now being considered. The previous variant also could
be emptied of its contents and used as an alternate troop carrier—an
option that is not practical with the new version. Jenne welcomes
all feedback. “Any time that we can interface with the
Soldier on a new piece of equipment and gather information
from them, then we’ll take that into consideration to
see how we can make the system better,” he said.