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.