Using Airmen and Sailors as Soldiers and Marines
31 Jul 07 testimony before the HASC Readiness Subcommittee on Use of In Lieu Of, Ad Hoc and Augmentee Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom:
MG Jason Kamiya, Director of Joint Training, JFCOM
Quote:
My testimony will address the adequacy of preparation of our service members to perform missions outside of their assigned Services’ roles and functions and the impact this has on Service readiness. I will first briefly review USJFCOM’s role in force sourcing and training. Second, I will review the currently accepted in-lieu of force sourcing solutions used in the Department of Defense’s Global Force Management (GFM) process. Third, I will address some of the ways in which USJFCOM, through its Service components, supports the Services’ training responsibilities. Lastly, I will provide the Service representatives with me today the opportunity to articulate in oral testimony the impact to readiness when their Services are asked to provide forces for missions outside of traditional Service roles and functions.....
Brig Gen Jack Egginton, Deputy Director of Operations, CENTCOM
Quote:
...As trained and ready units strive to meet mission requirements, the lack of experience level for the specific mission does degrade their ability to perform the mission. Although, the available training time provides the necessary training, the new or different missions they ultimately perform requires time for the unit to mature. In-Lieu-of sourcing puts additional strain on the pre deployment training process since units have a new mission set to train for. The new mission set training requires additional time and resources to adequately prepare a unit for re-missioning. In the event that sailors and airmen are not fully trained once they arrive on station, USCENTCOM components work with the personnel to bring them up to current requirements and familiarize them with local Standard Operational Procedures....
BG David Halverson, Director of Operations, Readiness and Mobilization, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7
Quote:
...There are three accepted categories of in-lieu-of (ILO) force sourcing solutions, Individual Augmentation (IA), remissioning, and joint sourcing (JS), but I will only address remissioning and IA. Individual augmentation is defined as an unfunded temporary duty position identified on a joint manning document (JMD) by a supported Combatant Command (COCOM to augment headquarters operations (HQs) during contingencies. Individual augmentation is used when a specific skill, MOS, and grade is required to augment a staff or joint HQ JMD when there is no service unit capable of fulfilling the requirement. Department of Defense, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction
(CJCSI) 1301.01C,
Joint Publication 0-2 governs the process and provides guidance for assigning individual augmentees (IA) to meet the global combatant commanders’ (GCC) temporary duty requirements supporting approved operations.
Remissioning is defined as taking an existing unit and retraining that unit for a different mission, one that is outside its core competency. For example, we routinely remission Army transportation units against a requirement to provide a security force for US and coalition convoys....
RDML Timothy Giardina, Director of Information, Plans and Security, Office of the CNO
Quote:
...Today, over 10,000 Navy augmentees continue to make significant contributions to the Global War on Terror. Prior to the fall of October 2004, the Navy had very few “in lieu of” / “ad hoc” missions. Most missions entailed embarked security teams for shipboard security for USNS logistics ships, called Operation Vigilant Mariner, Port Security Operations and the use of Naval Mobile Construction Battalions “in lieu of” US Army Engineers. In planning for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom 05-07, Army projected shortfalls in some Combat Support and Combat Services Support areas. Army addressed the majority of this shortfall through internal re-missioning and cross-leveling. Navy assessed ability to fill the remaining projected shortfalls in categories based on our core competencies resulting in “existing match,” “minor modification,” “major modification," and “new core capability.” Areas such as Medical, Engineering, Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Intelligence were assessed as “existing match” while “minor modified mission” areas include Cargo Transfer Units, Military Police Confinement Detachments and Postal Platoon Detachments. “Major mission modifications” took existing core capability and added extensive training to provide non-traditional mission areas such as Air Ambulance, Counter Rocket Artillery and Mortar, Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) Platoon and Counter Improvised Explosive Device. More recently, emerging missions have Navy providing new capabilities to include Civil Affairs, Provincial Reconstruction Teams and Embedded Training Teams. The Joint Staff considers a full range of sourcing solutions across all services and the Navy has supported the joint force needs with support to a wide range of mission areas. By leveraging core skills and tailored training, Navy is able to provide the Joint Staff with a range of sourcing solutions. It is worth noting, approximately 75 percent of Navy augmentees are employed using their core Navy competencies. Navy will continue to focus with near match to core skills and expects this level of support to continue assuming no new requirements....
Brig Gen Marke Gibson, Director of Current Operations and Training, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans and Requirements
Quote:
...ILO tasks are generated when the Joint Force Provider provides a substitute force capability to the requestor because the traditional force is not available. The Joint Staff business rules identify ILO as a method that provides solutions when the preferred force sourcing is not an option. There are three ILO categories. The first is the Joint Sourcing Solution (JSS), which is a Service providing a like capability or competency within its core competency in place of another Service’s core mission. For example: USAF civil engineers replace Army heavy construction engineers. The second ILO category is the Remission Solution, which is when a Service remissions an existing unit to perform a mission not within its core competency. For example, an Army artillery unit is remissioned as a transportation unit. The Air Force has not provided any ILO solutions in this category. The third ILO category is Retrained Ad Hoc Solution, which forms an ad hoc unit from a group of individuals who are then trained, equipped, and deployed to support a COCOM requirement. Examples are Provisional Reconstruction Teams, Training Teams, and Civil Affairs Teams.
Of the approximately 26,000 Airmen deployed in the CENTCOM Area of responsibility (AOR), approximately 6000 or 23% are considered to be filling ILO tasks. We also fill another 1,200 joint-manned positions with Air Force individual augmentees, which have increased approximately 10% per year since 2003. Since 2004, we have deployed approximately 22,000 Airmen to perform ILO tasks. Also, ILO tasks had been increasing 33% annually until this year (2007), in which the increase was 57%. These ILO tasks draw from across the board of Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSCs): Public Affairs, Judge Advocate, Chaplain, Intelligence, Counterintelligence, Medical, Communications, Logistics, Engineering, Security Forces, and Operations. Currently, 87% of our ILO-tasked Airmen work Joint Sourcing Solutions. The remaining 13% are part of the Retraining Ad Hoc Teams....
