A couple of other thoughts occured as I was doing PT (yes we have made us a gym here - although we had to steal all the equipment - you have to stay in physical shape to sustain mental and emotional strength)

1) Marc had said awhile back that allot of the scientific community is turned off by the military. Even if we got some of the folks we'd like, it'd still be very beneficial to have them able to interact with their peers outside the
group(s) - this means an IO message that says, "we're not here to exploit your work to further an empire, rather we want to avoid misunderstandings, needless bloodshed, shorten conflicts and improve things." We have to change the perception of what we do by a very important part of our society.

2)These CSTs should be networked into a CoP so that what is relevant in one area can be applied to the context of other areas. Part of this is knowing what works for others, but also what is not working for others and why.

3) We have a sort of model here on the SWC, although maybe not all the skills we'd like. However, this CoP and some of the Blogs that we're linked to provide free advice, intel, research, etc. that a CST could make use of.

What would such a team look like? How many is just right (not too big, not too small). Is shift work a good idea where they could always be available - is it sustainable? Would the additional requirements be a shift leader? Would shift leaders report to a team leader? I think the number of AD military needs to be kept small or maybe 0 - they'd be more of an advisory role if anything - however, such and assignment would stimulate innovative thinking and expose AD to things outside their normal experiences.

If you used contractors, you might not get the "public service" effect the President spoke of, and it would not be cheap - there would also be artificial metrics of "what have you produced lately?" which in my mind emphsizes quantity over quality. Maybe there is a hybrid to be had. Or maybe we just need to start a new agency/service that serves as an adjunct to DoD (because they would be the primary benficiary)