| CPT Richard P. Bean Jr. | CPT David P. Chambers | CPT Catherine M. Marshall |
| CPT Otis Spencer Jr. | CPT Shannon N. Williams |
Officers in the US Army Reserve and Army National Guard play an essential role in Force XXI, the Army of the 21st Century. With the time and financial constraints on training Reserve Component (RC) officers, their military education must encompass both technical and tactical aspects. The challenge that training developers face is integrating both the technical and tactical components of the battlefield into two weeks of resident training for RC officers. This article will briefly discuss the evolution of the RC education system and then outline a proposal to modify the RC Advanced Course. This proposed program of instruction will fulfill the educational needs of an RC multifunctional logistician on the modern battlefield.
Young company grade officers attending the Combined Logistics Officer Advanced Course (CLOAC) at the Army Logistics Management College (ALMC), Fort Lee, VA, often hear: "The Army is changing and you are a vital part of it." True, CLOAC students are a vital part of the changing Army. However, the concept of a changing Army is not new. Today’s changes are refined continuations of a process that began over 20 years ago at the end of the Vietnam war in Southwest Asia.
Former Chief of Staff of the Army, General (Retired) Gordon R. Sullivan, continued to build on a process that General (Retired) Creighton W. Abrams began when General Abrams was Chief of Staff of the Army in 1974. The end of the Vietnam war brought a change in foreign and domestic policies. General Abrams shifted the military position from one of manpower to national security. President Richard M. Nixon saw the need to sustain operations on two and a half fronts. President Nixon accomplished this goal by downsizing the Army to 16 divisions. This concept closely parallels the words echoed through the halls of ALMC today: "2 fronts and 10 divisions."
As General Abrams began to search out where to cut the Army, he realized a correlation in career fields between the civilian world and the military occupational specialties in combat service support (CSS) operations. Some RC officers and soldiers actually were practicing similar wartime tasks on a daily basis. He also realized that President Lyndon B. Johnson was able to sustain operations in Vietnam before President Nixon’s term of office because the Army activated and constituted several CSS units for the war mission. This military action prevented an extensive call-up of the US Army Reserve and Army National Guard. When President Nixon made the decision to downsize the active Army, General Abrams deactivated several CSS units and realigned others.
General Abrams’ thought process followed two avenues. The first was that the US Army Reserve and Army National Guard would receive initial training from the active Army in specialties that had civilian applications. The second was that downsizing would force the Commander in Chief to call up CSS units when required to sustain an operation. This ended the President’s ability to commit a substantial number of forces without Congressional approval.
By the end of FY97, the US Army Reserve will consist primarily of combat support (CS) and CSS and a few Aviation units. The US Army Reserve will remain under the control of Forces Command, Fort McPherson, GA.
Most US Army Reserve units are corps and theater level assets. Within the total force structure, US Army Reserve units are affiliated with Active Component (AC) units. They are "called up" by specialty to complement or assist their AC units. An example of a specialized unit call-up is the 14th Quartermaster Detachment from Greensburg, PA. These RC soldiers are in the water detachment whose barracks were hit by a SCUD missile during Operation Desert Shield/Storm in the early 1990s.
Combat Units in Army National Guard
Unlike the US Army Reserve, which primarily contains the CS and CSS units, the Army National Guard consists of combat units. A majority of the units are organized into enhanced brigades. Previously referred to as "roundout brigades," this organizational concept began at the end of the Vietnam era. The enhanced brigades are affiliated with an active division to include light, heavy or mechanized. These brigades have a dedicated forward support battalion aligned under the division support commander during war. The enhanced brigades train with their dedicated divisions and rely on their divisions to evaluate RC training. For example, during the Brigade Command Training Program, the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment from Boise, ID, participates with the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized). In the event of a Presidential call-up, Army National Guard units must be federalized. Therefore, these units cease to be under the control of the governor of a state. The governors use the Army National Guard, when not federalized, for support within each state as determined by each state governor.
Current Configuration
Under the current configuration, reserve officers receive their advanced course education through correspondence courses and two weeks of resident schooling at their branch school. The exception is Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) logisticians (captains) who must attend CLOAC. Other US Army Reserve and Army National Guard officers attend CLOAC if their unit has such funds for training and if the officer can take the time off from a civilian job. However, the number of AGR captains who attend CLOAC is very small. The RC Advanced Course fulfills the requirement to branch-qualify an RC captain. The correspondence RC Advanced Course, however, does not fulfill the training required to award the RC officer the functional area 90A skill identifier.
For an RC officer to receive the functional area 90A skill identifier, the RC officer must complete one of two additional courses of instruction. The first viable option is the RC Multifunctional Combat Service Support Operations Course. Primarily to units on site, this course is taught through two weeks of instruction by AGR officers assigned to ALMC.
The primary focus of the RC Multifunctional Combat Service Support Operations Course is educating field grade officers to fill branch-qualifying positions at corps and theater level units. The course is attended by both officers and noncommissioned officers. Some soldiers attend for retirement points only and are not paid.
The second viable option to gain the 90A skill identifier is attending the two-week Support Operations Course (SOC). Again, the emphasis is on training field grade officers to become battalion executive officers, support operations officers or battalion operations officers. The SOC is taught in two phases. Phase I is completed through correspondence course work, and Phase II is conducted as a resident course at Fort Lee.
In regard to command, an officer with the functional area 90A skill identifier has more opportunities than the pure Quartermaster, Transportation or Ordnance officer. The RC requires that commanders hold, as a primary or secondary skill identifier, either a branch-specific or multifunctional skill identifier before assuming command. Given that 90A brigade command opportunities will be expanding to 65 percent of available commands in the next few years, the RC officers receive the training required for the 90A skill identifier. The challenge that faces the RC officer today is how to get the education and skills required to lead a multifunctional organization despite the almost insurmountable time and money constraints.
Realizing the interaction that RC and AC officers will have on the battlefield, they should train together whenever possible. The Army could benefit by training RC and CLOAC students together. Currently, the AC officers in CLOAC and the RC officers train independently of each other. The program of instruction for the RC Advanced Course could be modified to incorporate a three-day capstone exercise with CLOAC students in the AC.
The following proposals for changing officer advanced course instruction would better train the RC multifunctional logistician for the Force XXI battlefield:
- Develop a three-day capstone exercise for Phase III of CLOAC. The CLOAC students would apply the six tactical logistics functions and prepare a logistics estimate up to the division rear. (See the chart on Phase Three Modification Active Component.)
- The Army National Guard officers would join the CLOAC students because of the role of the enhanced brigade and its forward support battalion.
- The US Army Reserve officers would apply the six tactical logistics functions from the division rear through the corps and into the theater.
- The RC officers would attend their respective branch schools for 11 days instead of 14 days. For the last three days, all RC and AC advanced course officers would come together at Fort Lee, VA, for the capstone exercise. (See chart on Phase Three Modification Reserve Component.)
The Army would gain numerous tangible and intangible benefits by incorporating these changes into CLOAC and the RC advanced course. The tangibles include training as the Army actually fights the modern war, working together as logistics staff planners, and understanding the importance of communications and the urgency of resupply operations on the battlefield. The intangibles include a professional understanding of the total Army, an awareness of the personal and professional sacrifices both AC and RC officers make, and an appreciation for friendships that develop. Also, given today’s global situation and the Army’s missions in operations other than war, RC and AC classmates of today may very well work together again in the future anywhere in the world. As former Chief of Staff of the Army General (Retired) Creighton W. Abrams said 20-plus years ago: "Greater dependence necessitates closer integration."
The authors are Quartermaster graduates of the Combined Logistics Officer Advanced Course 95-11/12 at Fort Lee, Virginia.