A quality force is built on quality people. III. Quality The Importance of Quality Quality is the defining characteristic of a trained and ready Army, and maintaining the quality of the force is the overarching requirement for the Army today and for the future. While the keys to a quality force are attracting and retaining America's best young men and women, quality also requires excellence in facilities and services, in training and equipment, and in leadership at all levels. In short, a quality force demands an environment in which every soldier, civilian, and family can reach the highest levels of personal and professional growth. This chapter discusses the programs designed to maintain a quality force as we shape the Army for the future. The importance of quality has been clearly demonstrated in combat in Panama during Operation Just Cause and, more recently, in Operation Desert Storm, where our soldiers and their leaders have performed exceptionally well under extremely adverse conditions. These operations validated the importance of quality in force projection operations, where versatility and adaptability to foreign and hostile surroundings are essential to accomplishing assigned missions quickly. These dramatic demonstrations of the capabilities of a professional, trained and ready force confirm the value of quality soldiers and civilians in today's Army. The competence and flexibility of our quality soldiers and civilians are also important in shaping the Army for the future. The challenges of the international environment, the complexity of new technologies, and the diverse missions that will be assigned to the Army will require men and women of intelligence and dedication who are able to adapt quickly to the mission at hand. Demands placed on soldiers and civilians will surely increase as we strive to maintain a full range of capabilities during our transition to a smaller, capable Total Force. Consequently, maintaining quality as we reshape the force is the Army's top priority. The Army must maintain the high standards that we have established, both for those who will enter the Army and for those who wish to remain for a career. In addition, the Army is committed to taking care of our soldiers, civilians, and their families during the transition by continuing and refining essential quality of life programs, maintaining a steady flow of promotions and schooling opportunities, and providing adequate career opportunities. Personnel Support to Active Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard soldiers deployed on short notice in support of Operation Desert Storm. From the start, the Army has worked to ensure that the deployed forces and their families at home receive the best possible support. Mail is important to every soldier and the family at home. Operation Desert Storm presented new challenges for the Military Postal Service. The great distances, initial shortages of postal personnel, and the rapid arrival of units and individuals taxed the system. The Military Postal System responded and initially processed mail destined for Army units in Saudi Arabia through four gateways (New York, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Washington, D.C.). Since November 1990, most Operation Desert Storm mail has been flown out of McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, by the Military Airlift Command. There are 11 postal companies deployed to Saudi Arabia The Army's personnel system supports soldiers deployed for Operation Desert Storm. to provide general and direct support to soldiers. Mail volume to all services from the end of August to the middle of January 1991 has totalled almost 28 million pounds. The Army Personnel Information Systems Command undertook a number of initiatives to improve personnel service support to deployed soldiers and civilians. The command provided training in personnel matters to deploying units and allocated computer systems to augment Reserve Component (RC) units. To assist Army forces in Saudi Arabia in providing quality personnel service support at corps level and at echelons above corps, the command also developed a program to support austere corps and theater level personnel organizations. The programs were designed to support strength management, strength accountability, and mail. They feature the rapid integration of commercial off-the-shelf hardware with Army-developed software and coordination assistance for essential communications links. These initiatives provided an enhanced management and planning capability that significantly improved the ability of our tactical forces to conduct combat operations. Army Legal Assistance has provided extensive services to all soldiers deploying to Operation Desert Storm and their families remaining at home. Predeployment legal assistance includes preparation of wills and powers of attorney, screening soldiers' commercial life insurance policies for military exclusion clauses, and providing information on the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act and the Veterans' Re-employment Rights Law. The Army is making every effort to ensure that soldiers and their families are aware of their rights and legal assistance services. The Community and Family Support Center, the Army's center for morale, welfare, and recreation services, is providing services to both soldiers and their families. Family support systems for both Active and Reserve Component units are working extremely well. Family Assistance Centers are operating 24 hours per day in locations where large numbers of soldiers have deployed, and family sup port groups have been formed to keep family members informed. Multilingual briefings, resource guides, and Army Emergency Relief (AER) assistance are being provided. Chaplain, legal, and medical support is tailored to meet the needs of personnel and families remaining at home. Support for the deployed soldiers also is being provided by the private sector. In an inspiring public outpouring, companies and private citizens are providing gifts and services, and organizations and individuals are sending a large volume of letters and morale packages. To meet the needs of our soldiers for information, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) began broadcasting in September 1990 in Saudi Arabia. The service has distributed over 6,000 portable radios to units in Saudi Arabia. Stars and Stripes newspaper is distributing a special edition to soldiers in Saudi Arabia. The Army and Air Force Exchange System (AAFES) is supporting all services in Saudi Arabia with exchanges, catalogue services, 16mm film, and video services. Products are trucked to forward units where exchanges are not available. Rest and relaxation programs are being implemented to complement the tactical situation. These range from rotation to a support facility for hot showers, recreation, and laundry services to a 3- to 4-day break aboard a leased cruise ship. Morale support activities will continue to be refined as the situation in the theater evolves. ized job search skills training, personalized assistance and counseling, workshops and seminars, one-stop job hunting activities, and referral to external agencies. ACAP will be capable of serving approximately 180,000 to 220,000 soldiers, civilians, and family members each year, with a surge capability to accommodate those separated involuntarily. Seven sites are currently evaluating pilot programs. ACAP will be fully operational in 1991, with a total of 67 TAOS and 57 JACs at Army locations worldwide. The Army can expect a number of benefits, as well as cost offsets, as a result of successfully executing the Army Career and Alumni Program. ACAP helps those who have served well. It also engenders goodwill for the institution as individuals leave the service and reenter civilian life and reduces unemployment compensation costs to the Army. Recruiting and Retention The ability to attract and retain the best young Americans remains a critical element in sustaining the quality of the Total Force. Recruiting and retaining quality soldiers and civilians in a highly volatile and competitive marketplace requires a complex approach that combines the proper allocation of adequate recruitment and retention resources, the management of a trained recruiting organization, and the maintenance of the recruited force. Adequate pay and benefits, realistic expectations for training and advancement, and quality of life programs are essential to maintaining a quality force. The choice to serve in the Army must continue to be a viable career option if we are to attract and retain the soldiers and civilians the Army will require for the future. Recruiting Initiatives Education incentives remain the Army's most powerful recruiting tool. Money for college remains the most important incentive in enlisting our high-quality soldiers. This is reinforced by the fact that over 40 percent of enlistees say they either would not have enlisted or would have chosen another service if there was no Army College Fund (AFC). As college costs continue to rise, education incentives will take on a more important role. The Army College Fund along with the Montgomery GI Bill benefits and enlistment bonuses for qualified applicants are integral components of a structured Army recruiting offer. The ACF, available only to those enlistees who score in the top three Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) categories, possess high school diplomas, and enlist in certain critical combat arms skills, has been a very useful recruiting tool. The ACF Plus, currently being tested in selected areas, extends the ACF to 2-year enlistments in non-combat arms positions as well. This offer also requires a 2-year term of service in a reserve unit. Enlistment bonuses also are offered to attract quality enlistments for 4year or greater terms. Recruiting results indicate that these incentives continue to be extremely successful in building a quality force. In FY90,95 percent of the nonprior-service Active Army enlistees were high school graduates, with 66.9 percent scoring in the top three AFQT categories. Only 1.8 percent scored in the lowest allowable AFQT category. Ninety-two percent of those eligible enrolled in the Montgomery GI Bill program. Nearly a third of these enlistees selected skills that qualified for the Army College Fund. The ACF Plus demonstrated similar results for non-combat arms skills. Its requirement for continued service in the reserves has fostered quality for that component as well. As we conclude Operation Desert Storm, we must be provided adequate resources for both the active and reserve recruiting missions. We must continue a first-rate Army advertising program and maintain or increase awareness of Army recruiting initiatives. We must sustain sound educational and bonus incentives as well. These initiatives, coupled with a professional recruiting organization, will ensure that today's Army and the Army of the future are manned with quality personnel. The sufficiency of our advertising funding is currently a major area of concern for the Army (see below). Retention and Reserve Component Despite planned reductions in the size of the active Army, continued decreases in the number of young people in the population and personnel turbulence caused by the transition to a smaller Army will present major difficulties in manning the Total Army. The retention of quality soldiers, particularly soldiers in their first term, will continue to be a critical contributor to personnel readiness. Of equal importance is the need to retain the skills and experience of soldiers leaving the active force by having them affiliate with RC units in either the Army National Guard (ARNG) or the United States Army Reserve (USAR). As we transition to a substantially smaller active Army, our focus will shift from retention of the maximum number of quality soldiers to the selective retention of only our top performers. We are in the process of revising our Retention Control Points, which govern how long enlisted soldiers may remain in the service in their current rank. Retention Control Points are used to retain in the service only those soldiers who have progressed with their peers. Reenlistment incentives still are needed to encourage quality soldiers to remain in the Army, but we have reduced the number of such incentive programs from 14 to 8, and we are The ARNG seeks to recruit and maintain a force composed of approximately 50 percent nonprior-service and 50 percent prior-service soldiers. The ARNG needs nonprior service accessions to fill the large number of specialist and private first class positions. We recruit the high-quality members of the local community to fill these positions. Prior-service soldiers complement these soldiers by sharing their experience and job knowledge. As most prior-service soldiers are specialists, corporals, sergeants, and staff sergeants who compete for limited position vacancies with nonprior-service Guardsmen seeking promotion opportunity, the ARNG seeks to balance prior-service accessions with the need to provide already serving Guardsmen upward mobility. During FY90, the Army exceeded active Army retention objectives in all categories as well as the Reserve Component transition objective. Personnel Management Personnel management entails matching the skills, experience, and rank of our quality individuals with unit needs to ensure Army-wide personnel readiness and ad equate career progression. Operations Just Cause and Desert Storm demonstrate the Army's continuing requirement to deploy forces on short notice. Maintaining required levels of unit readiness throughout the Army as we execute Operation Desert Storm and shape the force for the future will be a significant personnel challenge for the Army. Impact of Operation Desert Storm Operation Desert Storm has introduced some extraordinary personnel management requirements that have caused the Army to increase temporarily our active duty strength. For example, well over 100,000 Reserve Component soldiers were on active duty by the end of January 1991. Further, the Active Component is adding 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers per month to the total end strength through "stop loss" programs. Operation Desert Storm will significantly delay the personnel drawdown ramp. The Army will most certainly not meet our stated FY91 end strength objective. Our end strength will include a number of officers in excess of authorizations and Defense Officer Personnel Management Act limitations. The ultimate delay will depend on the length and magnitude of the continued Army requirements for Operation Desert Storm. When the operation is concluded, it is imperative that the Army be permitted to efficiently and prudently return to the managed reshaping of the Total Force. Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Noncommissioned officers are the backbone of the The Army seeks to retain experienced, skilled NCOs. Army and the foundation of the Army's small-unit leadership; maintaining the quality of this component of the force is essential. The Army will meet our NCO needs in FY92 for the first time since 1987, eliminating a 9,500 shortfall in NCOs in FY91. This improvement will be due in part to the reduction in Army force structure, as the Army's NCO strength will decline from 276,372 in FY90 to 264,727 in FY92. With a smaller NCO corps, experienced and skilled NCOs will become increasingly critical, especially as a means to offset potential degradations in readiness resulting from personnel turbulence as we reduce the Army. Congress and the Secretary of Defense have authorized the Army to maintain NCO strength during the reshaping of the Army. This authority will enable the Army to sustain promotion flow, maintain personnel readiness within units, minimize the number of NCOs involuntarily separated, and retain the quality NCOs essential to our professional, volunteer force. Full-Time Support (FTS) Program The Full-Time Support Program is crucial to the preparation of RC units to accomplish successfully their demanding wartime missions. The full-time support force consists primarily of Active Guard/Reserve personnel and military technicians. It provides assistance in readiness, training, force modernization, and sustainment functions essential to maintaining required levels of unit readiness and maximizing training time for drilling Guardsmen and Reservists. We have identified FTS requirements equal to approximately 17.8 percent of the RC drilling end strength. Because of funding limitations, FTS personnel currently make up only 12.2 percent and 9.9 percent of the ARNG and USAR, respectively. Sustainment of FTS and increased manning to requirement levels are essential for the Reserve Components to prepare effectively for additional mission responsibilities, to increase readiness, and to continue modernization. RC Medical Personnel Programs The overall readiness of USAR medical units continues to improve. In addition, during FY90 the number of units increased from 320 to 366. Existing programs and strategies that impact positively on USAR medical readiness include: -The National Army Medical Department Augmentation Detachment offers flexible training programs in critical specialties for physicians and nurses who are unable to train on a regular basis with a USAR medical unit due to geographical or time constraints. At the end of FY90, there were 414 physicians assigned to this program |