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Army
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New
Army Handbooks Focus on First 100 Days of Combat
American Forces
Press Service
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WASHINGTON,
May 2008 – The U.S. Army has published three new
handbooks to help soldiers prepare for the first
100 days of combat, officials said on a
teleconference with online journalists.
Army
Col. Steven Mains, director of the Center for Army
Lesson Learned, and Milton Hileman, a senior
military analyst, explained that there was a small
but clear rise in the number of casualties early
in a combat deployment, concentrated in the first
100 days.
“It’s not a new phenomenon that … we just
figured out and nobody had ever seen before, but
it’s something we could clearly show was the
case in Iraq,” Mains said. “And so it drove us
to say, well, what do they know at day 250 that
they really need to know during those first 100
days?”
After an extensive interview process with
approximately 1700 soldiers, Mains and Hileman
said that there were three key elements to
surviving the first three months; avoiding
complacency, good decisions made by junior
leaders, and the efficient staff processes at the
battalion and brigade level for commanders.
“When we interviewed the soldiers one on one, we
asked them to respond back to us as if they were
talking to a fellow soldier,” Hileman said.
Overall, the soldiers said they need to stay alert
and stay attuned to the environment in order to
survive, Hileman said. Avoiding complacency was a
reoccurring theme among the soldiers interviewed,
he added.
“Soldiers said that complacency in one way or
another contributed to every casualty they saw,”
Hileman said. “It was little things like not
following (standard operating procedures), not
having all of your kit when you went out the gate
on a mission, leaders not doing their pre-combat
inspections, and leaders not being adaptive in the
way they plan their mission.”
Mains explained the original idea was to write one
handbook for soldiers, but based on what soldiers
told them, it grew into another handbook for
junior leaders.
“The decisions the junior leaders make clearly
affect survivability and mission
accomplishment,” said Mains. “And of course,
they’re not used to making those decisions
because they’re new in theater as well.”
Soldiers expect to have good leadership at every
level, Hileman said.
Hileman explained that to a soldier good
leadership means willingness to lead from the
front and having tactical experience.
“They certainly expect their leaders to share
that same level of risk that they shared everyday
when they went out on a mission,” said Hileman.
“They expect their leaders to set standards and
enforce the standards every day.”
Furthermore, Hileman said the soldiers told him
that when they identified a weak leader, they
tended to create their own informal chain of
command.
The soldiers were also asked if they had the right
training, and more than 70 percent said their unit
was trained and ready to go.
Mains said that while most military handbooks
would publish approximately 20,000 copies, the
“First Hundred Days” soldiers handbooks have
published more than 200,000 copies.
“We know that four countries are translating it
for their own soldiers,” said Mains. “And the
other two handbooks are really close behind
that.”
Mains also said the Army is going to publish a
handbook focused on transition teams. Transition
teams are “not quite as focused on going on
patrol and staying alive as a junior soldier might
be, but they need to come in quickly and gain
rapport with … the guy that they’re
advising,” he said.
(Navy Seaman William Selby works for the New Media
branch of American Forces Information Service.)
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‘Blue
to Green’ Allows Sailors, Airmen to Transfer
to Army
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
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WASHINGTON,
Nov. 2007 – As the Air Force and Navy continue
to transform themselves, the two services are
finding they do not need the number of people
they once did. But thanks to a program called
"Operation Blue to Green," sailors and
airmen chosen for separation can transfer to the
Army and remain on active duty.
The
two "blue" services are scrubbing
their officer and enlisted ranks and eliminating
jobs. The Air Force, for example, will draw down
by 40,000 jobs in the next few years.
“These are highly qualified and motivated
people,” said Army Lt. Col. Deborah Stewart,
the chief of officer accessions policy at the
directorate of manpower and personnel management
at the Pentagon. “The Blue to Green program
allows them to continue to serve.”
The program allows qualified airmen and sailors
to transfer to the Army. This year, there is a
$10,000 bonus for those accepted into the
program.
Enlisted personnel in grades E-1 to E-5 retain
their ranks and time in grade when they
transfer. Officers retain their rank and date of
rank. All who transfer go through the Army’s
Warrior Transition Course – a four-week course
to show the airmen and sailors how the Army does
things.
If those who wish to transfer have specialty
codes that translate to Army jobs, then they do
not need to retrain, Stewart said. “An MP is
an MP, whether Army or Air Force,” she said.
Other career fields that transfer easily are
military intelligence, administration, supply
and transportation. “The majority of the jobs
that are open are in combat support, combat
service support specialties,” she said.
In fiscal 2006, 172 airmen and sailors
transferred into the Army – 152 from the Air
Force and 52 from the Navy, according to
officials at the Army Human Resources Command.
The goal was 200.
Air Force officials said the program has a
pretty good jump start for fiscal 2007. “To
date, we’ve have 69 enlisted (members) apply
-- 25 approved, 44 pending,” said Air Force
Lt. Col. Jimmy Standridge, chief of the
separations branch at the Air Force Personnel
Center, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. “On
the officer side, we have 84 applications -- 63
approved and 21 still pending.”
The Army cannot say what the goal for fiscal
2007 is yet. That depends on Air Force
“force-shaping” boards that will determine
how many positions will be cut from the
service’s rolls. The officer board will be
held in March, and while it’s not expected to
be as large as previous boards, it will still
identify a number of people for separation.
Standridge said those people will be offered the
Blue to Green option.
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Related Sites:
Operation
Blue to Green
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U.S. Army Homepage
June 14th marked one of the
most important anniversaries in the United States, the 225th
Anniversary of the creation of the United States Army. It was
on that date in 1775 that the Second Continental Congress
authorized the enlistment of ten companies of riflemen in
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The next day, George
Washington was appointed commander-in-chief.
The United States Army has
been a cornerstone of America's freedom, military power,
service to other nations, and communications and technological
leadership. Army personnel have commanded great military
victories, traveled the world, masterminded many of the
communications field's greatest achievements, and developed
much of the battlefield technology
Army News:
Army
News Service
Army
Magazine (Green Book)
Parameters
(US Army War College)
1st
Headlines - Army
NCO Journal
Air
Defense Artillery (ADA)
Army
Logistician Magazine
Fort
Lewis Newsbreak
Fort
Riley Post
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Command Resources
Perscom
Online - Enlisted Information
Direct the Army's enlisted
personnel management system to include implementing ODCSPER
policy to ensure combat readiness throughout the Army.
Sergeant
Major of the Army Homepage
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National
Guard CSM Homepage
The
Army National Guard predates the
founding of the nation and a standing military by almost a
century and a half - and is therefore the oldest component of
the United States armed forces. America's first permanent
militia regiments, among the oldest continuing units in history,
were organized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636. Since
that time, the Guard has participated in every U.S. conflict
from the Pequot War of 1637 to our current deployments in
support of Operation Joint Forge.
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