Reshaping the force to serve our soldiers better

After seven years of war, the Army Reserve has evolved from a strategic reserve to an operational force that contributes to every mission with the skills our Warrior-Citizens bring from their civilian professions.  Our men and women have worked hard to implement the most substantial and complex transformation since WWII.  Our units are prepared and available to deploy with a full complement of trained Soldiers and equipment when the Nation calls.

Americans value our Soldiers’ commitment, selfless service, and personal courage; and they recognize the sacrifices Soldiers make to protect the Nation from those who would attack us.  Today’s Army Reserve Soldiers are members of the best trained, best led, and best equipped fighting force our Nation has ever fielded.  Shaping a force for the future that effectively and efficiently supports them and their units is critical to their continued success – and their success is our primary benchmark.

{mosads}As we continue to evolve as an operational force, we remain committed to the Army force generation model, ARFORGEN, a system that helps Army Reserve Soldiers, their families and their employers predict training and deployment cycles.  

To prepare our Soldiers for deployment, we developed a streamlined training strategy that maximized the time Soldiers are deployed and reduced operational tempo, and we continue to refine an equipping strategy that supports our training strategy and ARFORGEN.

Although sustaining the All-Volunteer Force during war is a challenge, we consistently exceed recruiting goals.  Additionally, our full attention to Family support programs has helped us surpass retention goals.  During fiscal year 2008, the Army Reserve increased end strength by more than 7,000 Soldiers.  In April, we achieved our authorized end strength of 206,000 Soldiers.  The challenge now will be to properly shape the force so that we have the right Soldiers in the right rank structure.

As the Army Reserve has evolved, so has our structure.  Reducing the number of support headquarters and creating more deployable commands has produced more specialized capabilities in our core competencies: medicine, transportation, supply, civil affairs, military police, engineers, intelligence and chemical, among others.

At the same time, we have engaged employers from both large and small businesses to ensure they understand their stake in the fight and to enhance understanding and build support that will allow us to sustain our force.

Today, the Army Reserve is developing an updated campaign plan to continuously sustain, prepare, reset and transform itself while supporting global requirements.  To that end, we developed a vision for the future that will reshape internal functions across the organization to support our operational and institutional transformation: An Army Reserve that is recognized and resourced as America’s premier reservoir of shared military-civilian skills and capabilities that supports and defends the Nation.  

As we look ahead, we know that building the right force is crucial for success.  We must review all programs and systems to identify what works and shape a force that supports the Army’s needs and increase efficiencies to support commanders in the field.  

One way to view this future is to look at the Army Reserve as an enterprise organization.   An enterprise includes interdependent resources that must coordinate their functions and share information in support of a common mission (or set of related missions).  The Army Reserve Enterprise consists of four core management areas:  Human Capital, Readiness, Materiel, and Services & Infrastructure.  To optimize the enterprise we must:

• Attract and retain the very best Warrior Citizens to serve our Nation (Manning), prepare, train, and equip Soldiers (Readiness)

{mosads}• Provide our Soldiers with the latest mission ready modular force equipment, (Materiel)

• Provide for the well-being of our Soldiers, Families, Army Civilians, and employers while providing training and unit facilities and secure, redundant communications (Services & Infrastructure)

Working together, these core management areas enable the Army Reserve enterprise to realize its ultimate goal:  predictable, trained, and ready units – the essential components that define capability.

Additionally, we will continue to work to increase our value by building strategic partnerships with industry through our Employer Partnership Initiative. Our way ahead is to build America’s premier skill-rich organization by teaming with civilian employer partners to produce a human capital strategy for the 21st century. Through EPI, we will create public-private partnerships to find, develop, and share talent to leverage the creativity and responsiveness of the civilian sector with the organizational skills, discipline, and leadership talent of the military.  

The Army Reserve provides capability the Army can ill afford to maintain in the active force. The unique skill sets of Warrior-Citizens have proved, over the course of a century, to be a positive investment for America. Working with industry, we will develop our greatest asset – our people – to realize peace and prosperity for our Nation.

Army Reserve Soldiers – full-time patriots who serve part-time – are one of the best returns American taxpayers get for their money.  Thousands of them serve at the tip of the spear, look our enemies in the eye and show the rest of the world what freedom is about and never complaining about being away from home or enduring the hardships that surround them.  They truly are this Nation’s new Greatest Generation.

Stultz is the Commanding General of the Army Reserve.