The Army recently approved the transition of the Army Materiel Command’s (AMC’s) Army Field Support Command (AFSC) at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, to the Army Sustainment Command. The transition has already begun; formal activation of the new command is scheduled for October.

“The Army is transforming, and so is the Army Materiel Command,” said Greg Kee, AMC Deputy Chief of Staff, G–5, Strategic Plans and Policy. “The Army has transformed to a brigade-centric Army, and AMC is realigning its organizational structures to support the Army modular force from the brigade to the national level.”

Transitioning to the ASC expands AFSC’s current mission, which includes managing the Army’s pre-positioned stocks, the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program, and field support. The transformation adds reset synchronization, distribution and materiel management, and integration of logistics support with joint and strategic partners to ASC’s missions.

So that it can more closely support combatant commands, ASC will add authorizations for several hundred Soldiers and realign a number of civilian positions with the command’s global operations.

“Standing up the ASC is a step in the right direction to improve logistical support to the Warfighter for several reasons,” said Lieutenant General William Mortensen, AMC Deputy Commanding General. “ASC enables us to be more responsive and provides a single interface point to the Soldier in the field for acquisition, logistics, and technology. Converting AFSC to ASC will link the industrial Army to the expeditionary Army and help provide greater logistical integration and support to deploying forces as well as redeploying and training forces.”

CIVILIAN LEADER DEVELOPMENT OVERHAULED

As a part of its overall transformation, the Army is changing civilian leader development by speeding up implementation of the Civilian Education System (CES). The transformation is driven in part by the Army’s growing reliance on civilians in an environment in which uniformed leaders are increasingly focused on warfighting missions.

CES is a series of four centralized, progressive, and sequential courses: foundation, basic, intermediate, and advanced. The foundation course is designed for civilians entering the Army and will be taught entirely by distributed learning. The basic course is geared toward civilians who exercise direct leadership. The intermediate course is targeted to civilian leaders who exercise both direct and indirect supervision. The advanced course is for civilian leaders who exercise primarily indirect supervision. These three courses will be taught by both distributed learning and resident instruction.

Implementation of the CES is scheduled for January 2007. Current leader development courses and programs will be phased out or transitioned into the CES curriculum as follows—

ARMY CHANGES MAJOR COMMAND STRUCTURE

Based on a recommendation from the Army Campaign Plan, the Army has changed its major command structure to reflect a more effective and efficient command and control structure for supporting the modular force. With this change, the term “MACOM” (major Army command) will no longer be used. The Army now has three types of major commands: Army command, Army service component command (ASCC), and direct reporting unit.

Army commands perform many Title 10 functions across multiple disciplines. The Army commands include the Army Forces Command, Army Training and Doctrine Command, and Army Materiel Command.

ASCCs are primarily operational organizations that serve as Army components for combatant commands. An ASCC can be designated by the combatant commander as a joint forces land component command or joint task force. The ASCCs include U.S. Army North, U.S. Army South, U.S. Army Europe, U.S. Army Central, U.S. Army Pacific, Eighth U.S. Army, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, and Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command.

Direct reporting units consist of one or more units that have institutional or operational functions. These units provide broad, general support to the Army in a single, unique discipline not available elsewhere in the Army. The direct reporting units include the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command/9th Signal Command (Army), Army Medical Command, Army Intelligence and Security Command, Army Criminal Investigation Command, Army Corps of Engineers, Military District of Washington, Army Test and Evaluation Command, U.S. Military Academy, Army Reserve Command, Army Acquisition Support Center, and Army Installation Management Agency.

The restructuring will help accelerate the Army’s transformation and increase its responsiveness by recognizing the global role and multidisciplined functions of the Army commands; establishing the ASCCs as reporting directly to the Department of the Army (DA) while serving as unique points of contact for combatant commands; acknowledging direct reporting units as functional proponents at the DA level; and promoting effectiveness and efficiencies by transforming the Army’s business processes while operationally focusing the ASCCs on the missions of their combatant commands.

Army Regulation 10­87, Major Commands in the Continental United States, is currently being revised to reflect these changes and becomes effective 1 October.

JOINT TASK FORCE-PORT OPENING WILL SPEED SUPPORT TO TROOPS

The Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) and the U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) are developing a concept for receiving forces, equipment, and supplies in austere areas that have no military footprint. This concept will create closer Army and Air Force cooperation through the establishment of a Joint Task Force-Port Opening (JTF­PO). The JTF­PO will consist of an Air Force element to manage airfield operations and an Army element to manage movement control and cargo-handling operations. After a joint assessment team confirmed that an aerial port of debarkation (APOD) was capable of supporting military operations, the JTF­PO would be deployed to the APOD to receive forces, equipment, and supplies. Logistics support personnel would set up tracking equipment and open distribution pipelines immediately after an area is secured. Within hours, supplies could be brought in to support humanitarian, disaster relief, and contingency operations.

In the past, initial-entry military forces typically established a presence at the airfield nearest the area of operations. The Air Force received an airplane, unloaded its cargo, and processed its passengers. Army logisticians followed a few days later and stood up at the airfield to dispatch cargo to its end destination. At times, large amounts of equipment and supplies were stockpiled at the airfield until they could be directed to the right place or unit. Troops often had difficulty locating their much-needed supplies in the logistics pipeline. As a result, they often submitted new requests for items already in the supply channels, creating a logjam in support operations.

Before the JTF­PO concept was conceived, the geographic combatant commander (GCC) was responsible for the deployment of all forces to an operation. Assigning to TRANSCOM the responsibility for deploying the JTF­PO and standing up the APOD will allow the GCC to focus his attention on his primary responsibilities. TRANSCOM will be able to deploy the forces needed to open the APOD quickly because it has access to internal airlift assets needed to support en route and airbase infrastructures.

The first JTF­PO unit is scheduled to stand up later this year. Although most initial equipment will arrive by air, SDDC is already looking into how to expand the role of the JTF­PO to integrate joint forces and missions, including in-transit visibility at sea ports of debarkation.

PBUSE WINS TECHNOLOGY AWARD

The Property Book Unit Supply Enhanced (PBUSE) system was one of the winners of the 2006 Intergovernmental Solutions Awards (ISA) presented at the 26th annual ACT Management of Change Conference held in Hilton Head, South Carolina, in June. PBUSE is an Army property management system developed by the Project Manager for Logistics Information Systems at Fort Lee, Virginia.

ISA winners were chosen by a committee of Government and industry information technology professionals who evaluated each entry based on its collaboration with other public and private organizations, its use of innovative or emerging technologies, its ability to change the organization’s business processes and deliver the mission, its availability and accessibility regardless of economic or disability status, its impact on the organization or stakeholder community and resulting significant cost or time savings, and its potential to serve as a model for other agencies or departments.

TRADOC TRAINING FLEETS TO BE MANAGED BY AMC

The Army Materiel Command (AMC) is assuming responsibility for managing and maintaining training base equipment from the Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). Under the Fleet Management Initiative (FMI), which is being implemented in phases, AMC provides fleet maintenance and supply support to TRADOC training vehicles. This allows AMC to manage related functions centrally. Because maintenance programs have not been coordinated centrally in the past, competition for the same repair parts and contract labor has sometimes occurred. With FMI, maintenance and supply actions can be synchronized, which enhances long-term planning for acquisition of scarce parts and creates the opportunity to improve the process.

A February 2002 study on the feasibility and desirability of transferring the TRADOC maintenance and supply mission to AMC determined that such a transfer potentially would optimize AMC’s core competencies and allow TRADOC to focus on its primary mission of training.

Pilot FMI programs were conducted at the Army Aviation Center at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and the Army Armor Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Based on the success of those programs, the initiative was expanded to the training base fleets at Fort Benning, Georgia, Fort Lee, Virginia, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

According to Oliver B. Bonner, Jr., the Maintenance Director at the Integrated Materiel Management Center, Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, at Fort Rucker, FMI optimized repair and buy decisions based on triage review, improved time on wing (the time an engine can remain on an aircraft wing before a shop visit is required) for repaired and overhauled components, reduced repetitive Government and contractor inspections, and increased the availability of parts and components.

According to Shelley Antle, Director of Resource and Logistics Management at Fort Knox, most components of the fleet at the Army Armor Center have higher operational readiness rates, primarily because of the access to hard-to-get parts. “One of the key advantages for maintenance and sustainment at Fort Knox has been AMC forward repair programs conducted on site to include M1A1 tank engine repair and the M88 recovery vehicle refurbishment fly-away team,” Antle said. “These actions improve operational readiness rates and get equipment back on line and in the field to meet our mission to train Soldiers.”

A rough-terrain container handler offloads containers from the landing craft, utility (LCU) 2026 Matamoros, during the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) 2006 exercise. The multiservice cargo distribution exercise took place at Fort Story, Virginia, from 11 to 22 June. JLOTS exercises test the Department of Defense’s ability to deploy, discharge, and move unit equipment and supplies in areas where no port facilities exist. This year’s JLOTS simulated a disaster relief effort in which the military provided humanitarian aid. Cargo was discharged from the USNS Red Cloud, a large, medium-speed, roll-on-roll-off vessel, onto the Matamoros using a ship-based crane. The LCU then transported the cargo to shore, where it was transferred to trucks for onward movement. The exercise also involved the use of the Offshore Petroleum Discharge System to pump fuel to shore. For purposes of the exercise, water was substituted for fuel. JLOTS 2007 will be held in Central America.

DLA CONSOLIDATES CALL CENTER OPERATIONS

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has consolidated its customer contact operations into two contractor-managed Customer Interaction Centers. The centers are located at Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia (DCSR), and the Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) in Battle Creek, Michigan. Together they form a “virtual” service for customers calling, emailing, or faxing queries to DLA.

DSCR is the primary center for supply and distribution questions. DLIS handles central contractor registration, cataloging, and other core DLIS mission areas and acts as a backup to DSCR. Agents are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in order to provide immediate service to military customers around the world.

The consolidation is the result of a study performed last year by a contractor for DLA Customer Operations and Readiness (J­4). Before the consolidation, two additional DLA sites staffed by Government employees were also part of the enterprise support service.

The DLA Customer Interaction Centers can be reached at 1-877-352-2255 (1-877-DLA-CALL), commercial (269)961-7766, or DSN 661-7766.

OEF AND OIF SOLDIERS CAN REPLACE UNIFORM ITEMS ON LINE

A program created by Department of the Army Headquarters, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and Third Army/U.S. Army Central (ARCENT) allows Soldiers deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Iraqi Freedom (OIF) to receive direct delivery of replacements for damaged Army combat uniform (ACU) items. Army Direct Ordering (ADO) is a Web-based program that permits a Soldier to go on line, order items, and have those items shipped directly to his APO mailing address.

Through ADO Web-based ordering, Soldiers use a simple point-click-and-ship process that is familiar to online shoppers around the world. The process is faster and more efficient for the user than customary direct exchange methods.

A Soldier must turn in unserviceable uniforms to unit supply before receiving replacement items. The following support items can be replaced through ADO: ACU jacket; ACU trousers; black fleece overalls; ACU sun (boonie) hat; camouflage helmet cover; coat and trouser cold-weather liner; colored flags; desert boots; digitized name, rank, and Army tapes; drawers; elbow and knee pads; hot-weather boots; rigger’s belt; sports bra; utility cap; and wicking T-shirt.

Only units currently in theater or about to deploy can enroll in the ADO program. According to Captain Tonya Gillard, the Theater Supply and Services Action Officer for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command, “There is a rumor that units must wait until they are deployed [for] 6 months prior to using ADO; this is not true. Units can enroll immediately and begin to use ADO after their first 30 days in theater. They must request to be disenrolled 45 days prior to redeployment to [allow for] complete shipment of all pending orders.”

To enroll in ADO, units must submit a Department of the Army (DA) Form 1687, Notice of Delegation of Authority, a picture of their unit patch, and assumption of command orders. The DA Form 1687 must include a nonexpendable Department of Defense Activity Address Code, the unit’s brigade and division designation, a complete APO address, and a complete phone number. The unit must provide information on where and when the unit was issued the ACU and how many Soldiers are assigned to it. This information must be emailed to ARCENT ADO administrators at adoc4@arcent.army.mil or adoc4@arifjan.arcent.army.mil. A Soldier can confirm that his unit is enrolled by going to the ADO Web site at https://army.kyloc.com and using his Army Knowledge Online (AKO) information and entering his unit name in the “submit unit name” box.

Each unit commander determines when individual Soldiers or the unit supply sergeant will submit ADO orders. A Soldier can place an order by logging on to the ADO Web site, entering the unit name in the submit box, and clicking on his unit name. The Soldier will be prompted to enter his name and Social Security number.

The orders menu will appear, and the Soldier will be able to select the items and quantities he needs to replace damaged items. ADO has built-in restrictions on quantities, based on authorized initial issue and the 6-month durability of the ACU. The process is the same if a supply sergeant places orders for unit members, except that he will use the requesting Soldier’s name and Social Security number to access the ordering menu. In either case, once the order is placed, the command-designated unit validator will receive an email message indicating that an order needs validation. Delivery time is 7 to 14 days following order approval.

The ADO program began in March 2005. As of 15 June 2006, 1,247 units were enrolled in the program and Soldiers in those units had submitted almost 60,000 orders worth over $17 million. Army Central Command funds ADO by multiplying the number of Soldiers in a unit by $55 to determine the unit’s monthly allocation. Although there is no restriction on how much a unit can spend on an individual Soldier in a month, there is no retroactive funding and unused allocations do not carry over to the following month.

To learn more about the ADO program or how to enroll, visit https://army.kyloc.com or email adoc4@arifjan.arcent.army.mil. (in Kuwait) or adoc4@arcent.army.mil (in Atlanta, Georgia).

ARMY ADOPTS NEW SERVICE UNIFORM

The Army announced in April that it would replace the three current Army service uniforms with one new blue uniform. The green uniform and white dress uniform will be phased out, and the existing blue dress uniform will be altered to become the Army service uniform.

Reducing the number of uniforms will reduce the financial burden on Soldiers for purchases and alterations. Streamlining various service uniforms into one Army service uniform will reduce the burden on Soldiers in the same manner that the Army combat uniform did for the battledress and desert combat uniforms. “We have all of these variations of uniforms—green, blue, and white,” said Army Chief of Staff General Peter J. Schoomaker. “It makes sense for us to go to one traditional uniform that is really sharp and high quality and which Soldiers will be very proud to wear. And that’s what we’ve done by adopting this blue Army service uniform that reflects simplicity, quality, utility, and tradition.”

Army blue as a uniform color traces its origins back to the National blue first worn by Soldiers in the Continental Army of 1779. “World-class Soldiers deserve a simplified, quality uniform. The blue Army service uniform is a traditional uniform that is consistent with the Army’s most honored traditions,” said Sergeant Major of the Army Kenneth O. Preston.

The blue Army service uniform provides a basic set of components that can be worn for various types of functions. The uniform will be made of a durable material that is suitable for daily use without special care.

The Army service uniform should be available in Army military clothing sales stores during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2007. The uniform will be included in the clothing bags issued to new recruits beginning in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009. Soldiers who already own a blue dress uniform may continue to wear it. The mandatory possession date is expected to be the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011. A wear-out date for the Army green class A and white dress uniforms has not been determined yet.

A Soldier makes coffee in a hot beverage bag.

HOT BEVERAGE BAG ALLOWS SOLDIERS TO HEAT WATER

Warfighters can enjoy a hot cup of coffee when organized food service is not available, thanks to the hot beverage bag (HBB). The HBB is a resealable, high-density polyethylene bag that is now included in each meal, ready-to-eat (MRE). When used with flameless ration heaters (FRHs) and recycled MRE chipboard cartons, the HBB provides warfighters a way to make coffee or prepare hot water for shaving and personal hygiene.

According to Stephen Moody, team leader for the Individual Combat Ration Team, of the Department of Defense Combat Feeding Directorate, Natick Soldier Center, the HBB was developed because it “was noted during field evaluations that Soldiers often did not reconstitute their hot beverages—coffee, cocoa, or tea—because of the mess they would make in their canteen cup. This led to the idea for the inclusion of a bag that could also serve as a cup. Also, some warfighters do not routinely carry a canteen cup.” Moody said that use of the bag creates a demand for unused FRHs, thus reducing the number of surplus heaters and decreasing related waste disposal concerns.

Response to the HBB has been extremely favorable. Soldiers deployed to war zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq believe that the ability to make hot coffee adds greatly to their quality of life.