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The road ahead in ’09

From a new commander in chief to a revamped method of PT, soldiers will see a slew of changes in 2009. Some might make Army life tougher. Some might make it easier. But there’s no doubt it’s a packed agenda as the Army’s active and reserve forces shift gears in Iraq and face likely increased action in Afghanistan, along with keeping up with the day-to-day demands of running the service and meeting the needs of families on the home front. Here’s a look at some of the highlights:

1. NCO promotions

The new year kicks off this month with 4,400 soldiers expected to be promoted in the sergeant ranks, 800 more than January 2008, Army officials said. And the pace isn’t supposed to let up, with a total of 51,000 noncommissioned promotions forecast through the year.

In January, senior NCO sequence numbers and mid-ranks cutoff scores call for 11 advancements to sergeant major for the Regular Army, 78 to master sergeant, 690 to sergeant first class, 1,307 to staff sergeant and 2,275 to sergeant.

Promotions to sergeant will come from a pool of 16,466 eligible corporals and specialists, and advancements to staff sergeant from a group of 16,280 promotable sergeants.

2. Stop-loss and dwell time

The thorn of stop-loss and stop-move policies that has been sticking soldiers since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq isn’t going away anytime soon, according to the Army’s senior personnel manager.

Maj. Gen. Sean Byrne, commander of the Human Resources Command, said in a Dec. 22 interview at HRC headquarters in Alexandria, Va., that senior leaders want to reduce, if not eliminate, the policies that keep soldiers beyond their voluntary separation and retirement dates.

“However, I think there will be a lot of pressure to keep stop-loss and stop-move in effect until the number of troops deployed overseas is reduced,” Byrne said. About 7,000 soldiers are serving on active duty beyond their scheduled separation dates.

Byrne said the success of recruiting and retention has provided some relief.

“When the war started we had 480,000 soldiers, and today we have 545,000 soldiers in the force,” he said.

That puts the Army within 2,000 soldiers of meeting its expansion goal of 547,400 one year ahead of schedule.

Byrne cautioned that there are a variety of issues that adversely affect the manpower equation.

In addition to the uncertain status of stop-loss soldiers, the Army has 6,000 to 7,000 wounded warriors in transition units who are not available for operational assignments, even though they are carried on the active-duty rolls.

Many of the soldiers being added to the force under the Grow the Army program are being assigned to brigade combat teams of 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers each.

Active component force structure currently has 43 BCTs that either are fully manned or in the process of being built.

Byrne, whose organization is responsible for manning these units, said three additional brigades will start building at about this time next year.

The goal is to have 48 fully manned BCTs by 2012.

Officials said that as these units are added to the force, the Army will be able to increase the time soldiers spend at home station between deployments. Called “dwell time,” soldiers currently average about 12 months at home for every 12 months deployed.

Officials expect that as more brigades become available for operational assignments, dwell time throughout the Army will increase to 24 months, and eventually 36 months.

Meanwhile, Congress and President Bush have signed off on payouts of up to $500 per month this year to soldiers extended under stop-loss. The actual cutting of checks awaits the Army setting a specific amount of the check and review by a congressional panel. As the plan stands now, the payouts won’t be retroactive. Also, the special pay plan is set to expire at the end of this fiscal year.

3. Officer incentives

Regarding officers, the Army may offer a new round of officer retention incentives in 2009, but likely without the huge cash bonuses of the past 18 months.

Results of the two-phase captain retention program that ended Nov. 30 are being evaluated to determine retention strategy for the new year, according to Paul Aswell, chief of the officer policy division in the Office of the G-1 at the Pentagon.

The target population for the bonus-laden retention campaign launched in September 2007 included 23,000 captains from the basic line branches, the Medical Service Corps and Nurse Corps.

Incentives included critical skill retention bonuses of $25,000, $30,000 and $30,000, respectively, along with graduate school attendance and certain assignment and training opportunities.

The program was started as a temporary measure to bolster retention among officers in year groups 1999-2005. Included in the ongoing force expansion are requirements for an additional 9,000 officers, most of them captains and majors.

Under a pre-commissioning program that began in 2006, more than 4,100 high-potential West Point and Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship cadets have agreed to service extensions in return for branch of choice, assignment and advanced schooling guarantees.

Aswell said these additional service commitments will significantly increase the number of officers who will remain on active duty through at least their eighth year of service.

Officer Candidate School will remain a major source of new officers in 2009, with the 12-week OCS course at Fort Benning, Ga., projected to commission about 1,700 second lieutenants.

However, the Army will tighten educational requirements for in-service enlisted soldiers and warrant officers seeking commissions. Aswell said the Army will implement a policy in 2009 that will require in-service OCS applicants to have a baccalaureate degree.

Under current policy, applicants must have at least 90 semester hours of college credits that lead toward a degree.

“Soldiers who want to go to OCS but who don’t have a four-year degree should apply as soon as they can, because the policy will change,” Aswell said.

Also, the Army Competitive Category major board, previously scheduled for April, has been moved forward to January, which should make nearly 2,000 newly promoted majors available to fill O-4 positions in brigades and other units later in the year.

To support that change, the Army will accelerate the promotion “pin-on” point for major from 9½ years to about nine years, and for captain from 38 month to 37 months.

The later change will generate 400 to 500 additional captains for 2009.

4. Personnel system delays

If you were looking forward to the new joint service pay and personnel system for active and reserve soldiers, it won’t start March 1 as planned.

The Army said it doesn’t have a new date to start the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System.

This is the fifth time since 2006 that the deployment of DIMHRS has been delayed, according to a report on system problems issued by the Government Accountability Office.

“DIMHRS is undergoing a systems acceptance test, and the program clearly is not where it should be for a March 1 fielding,” said Byrne of Human Resources Command.

“We want a fully functional pay and personnel system,” Byrne said of the system that is designed to replace 70 Army management and data systems.

DIMHRS uses a commercial software product, PeopleSoft, that was developed for civilian business applications, and has been slightly modified for military use.

“This is the largest automation project the Army, Defense Department and probably the United States, has ever undertaken,” Byrne said.

5. Full-spectrum ops training

Units coming back from deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan should be prepared for a return to training for major combat operations — at least on simulators.

The December release of FM 7-0, “Training for Full Spectrum Operations,” launched an overhaul in the Army’s approach to training by including stability operations on par with offensive and defensive operations.

Training for counterinsurgency conflicts, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq, will continue as long as those wars do. But Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey has set a goal of getting soldiers back to training in major combat ops as soon as units have a minimum of 18 months’ dwell time.

The first exercise will involve at least one brigade that is between war-zone rotations and will take place this summer in a simulated environment, said Brig. Gen. Robert “Abe” Abrams, deputy commander of training at the Combined Arms Center.

The location hasn’t been determined.

He described the return of major combat operations training as a “re-kindling of skill sets that we have to perform differently in major combat operations versus an irregular war environment.”

Abrams projected that the earliest the Army expects a brigade to be able to conduct a full-scale major combat ops rotation at one of the combat training centers would be sometime in 2010.

6. New PT manual in the works

A new physical training manual that links soldier fitness and the demands of combat and long deployments is in the final review process and likely will be available toward the end of the year.

The new manual will contain dozens of fitness regimens for the garrison environment as well as regimens with mobile equipment, such as dumbbells, that a soldier could use during a deployment.

The workouts are aimed at conditioning soldiers for the missions and tasks they perform every day, rather than getting them in shape for the semiannual Army Physical Fitness Test.

The PT test — which has remained unchanged since it first appeared in 1980 — will stay the same for now.

Push-ups and sit-ups will continue to be part of PT, but sprinting and walking will be recommended over distance running.

Some sets require soldiers to exercise in their Army Combat Uniforms, wearing body armor and helmets with rifles slung across their backs. The exercises are designed to build the strength and flexibility soldiers need for the jobs they do; perhaps to dash 50 yards in full battle gear and jump a low wall, or to endure the twisting and balance of manning a gun turret.

7. Push for M4 replacement

The maker of the Army’s M4 carbine, Colt Defense LLC, will hand over the weapon’s technical data rights to the Army in June, a step that could lead to a new weapon for the service.

By late summer, the Army is scheduled to approve a revised carbine requirement document that was ordered by Army Secretary Pete Geren in November.

This represents a significant course reversal for the Army. Until recently, senior officials have maintained that the M4 is a “world-class weapon” and saw no reason to consider anything new.

But for more than a year, the M4 has been the subject of increased scrutiny from lawmakers on Capitol Hill concerned about whether soldiers have the best available weapon. The scrutiny intensified in late November of 2007 when the weapon finished last in an Army reliability test against other carbines. The M4 suffered more stoppages than the combined number of jams by the other three competitors: the Heckler & Koch XM8; FNH USA’s Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR; and the H&K 416.

One year later, the Army held a small arms industry day in November that attracted 19 companies eager to compete for the chance to make the service’s next weapon. The event was the result of a “request for information” the service put out in August.

Provided that the new carbine requirement is approved, the Army could issue a formal request for proposals for a new carbine to gun makers in late 2009.

8. Language skills check

Soldiers have been ordered by the Army to divulge their foreign language skills after a voluntary survey designed to assess the number of soldiers who speak a foreign language failed to produce enough participants.

By March 15, all active, National Guard and Reserve soldiers, even those who only speak English, must complete an online foreign language self-assessment, according to a Dec. 19 All Army Activity message.

Describing foreign language skills as “critical war fighting enablers in the twenty-first century,” the message directs field commanders to ensure mandatory participation in the one-time assessment.

The language survey was posted on the front page of Army Knowledge Online earlier this year in response to a directive from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. With less than 10 percent participating, the ALARACT message says the voluntary survey has not been completed to the satisfaction of the Defense Department.

A November report by the House Armed Services’ subcommittee on oversight and investigations found that only a small portion of service members were proficient in the cultural and language skills critical to success in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also found that until recently, no comprehensive effort had been made to tackle the issue.

The mandatory survey is designed to identify those in the ranks who have existing foreign language skills.

Soldiers found to have a high proficiency in certain languages may be eligible for foreign language proficiency bonuses and will be recommended to take the defense language proficiency test to document that ability.

Soldiers who have already taken the survey do not need to take it again.

9. Overhaul GI Bill

One of the biggest advances in veterans’ benefits since World War II takes effect Aug. 1, when the flat-rate GI Bill transforms overnight into a plan that pays full tuition plus stipends for housing and books for most students.

Making the plan even more attractive is the possibility that career members with at least 10 years of service could be allowed to transfer their unused benefits to their immediate family. That makes the new benefit a big reward for active-duty and mobilized National Guard and reserve members and a big recruiting and retention incentive that could ease worries about future personnel shortages.

Many questions remain about how the new Post-9/11 GI Bill will work, but the most important is whether the Veterans Affairs Department will be ready by Aug. 1 to make payments in the face of what could be a landslide of claims.

The new GI Bill, for people who have served 30 days or longer on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001, will provide tuition payments directly to the school that are up to the cost of the most expensive four-year public college or university in the state where the veteran is matriculating.

When private-school tuition exceeds that of the costliest public school, students could get additional help if the school and VA agree to give grants under which the government will match whatever tuition discount a school is willing to make.

The housing stipend will be equal to the Basic Allowance for Housing rate for an E-5 living in the school’s ZIP code. The book allowance will be $1,000 a year.

While rates will vary from state to state for tuition and from school to school for the housing allowance, the average benefit will be worth about $80,000 for four years of college education.

10. More family leave

Two changes in the Family and Medical Leave Act aimed directly at military families will take full effect in 2009, expanding unpaid leave for some family members.

One change allows up to 26 weeks of time off for family members to care for their severely injured service member. The leave, available only while the injured member is still in service, applies to spouses, children, parents, grandparents, siblings or other blood relatives who serve as caretakers.

More than one family member can use caregiver leave.

The second change applies to families of National Guard and reserve troops, who can receive up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for a variety of deployment-related reasons, including taking time off for vacation if a mobilized reservist gets rest and relaxation leave during a deployment.

Families of active-duty troops do not qualify.

For both new military additions to the FMLA, eligible employees are those who work full-time, at least 1,250 hours in the last 12 months, and at a location where a minimum of 50 workers are employed within 75 miles.

The new policies represent a major expansion of FMLA, which traditionally applied to immediate family members and has been limited to just 12 weeks.

It is unclear if the omission of active-duty families from deployment-related leave was deliberate or an oversight by Congress, but it has prompted swift complaints from active-duty families because they have the same deployment issues.

Under the policy for Guard and reserve families, time off without penalty is provided if a service member gets less than seven days’ notice to deploy, or to attend military-related events such as briefings, arrange emergency child care or school activities, take care of financial or legal business, take deployment-related counseling, or take part in arrival ceremonies when the reservist returns and post-deployment events.

11. Moving household goods

Moving should be a lot less hassle for military personnel and their families with the worldwide rollout of an overhauled system for moving household goods that has been in the works for more than 15 years.

Defense officials finally expect to take the new Defense Personal Property Program global in early February. A partial rollout, dubbed DP3, launched in 17 locations in November.

One big change will affect service members and defense civilians: The program automatically will assign the best-qualified moving company available at that time, replacing a system based on low bids.

Perhaps most significantly, it gives full replacement value when household goods are lost or damaged, a feature that is mandated by law and has been in effect for more than a year in most places.

For decades, service members and families have complained about lost and damaged personal property, scanty reimbursement based on depreciated value rather than replacement cost, a cumbersome claims process and other problems.

The new system allows government and industry to handle items such as online rate solicitation, traffic distribution, tracking and management of shipments, invoice processing, claims handling and performance evaluations.

Under the new system, invoices can be processed in days rather than weeks, officials say.

12. War shift

The year turns with about 143,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and another 31,000 in Afghanistan. But despite the new agreement to have all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011, Iraq’s not yet on the downslope, officials say. The numbers there will rise again over the short term and although one Army unit slated for Iraq duty was diverted to Afghanistan — a move the Marines would like to emulate on a broader scale — don’t look for a dramatic, immediate follow-on shift of troop strength from one country to the other.

But troop strength in Afghanistan is directly tied to force levels in Iraq, Adm. Mike Mullen said in Afghanistan on Dec. 20, and as many as 30,000 more troops could find themselves in Afghanistan by next summer. U.S. officials had already been planning to send by next fall at least four more brigade-sized infantry units, combat “enablers” and a combat aviation brigade requested by Gen. David McKiernan, the top coalition general in Afghanistan, in order to better tackle a resurgent Taliban.

In addition, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed misgivings about building too large a force, telling troops in Iraq on Dec. 14, “at a certain point, we get such a big footprint we begin to look like an occupier, and not the ally and supporter of the Afghans.”

Only two units — the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, have so far been identified for deployment.