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HRC gets ready for consolidation

Human Resources Command is preparing for its move to consolidate its separate components at Fort Knox, Ky., in the summer of 2010.

The 2,700-member command, the largest of four organizations to make up the Army Human Resources Center of Excellence, now is headquartered at Alexandria, Va., with supporting elements in Indianapolis for active-component enlisted promotion boards, and St. Louis for reserve-component boards and Army Reserve career management.

The Army will also move Cadet Command and Accessions Command from Fort Monroe, Va., to Fort Knox, as required by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission mandate of 2005.

Recruiting Command headquarters, already at Fort Knox, will be part of the HR Center of Excellence.

Col. Greg Gardner, chief of Human Resources Command’s BRAC team, said the bulk of the move is scheduled for a 120-day period beginning June 4, 2010.

Included in that move will be the officer and enlisted career management branches, the command group and the selection board secretariats.

An advance party headed by Gardner is already on the ground at Knox, where it will oversee the hiring of about 400 civilian employees.

The consolidated work force is authorized to include 2,031 Army civilians and 691 officers and enlisted soldiers.

Gardner said the Army estimates that 30 percent to 40 percent of HRC’s current civilian work force will make the move to Fort Knox.

To try to ensure continuous service during the transition, HRC career management directorates will have only 25 percent of their staffs moving to Knox at any given time.

“This means 75 percent of the staffs will be available to conduct operations and provide services,” Gardner said.

In addition to establishing a consolidated selection board secretariat for the active and reserve components, the move to Knox will result in common career management branches for active-component and Army Reserve soldiers, according to Gardner.

For example, active-duty and Army Reserve military intelligence officers will be managed by the same branch, while another branch will manage MI enlisted soldiers.

National Guard soldiers are managed by the states and won’t be part of the consolidated branches.

HRC looked at combining officer and enlisted career branches during feasibility tests in 2007-08 and has since abandoned the idea.

Gardner said the career branches will be consolidated at Alexandria before the move so they will arrive at Knox ready for full operation.