HRC to continue service in midst of move - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

HRC to continue service in midst of move

FORT MONROE, Va. — As the Army’s massive Human Resources Command gets ready to move to a new home in coming months, its staff members will try to make the transition as transparent as possible for soldiers they serve.

In hopes of preventing interruptions in service to soldiers during the transition, HRC career management directorates plan to have only 25 percent of the staffs moving to Knox at any time, leaving 75 percent to provide services, officials say.

Meanwhile, one thing soldiers can see is the construction of a three-story, six-wing complex that will house major components of the Army’s new Human Resources Center of Excellence. The project is on schedule, and the complex should be ready for soldiers to move in by early June 2010 and set for full operations by next October.

Army Accessions Command will consolidate its Fort Monroe elements at Fort Knox, Ky., joining Human Resources Command, which will move its components from Alexandria, Va., St. Louis and Indianapolis to the northern Kentucky post, just south of Louisville. The move results from a mandate of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Act.

Costs of construction and infrastructure improvements for the new center are estimated at $1 billion.

Federal law requires moves to be completed by Sept. 30, 2011, but BRAC officials here and at Alexandria believe they will beat that deadline by several months.

Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, AAC commander, said the consolidation of Army personnel organizations at Fort Knox is a move to enterprise management, “something the Army has been striving toward for several years with the ‘center of excellence concept’ that puts all operations of a certain function at one location.”

Similar consolidations occurred under earlier BRAC mandates at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., home of the Engineer, Military Police and Chemical Corps, for maneuver support, and at Fort Jackson, S.C., home to the Adjutant General, Finance and Chaplain Corps, for soldier support.

The consolidation at Knox “will unify the life cycle of what happens to soldiers during their careers, from their recruitment to their separation from the Army,” said Freakley, who has headed AAC since 2007. He was confirmed Sept. 25 for a second tour as AAC commander.

The consolidation plan calls for the AAC and HRC to share the new headquarters complex, while the Cadet Command and Recruiting Command will be housed in their own buildings.

HRC, with 2,700 members, is the largest of four organizations to make up the Human Resources Center of Excellence. Included in its move will be the officer and enlisted career management branches, the command group and the selection board secretariats.

Once relocated to Fort Knox, the component organizations will have military, civilian and contractor authorizations totaling 611 slots for Accessions Command, 341 for Cadet Command and 4,087 for Human Resources Command.

A timeline for the moves calls for a portion of Cadet Command to arrive in June 2010, the main body of Accessions Command in June and July, Human Resources Command in June-October 2010, and the final elements of Cadet Command in the spring of 2011.

The phased move of HRC’s main body during the summer of 2010 will allow the command to provide continuous service during the transition, said Col. Greg Gardner, BRAC director for Human Resources Command. The career management directorates will have only a portion of their staffs moving to Fort Knox at any given time.

“This means officer evaluation reports, NCO evaluation reports and award (orders) that are submitted for a promotion board will be processed on time and will make it to the board,” Gardner said.

As part of the consolidation, the Army will merge career management and selection board activities for the active component and Army Reserve.

Beginning early next year, HRC will organize into common career management branches for the active and Reserve, so that AC and RC officers of the same branch will be managed by the same office in the Officer Personnel Management Directorate, just as enlisted soldiers in the same career management field will be managed by the same office in the Enlisted Personnel Management Directorate.

National Guard soldiers are managed by the states, and will not be part of the consolidated branches.

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

During the transition, in summer 2010, the Army will move its active component enlisted selection board secretariat from Indianapolis, the active officer secretariat from Alexandria and the Reserve secretariat at St. Louis to Fort Knox.

Schedules have been adjusted so that boards will not meet during the transition and the establishment of a consolidated secretariat that will use the same data and support systems.

The first boards under the consolidated secretariat will meet in October 2010.

Gardner said that while the details are being worked out, it appears certain that officers and NCOs who serve on temporary duty as selection board members will be housed at Fort Knox, rather than off-post in commercial lodging as is done today at the three secretariats.

CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE

More centers of excellence are mandated under the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Act. The new centers being planned:

• Combat maneuvers, including infantry and armor at Fort Benning, Ga.

• Fires, including air defense and field artillery, Fort Sill, Okla.

• Sustainment, including quartermaster, ordnance and transportation at Fort Eustis, Va.