The Army's Individual Augmentation Management System: A Temporary Expedient or a Viable Army-Wide Program
Abstract
The Army has used individual augmentation or personnel on temporary change of station (TCS) status, to support military contingency and humanitarian assistance operations since the early 1990s. This system supplements the Individual Replacement System. The Army uses it to offset personnel shortages and personnel imbalances. The individual TCS reassignment system has proven quite successful during short-term contingency operations. However, this has not been the case for long-term contingency operations as evidenced during the ongoing Stabilization Force (SFOR) peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. Lack of proper accountability and ineffective tracking procedures of individual augmentees have caused significant problems during the SFOR mission. Until the Army can arrive at an acceptable solution to the personnel shortage crisis and provide doctrine that precludes field commanders from demanding personnel resources beyond their modified table of organization and equipment requirements, it will remain dependent on TCS personnel. Therefore, the Army must develop and implement formal standing operating procedures to account for, replace, and track individual augmentees in a timely manner to maximize personnel readiness and support deployed and deploying commanders. Presently, the Army does not have coordinated visibility of worldwide individual augmentation requirements or personnel fills, or a central point of contact for individual augmentation management-or even procedural guidance covering all aspects of individual augmentation management. This study explains how the Army's current Individual Augmentation Management System operates assesses its impact on readiness and recommends a proven personnel management and information system to account for, replace and track individual augmentees for Army-wide implementation The recommended system was developed and tested by United States Army Europe and implemented on 6 October 1998 support of Operation Joint Forge in Balkac
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 22, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA374964
Entities
People
- Radames Cornier Jr.
Organizations
- United States Army War College