Reorganizing the 7th Civil Support Command in Europe
Abstract
The 7th Civil Support Command located in Kaiserslautern, Germany, is the only Army Reserve command entirely stationed on foreign soil. Since 2008, the command has transformed from an administrative command to a deployable operational command specializing in Foreign Consequence Management. Currently, the 7th Civil Support Command's major capabilities are provided by civil affairs units, civil support teams, and a deployable headquarters element. After an in-depth review of the 7th Civil Support Command, this paper concludes that there are a considerable number of issues inherent in its mission and organization that need to be improved. In all, there are six different issues, if addressed, which could improve the unit's usefulness and support to EUCOM, AFRICOM, and the nation. These issues are the 7th Civil Support Command name itself, mission or focus, use of civil support teams overseas, span of control, institutional training capability, and excess mission command capacity. With the possibility of deployment due to a foreign consequence management incident relatively low, the 7th Civil Support Command should be reorganized as a critical enabler for the European and African theater of operations capable of handling a variety of mission sets. In a time of decreasing fiscal budgets, this reorganization would expand the array of contingencies that the 7th Civil Support Command can respond to and would be an efficient use of resources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 12, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA561510
Entities
People
- Alan K. Schrews
Organizations
- United States Army War College