MANNING THE FORCE
INTRODUCTION
The first challenges of logistics are to assure the uninterrupted flow of soldiers to the battlefield and provide the necessary services to sustain those soldiers. Manning the force encompasses personnel readiness manage-ment, personnel accounting and strength reporting (PASR), replacement management, and casualty operations management. This chapter will highlight the manning functions and discuss how these systems maintain the unit's fighting strength and assist the commander during the command estimate process. Figure 8-1 depicts the relation-ships between manning and sustaining soldiers and their systems.
MANNING
The systems of personnel readiness management, PASR, replacement management, and casualty operations manage-ment meet the Army personnel requirements from mobilization and deployment through redeployment and demobilization. The Army personnel readiness system provides a flexible tool for selecting and assigning soldiers with the correct skills to meet the requirements before, during, and after operations. The replacement management system moves soldiers and civilians through CONUS replacement centers to the unit commander in the theater of operations. The replacement system responds to commanders through the personnel readiness management system. Casualty operations management helps the personnel readiness manager replace losses incurred during battle.
The personnel information management system interconnects the manning subfunctions. The personnel information management system collects, validates, processes, and stores critical information,manually and electronically,about soldiers and units through distributed and command data bases. The personnel information data base is used by personnel managers to assess unit readiness and support personnel allocation decisions, by casualty managers for basic personnel information and casualty information verification, and by replacement managers to track replacement flow through the replacement system to the ultimate unit of assignment. The commander receives an analysis of the database information to support his decisionmaking process.
a. Personnel readiness management. The personnel readiness management system's mission is to distribute soldiers and Army civilians to subordinate commands based on ********ed manpower requirements or authoriza-tions and the commander's priorities. Personnel readiness describes a state of wartime preparedness. Personnel readiness management is a process for achieving and maintaining that state. The process involves analyzing personnel strength data to determine current combat capabilities and project future requirements. It starts with comparing an organization's personnel strength against its requirements or authorizations and ends with a personnel readiness assessment and allocation decision.
The personnel readiness management process requires strength information from two sources: summarized strength reports from the command chain and detailed strength information from the command data base. The command and control strength reporting system (C2SRS) contains summarized reports that allow the personnel readiness manager to analyze unit strength. These reports consist of the battle roster, personnel summary report, personnel requirements report (PRR), task force summary, and personnel status report (PSR). The PASR system accounts for soldiers at unit level, reports duty status changes, and updates command data bases at all levels to reflect those changes. This information must reflect real-time organizational alignments to account for task force organization. Organizational strength must include both operating and accountable strength.
Readiness managers continuously collect, correlate, and analyze strength information. This information includes the latest known strength, projected and current casualties, projected replacement and those recently received, and soldiers and civilians RTD from hospitals or as internees or stragglers. Based on the theater commander's priorities, they develop a vision for future requirements and allocate replacements to corps and EAC units. From this vision, personnel readiness managers recommend various courses of action to commanders and give them the impact on proposed courses of action.
Based on the theater commander's priorities, readiness managers allocate replacement soldiers and civilians to corps and EAC units. The peacetime replacement system requires that the Army component commander submit personnel requisitions before requirements. At OPLAN execution, the system must deliver filler and cas-ualty replacements to the theater to bring units to combat-required strength and ensure replacements are available as casualties occur. The US Total Army Personnel Command (USTA PERSCOM) maintains preestablished theater (****f) requisitions for this purpose. The Army component commander must prepare to transition to the normal requisitioning system based on actual casualty experience between 90 and 120 days into the conflict.
Reconstitution is a process commanders use to restore units to a desired state of combat effectiveness commensurate with mission requirements and available resources. Personnel readiness managers and replacement managers are critical players in the reconstitution process. Commanders have two reconstitution options: reorganization and regeneration. The commander executes his option based on the current and anticipated situation, his priorities, and the resources and time available.
Reorganization is shifting resources within a degraded unit to increase its combat effectiveness. Tactical commanders at all levels conduct reorganization. Reorganization may be immediate or deliberate. Immediate reorganization is quickly and usually temporarily restoring degraded units to minimum levels of effectiveness. The commander implements it in the combat position to meet near-term needs. Deliberate reorganization is planned for and conducted when time and resources are available. It usually occurs farther to the rear.
Both forms may include cross-leveling equipment and personnel, matching operational weapon systems with crews, or forming composite units (joining two or more attrited units to form a single mission-capable unit). With both forms, the goal is to improve the unit's capability until more extensive efforts can take place. In forward units, it remains the most expedient method to restore limited combat power throughout the conflict. It also forms the basis for regeneration.
Regeneration is rebuilding a unit. The strategic and operational logistic system regenerates units, allowing the commander to set the terms of battle. It requires large-scale replacement of personnel, equipment, and supplies. Regeneration requires assistance from higher echelons, usually the commander two levels up. Regeneration involves reestablishing or replacing the chain of command, conducting mission-essential training, external assessments, and both operational and CSS assets to make it work. The intensive nature of regeneration will cause a unit to move to a designated area protected from enemy destruction and harassment where it can return to a specified level of combat effectiveness.
b. PASR. The mission of the Army's PASR system is to account for soldiers and Army civilians, report other strength-related information, and update command data bases at all levels. Information
gained through PASR provides readiness managers with the details necessary to analyze personnel strength as a component of combat power.
Personnel accounting is the reporting system for recording by-name data on soldiers and Army civilians when they arrive and depart units and when their duty status changes; for example, grade changes and from duty to hospital.
Strength reporting is a numerical end product of the accounting process. The PASR process starts with a strength-related transaction submitted at battalion and separate unit level and ends with a database update to all echelons of command to the total Army personnel data base (TAPDB). Strength reports are available from battalion to division level through the C2SRS. These include,
Battle rosters that contain a personnel file extract on every soldier in the unit. It can reflect task organization by company, platoon, squad, and crew/gun section.
A personnel summary that displays units' personnel strength in aggregate numbers as of a given time. It reports strength by personnel category (officer, warrant officer, enlisted, and civilian), gains, losses, and duty status changes.
PRRs that display a unit's requirements in additional personnel by rank and military occupational specialty (MOS). Personnel managers use this report to requisition and allocate replacement personnel.
In the manual mode, the personnel summary and PRR may be combined to form a PSR. It satisfies the demand for immediate information when automated systems are not available.
Casualty operations management. The casualty operations management system's (see figure 8-3) mission is to record, report, verify, and process information from unit level to Headquarters, Department of the
Army (HQDA); notify appropriate individuals; and provide assistance to the next of kin. Casualty information from a number of sources must be collected, collated, and analyzed to determine the appropriate action and ultimate case disposition. Casualty operations management includes casualty reporting, casualty notification, casualty assistance, line-of-duty determination, reporting status of remains, and casualty assistance to the next of kin.
Personnel managers monitor the casualty tracking system and analyze the information in developing a strategy for properly using and assigning RTD and replacement soldiers. There is a requirement to account for all casualties, whether reportable or not, to exercise accurate strength reconciliation. Additionally, the commander uses this information to develop courses of action; estimate and assess his fighting strength before, during, and after the battle; and establish priorities for incoming replacements.
Replacement management. The replacement management system's (see figure 8-4) mission is to move personnel from designated points of origin to ultimate destinations and coordinate individual training at each replacement center/company/section as dictated by METT-T. Replacement management is physically receiving, accounting, processing, supporting, equipping/reequipping, training, and delivering military and civilian per-sonnel. This includes replacements and RTD soldiers and civilians. While the standard is individual replace-
ments, the replacement operations system must be prepared to provide squads, crews, or teams and coordinate
for their transportation to weapon system linkup and training locations. Personnel readiness managers (PRMs) coordinate with logistics personnel to link up weapon systems with squads, crews, and teams. PRMs also coordinate with G3/S3 personnel for replacement training. The replacement unit ensures that element integrity and accountability are maintained until the division replacement section can inprocess the squad, crew, or team.
The replacement network serves as the conduit for soldiers and civilians RTD from hospitals. PRMs also help MPs determine the status of stragglers and assist their eventual disposition through legal or replacement channels.
To provide individuals as theater filler and replacement personnel, USTA PERSCOM distributes military personnel from the transients, trainees, holdees, and students (TTHS) account. Additionally, USTA PERSCOM levies the MACOMs for soldiers and civilians IAW HQDA guidance and/or procedures in the Army Mobilization Operations Planning and Execution System (AMOPES).
Commanders process replacements through the CONUS replacement center (CRC) IAW soldier readiness program (SRP) or civilian *****alent standards set by the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (DCSPER). Each replacement carries a complete deployment packet upon departure. The CRC verifies deployment readiness. It coordinates equipment issue, required area/mission processing and training, and movement to the aerial port of embarkation (APOE).
Outside CONUS (OCONUS) commanders may be required to provide replacements to a theater. A replacement unit in that command would perform the same function as a CONUS replacement battalion supporting a CRC.
Commanders at all levels require timely information to conduct effective replacement management. The CRC provides replacement information to USTA PERSCOM via the Replacement Operations Automated Management System (ROAMS) daily. Based on the projected personnel flow through the CRC, USTA PERSCOM coordinates strategic airlift IAW the Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES).
USTA PERSCOM gives the Theater Army Replacement Directorate an advance arrival report 72 hours before projected arrival at the POD to enable the replacement directorate to prepare the distribution plan. The report is organized by personnel category (officer, warrant officer, enlisted, and civilian). Replacements flow directly from the theater-level GS replacement organization to divisions. The theater personnel replacement battalion coordinates transportation with the TAMCA. GS replacement companies alert DS replacement companies and G1 replacement sections to projected arrivals. The DS replacement company coordinates with the MCT for movement to corps units.
The division replacement team coordinates with the G4 and DISCOM transportation officer for movement to the BSA. The goal for moving replacements from the DS replacement company to corps units and from the division replacement team to the BSA is 24 hours. The brigade S1 processes and assigns replacements to the battalion. The battalion further assigns replacements to company level and updates the PASR system.