Equipping the Army Reserve for the fight

On almost any Saturday morning, in the drill hall of any Army Reserve Center, the first sergeant marches to the center of the hall, calls "Fall in!" and another training assembly begins. To many of us, this is how it was in the beginning and how it has always been. This is our heritage, and it often evokes memories of good times, camaraderie, friendships and esprit de corps.

Although such military traditions link us to our proud history, we must also realize that what worked well for us yesterday may not work for us today. As President Abraham Lincoln told Congress in 1862, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. ... As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew."

The Army Reserve is undergoing the greatest change in its 96-year history. No longer relegated to the back bench, the Army Reserve is now a fully engaged partner with the Army in the global war on terrorism.

To meet the challenges of the 21st century, we are changing the Army Reserve--how we organize, how we train, how we prepare for mobilization. Most importantly, we are changing how we think about Army Reserve service.

Among these deep, fundamental and lasting changes is how we equip our soldiers and our units. As the Army changes to a more agile and capable force, the Army Reserve must have the right equipment to provide the right support to a combatant commander in a theater of operations.

The Army Reserve has successfully supported America's Army at war. More than 112,000 Army Reserve soldiers have deployed around the world since September 11, 2001. In 2004, the Army Reserve provided 36 percent of the Army combat service-support capability, 13 percent of the medical forces and 27 percent of the engineer capabilities required by the combatant commanders of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

We have achieved what we have been wanting for decades: a chance to play in the big game. For years, Army Reserve leaders told the Army, "Put me in the game, Coach." Well, now we're there. And I am immensely proud of how our soldiers have performed during these challenging times. For example, soldiers from the 143rd Transportation Command of Orlando, Fla., conducted Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) operations at Kuwait Navy Base, moving more than 25,000 personnel and thousands of vehicles and containers across the beach with Army watercraft to discharge vessels offshore. Also, the 320th Military Police Company, St. Petersburg, Fla., established the first-ever Transshipment Point in Iraq, transferring more than 45,000 enemy POWs between April and November 2003. These are just two examples of the great things Army Reserve soldiers are doing around the world.

Yet, our success is not without cost. Army Reserve soldiers have sacrificed greatly for the noble cause of freedom. In addition to countless missed birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and other precious moments of life, 62 of our fellow Army Reserve soldiers have paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and will not be returning home to their families. Hundreds more have been injured. One of our own, SPC Matt Maupin, remains captured. Their courage, dedication and selfless service to our country spur us to continue improving the Army Reserve.

As the Army Reserve continues to support the global war on terrorism, one of our greatest challenges lies in providing the "full" equipment and the "right" equipment to our soldiers for the fight they face, wherever and whenever that may be.

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken their toll on our equipment. With battle losses and items that our units have been directed to leave in-theater as stay-behind equipment (SBE), the Army Reserve has only 76 percent of its required equipment on hand. Having said that, it is unrealistic for us to expect to receive billions of dollars in currently unfunded requirements. We should not expect that every unit will have all of its equipment at the same time. We must make the most of what we have. The Army Reserve has two primary sources for new equipment: the Department of the Army, which procures equipment for both Active and Reserve Components; and National Guard and Reserve Equipment Appropriations (NGREA), in which Congress provides dedicated funding for Reserve Component equipment. These two sources combined do not meet the total Army Reserve equipment requirements. So we receive additional funding to refurbish and upgrade existing aging equipment and we look to the Active Component Army to "cascade" equipment to the Army Reserve as it replaces and upgrades its own equipment. Historically, we have tried to bring all Army Reserve units to full equipment strength, treating all units equally. But after decades of effort and making little progress, we realized we must prioritize our resources. So we implemented a system of tiered resourcing to ensure that those units most likely to be called to active duty had all the equipment their Modified Table of Organization and Equipment required. This system worked well in theory, but in fact, for Operation Iraqi Freedom, many of our Tier 1A units were not the first to be called.

Clearly, we need a system that is both economically feasible and flexible enough to meet the ever-changing demands of an Army at war.

To help us fully equip the units that need it most, in 2005 the Army Reserve will begin implementing the Army Reserve Expeditionary Force (AREF), consisting of modular force packages organized at the battalion level and below. It allows the Army Reserve to provide sustainability, availability and predictability to both the soldier and the combatant commander. AREF leverages our core competencies of civil affairs, medical, military police and transportation, which are not as readily available in the Active Component Army. Each package rotates through various stages of readiness and responsiveness, culminating in a 9- to 12-month call to active duty every five years.

AREF calls for organizing our go-towar units (AA units) into 10 packages for rapid deployment over a five-year period. The units in Year I would be "on alert" ready to be called to active duty and deployment almost immediately. Units in Year 5 would be reconstituting, most likely from a recent deployment.

AREF allows the Army Reserve not only to provide mobilization predictability for soldiers, families and employers, it allows us to better manage our equipment for the force overall.

If we properly manage our equipment, we can substantially reduce the need for piecemeal, last-minute cross-leveling of equipment to mobilizing units when an alert order comes. Unfortunately, this is how we have been operating. Since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom-1 (OIF1), the Army Reserve has executed almost 40,000 lateral transfers for more than 250,000 end items between mobilizing and non-mobilizing units. This is both costly and time-consuming.

This is not to say that Year 1 units in the AREF will have everything and Year 5 units will have nothing. Although Year 1 units should have most of their equipment, they may need to plus-up from pre-positioned equipment either at the mobilization station or in-theater. Year 5 units may only have individual equipment as they reconstitute, but as they phase into Year 4, they should have what every unit really needs, minimum essential equipment for training (MEET).

In other words, we don't need every unit to have a motor pool full of equipment looking pretty. That equipment must be where it is needed the most --going with the units heading out the door for an overseas deployment. Our goal is not full motor pools and supply rooms; our goal is fully equipped units going into a theater of operations.

We are going to focus our procurement efforts over the next year on those items that protect the force, such as small arms, night-vision goggles, global positioning and movement tracking systems. Recent Army-wide shortages in state of-the-art body armor and up-armored High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles highlight the level of public interest in making sure our soldiers have the best in protective equipment.

Ensuring that our soldiers have enough equipment is not sufficient, however. We must see that they have the right equipment.

For example, our after-action reports tell us that the M16A2 rifle is too long and cumbersome in certain combat situations where soldiers need to employ their weapons in split seconds. What we need are more M4 carbines, which have a shorter barrel, for any soldier who may come under fire while performing his or her duties, not just engineers and military police, but truck drivers, civil affairs and psychological operations specialists and medical personnel as well.

Getting the right equipment into the hands of our soldiers is especially important as the active Army we support transforms to a modular force centered on the brigade combat team. A "plug-and-play" Army requires interoperability of equipment, especially communications equipment and vehicles.

The Army Reserve is a very different organization from what it was 20 or 30 years ago. Our units have been deployed more frequently in the last 12 years than during the previous 75 years. But if your father or grandfather were to wander through one of our Reserve Centers--and see the 30-year-old M60 machine guns or the 1960s-vintage 21/2ton trucks--he might wonder if things have really changed all that much. The Army Reserve often still uses Vietnamera equipment in this 21st century global war on terrorism.

If we are to fully support the Active Component and the joint force, our soldiers must have the right equipment that is compatible with theirs. This is especially critical in communications equipment. If Army Reserve soldiers have obsolete radios that do not work with those the Active Component forces have, they cannot fully provide the support those forces need. And if troops are in danger, they need to have the right radio to call for help. Service in hostile areas is dangerous enough; our equipment should not contribute to our soldiers' risk. They deserve to have the best equipment available when going into harm's way.

Lack of modern signal equipment is more than just a compatibility issue--it is a readiness issue as well. Some Army Reserve signal units were not deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom as a result of the supported commander's reluctance to degrade the overall communications network with the insertion of older, less capable communications equipment.

As the Active Army continues modernization, very little modernized equipment finds its way to the Army Reserve. Instead, older AC equipment is cascaded to the Army Reserve, an action that continues to perpetuate compatibility issues. In many cases, the cost to repair or rebuild this cascaded equipment to mission-capable standard is passed to the Army Reserve. As the Army modernizes, the total force needs to be supported as One Army.

Modernization is critical because it makes our equipment interoperable with Active Component forces and reduces our maintenance costs. For example, the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) provides commonality of parts and components, making them less expensive to replace. As our current truck fleet continues to age, the cost of parts increases dramatically.

The Army Reserve is changing in deep, profound ways. It is more than just superficial adjustments. It is a total overhaul--a depot-level rebuild--of the organization, while it is fully engaged in supporting the global war on terrorism. I have compared it to rebuilding an aircraft while the plane is in flight. We are changing the Army Reserve culture so soldiers know that mobilization is the expectation, not the exception. We have implemented tougher, more realistic training to make sure our soldiers are warriors first, technicians second.

As we expect more from our Army Reserve soldiers, they in turn expect more from us as their leaders. They expect to be treated equitably when called to active duty. They expect to receive the same pay and benefits as their Active counterparts for the same job. And when preparing to face the enemy on a dangerous mission, they expect to have the same equipment as their Active duty brothers and sisters.

As his nation faced the terror of Hitler's army across the English Channel in 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told America, "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job." We in the Army Reserve ask the same of America. America expects the best for its best, the young men and women of America's Army who have volunteered to serve during a time of war. They deserve nothing less.

LTG James R. Helmly took command of the U.S. Army Reserve Command May 3, 2002, and became the chief, Army Reserve, May 25, 2002. A Vietnam combat veteran, General Helmly was assigned as the commanding general of the 78th Division (Training Support), headquartered in Edison, N.J., at the time of his selection as the chief, Army Reserve. He served as the deputy chief, Army Reserve, Washington, D.C., from June 1995 to June 1999. From June 1999 to August 1999, he served as the commander of the joint task force conducting Operation Provide Refuge at Fort Dix, N.J. Until taking command of the 78th Division in May 2001, he was the military assistant, Manpower and Reserve Affairs (Individual Mobilization Augmentee), Office of the Assistant Secretary ot the Army, Washington, D.C., from October 1999 to May 2001.

A native of Savannah, Ga., General Helmly entered the Army as an enlisted soldier in 1966 and received his commission through Officer Candidate School in 1967. He served on active duty from 1966 to 1973 in a variety of company and battalion-level assignments, including two tours in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division and command of an infantry company in Panama.

His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the Command and General Staff College, the Armed Forces Staff College and the Army War College. He has a bachelor's degree in liberal studies from the State University of New York in Albany.

Among his numerous awards and decorations are the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star with Valor Device and three Oak Leaf Clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal with silver Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Parachutist Badge, the Army Staff Identification Badge and the Ranger Tab. He was inducted into the Infantry Hall of Fame in 1996.

At the time of his selection, in his civilian occupation, General Helmly was serving as the assistant deputy chief of staff for operations at the Total Army Personnel Command, Alexandria, Va. Before becoming the deputy chief, Army Reserve, in 1995, he was a civilian supervisory program analyst at Headquarters, U.S. Army Forces Command, Fort McPherson, Ga. He has twice been awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal.

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