Death of a Corps by a Thousand Taskings

As the Army moves into the 21st century, it faces numerous challenges. The events of the past decade have irrevocably changed the way the Army does business. We have moved from a large threat based Army to a small capabilities-based force. We are now a force-projection Army, formerly a forward deployed force. The Army needs new tactical, operational, and strategic capabilities; revised, flexible force structure; austere fiscal management; and new war-fighting and peacekeeping capabilities to meet current guidance from the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA). To meet today's full spectrum of mission requirements, the Army must maintain a broad range of capabilities to support US joint commands and alliances around the world. The Army must maintain the flexibility to adapt its structure and internal systems and subsystems to respond to changes in national and military strategy. Taking into account our national interests and strategy, the Army must plan and field a flexible Capabilities-designed force, able to quickly task-organize and rapidly adjust to a wide variety of new complex missions. The time is right for change in view of the OSA's bold new initiatives. But there is little time to establish essential cohesion for unit level readiness to conduct the full spectrum of warfare. This study examines the current Army policy of replacement with individual augmentees (individual tasking, temporary change of station (TCS) or temporary duty/temporary additional duty TDY/TAD)) versus unit replacement, and how this policy is impacting readiness. The Army must establish a policy of unit replacement, rather than overly relying on individual augmentees. The current policy of individual replacement to support numerous requirements is destroying unit readiness and causing extreme personnel turbulence.