Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

family-support related. I found an unintended consequence
of the battalion staff’s and my departure and execution of
the DOC mission was the signal it sent the family support
group (FSG) leaders. Some felt that it minimized their
importance and the importance of the rear detachment in
general. There was resentment that the rear detachments
and families were not first priority. While undoubtedly it
was the right thing to do to keep deployment as the first
priority, in retrospect we should have communicated better
with the FSG leaders.
In one of the first meetings I attended with the Base
Support Battalion, Family Support Group Leaders, and
Rear Detachment leaders, I saw the major problem with the
relationship among the three. That is, roles and responsibilities
were not well defined, and, in my opinion, the Army‘s
community side had not taken responsibility for family
support as they should.
The particular instance I remember was a briefing by
one of the people from the community on Family Assistance
Centers (FACs). She talked about their role, describing the
Family Support Groups as the first line of defense, with the
rear detachment reinforcing the FSG, and the FAC as the
last line of defense. I was very upset at this line of reasoning
and felt I had to speak up. In my mind, the Family
Assistance Center was the first line of defense, not the last.
It is at the FAC where the paid professionals exist whose job
it is to support families. It is not, in my mind, the primary
job of the unit rear detachment, nor the Family Support
Group. My feeling was that the rear detachment supports
the deployed unit first, then the soldiers who are not
deployed, and then serves the families as a conduit of
information. The Family Support Group role, in my opinion,
was one of emotional support to each other. That is, any
support group’s purpose seems to me to be emotional
support. Parents Without Partners, Lupus Support Groups,
Alcoholics Anonymous, and others do not provide
community assistance. They provide emotional support to
individuals. I felt it was unfair to saddle Family Support
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