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

assume the FSG advisor role for their husbands, but
often are unable to connect with enlisted spouses.
This means you should strongly consider a senior
noncommissioned officer’s wife for this role. My
experience is that it works best this way. Remember
that most of your population is enlisted. Sergeants
lead the way.
• Limit the number of trusted agents, and speak with
one voice on all matters that may relate to issues
involving family members. My wife, executive officer,
and rear detachment commanders were my points of
contact regarding all family and Baumholder issues.
No other players were in the official loop. Too many
players often distort the message during a lengthy
and distant deployment.
• Select your best captain as your rear detachment
commander. Put the structure in place on a routine
basis rather than waiting for an operational
deployment. Upon return from Bosnia, I appointed a
permanent rear detachment commander and
sergeant assistant (operating full time) to handle
things such as voters assistance, new soldier/family
orientation, etc. If the battalion were to deploy today,
we would not have to regenerate the rear detachment
and FSG leadership. It is already in place and trained.
• Start now to gain a firm handle on nondeployables.
You cannot wait for the alert order to discover who has
what sort of problem. I identified 12 soldiers as
medically nondeployable at the start of the Bosnia
experience, but was previously unaware of their
status. We sent these soldiers through the medical
boards, and almost a year later they were still in my
unit when we redeployed to Baumholder. The Medical
Evaluation and Screening process is slow and does not
work to meet the needs of a field commander. Identify
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