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

Those were some of the major missions that faced my
unit rear detachment commanders. I am sure there were
more, but those hard-working leaders took care of them,
without my ever knowing about it. As the Rear Detachment
Commander for the brigade, they were only part of my
responsibility. Just as important and equally demanding
was the rest of the brigade who did not deploy. And to assist
me in that role was another group of equally hard working
soldiers, my staff.
THE BRIGADE STAFF
It took me a while to appreciate fully the enormity of the
task of running a brigade. I know this is hard to believe, but
it is tougher than commanding a battalion. I also had a
skeleton crew for a staff, and nearly all of the staff officers
were lieutenants. These officers were responsible not only
for supporting the deployed force, but also the two
battalions remaining in Germany. The corps headquarters
expected my little staff to continue business as usual. That
meant actively monitoring and reporting personnel
accountability, maintenance status, and training status,
plus supporting other units’ exercises. Even more
unbelievable was the expectation that we would also
conduct the annual command inspections for both
battalions and their external evaluations (EXEVAL). This
was quite overwhelming for all of us, but every one of my
staff sections pulled it off. Sometimes it was not pretty, but
the job got done. For me, every day was a long professional
development class, with me trying to impart my knowledge
and experience to my young staff. They were fast learners,
and I enjoyed every opportunity I had to train the officers,
noncommissioned officers, and soldiers in the new or
additional responsibilities they had just inherited.
The S-1 had the most contentious job. There was a
mandate to keep the deployed units at a 90 percent fill,
while trying to keep the battalions left in Germany at a 70
percent fill. This kept the soldiers of the S-1 on a treadmill
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