Americas Defense Meltdown - IT Acquisition Advisory Council

Bruce I. Gudmundsson • 187in the Marine Corps, membership in these units is contingent upon the practice ofparticular civilian occupations. Moreover, the composition, structure and schedules ofsuch units are custom-tailored to the peculiarities of the occupations in question.The Army ReserveJust as the Marine Corps Reserve serves to augment the active duty Marine Corps,the Army Reserve serves to augment the regular Army. In addition to this, the ArmyReserve provides the organizational framework for the mobilization of a large nationalarmy of the sort raised for the world wars of the 20th century. While it is increasinglydifficult to imagine a scenario in which such a force might be needed, it wouldbe unwise not to make some provision for mass mobilization. Moreover, the designof the Army Reserve is such that the cost of its ability to serve as the framework fora large national army is minimal. The chief enabler of rapid expansion, the abilityof the units of the Army Reserve to replicate themselves in a short period of time, isinherent in their organization.Many of the units of the Army Reserve, including most combat and combat supportunits, are academic lifecycle battalions that bear such a close resemblance totheir counterparts in the Marine Corps Reserve that any further description would beredundant. Indeed, the chief difference between the lifecycle battalions of the ArmyReserve and those of the Marine Corps Reserve lies in the specifics of their calendars.While most lifecycle battalions of the Army Reserve follow a schedule identical tothat of their Marine Corps counterparts, some (such as artillery units armed withthe Multiple Launch Rocket System) spend only one year on active duty, have shorterperiods of on-site refresher training and make more extensive use of online refreshertraining. This makes service in such units attractive to young people who are planningto pursue a technical certificate or an associate degree, rather than a traditionalfour-year degree.A substantial portion of the units of the Army Reserve, particularly service andsupport units of various types, are “parallel occupation” units. While the civilian occupationsof members of academic lifecycle battalions have little, if anything, to dowith their military jobs, the members of parallel occupation units either practice or arepreparing to practice civilian vocations that correspond to their military occupationalspecialties. That is to say, the members of overland transportation units are truckdrivers and diesel mechanics, the members of military police units are police officers,and the members of construction units are carpenters, electricians and heavy equipmentoperators. Because of this, the training schedules of parallel occupation unitscan focus on those skills that are specifically military. Thus, the training schedule ofa transportation unit need not devote much time teaching its members how to handlea truck or repair a diesel engine, but allows a great deal of time for such subjects asconvoy operations, anti-ambush tactics and weapons training.