Transforming the theater support command: in his final article on the theater support command, the author suggests that the key to improving the Army's multicomponent support organization may be creation of a separate Reserve component augmentation

Army Logistician, Nov-Dec, 2004 by George William Wells, Jr.

For a number of years, Reserve component soldiers integrated into theater support commands (TSCs) have been working to "get it right.' As I noted in my articles in the last two issues of Army Logistician, the professional energies of TSC soldiers sometimes have been diverted from accomplishing the mission by cultural differences between the Active and Reserve components, self-imposed barriers and fears, and mis-communications and misunderstandings. The success of an integrated, multicomponent organization like the TSC depends on efficient and effective use of all of its assigned personnel, whether they come from the Active or Reserve components. All TSC personnel must focus on the positives, not on the distractions, in their work. The TSC requires an operational view that is different from that of any other organizational structure the Army has developed to date. What follows are my thoughts about what such an operational view should include.

Transformation and the TSC

Like other organizations within the Army, the TSC must continue to transform itself. It must become more agile and transient in executing the mission at hand. Future scenarios in the Department of Defense envision further reductions in the duplication of support activities provided by each service to their personnel. In fact, the future will be directed toward joint logistics. Joint logistics may result in a logistics head-quarters command that includes the current TSC structure in an expeditionary, multiservice organization that may or may not be commanded by an Army element. Ad hoc support and staff logistics arrangements of the past must become embedded realities of tomorrow. Jointness is the long-range solution to the military's current distribution challenges and will be the hallmark of its future logistics architecture. Support will be consolidated and services outsourced as forces become more agile.

The future force will be lethal and able to survive, with a reduced logistics footprint, improved sustainability, and a streamlined, flattened echelons-above-corps (EAC) logistics force. As part of the One Army concept, the TSC must be ready to deploy in the first 15 days of an operation. In effect, the logisticians of the TSC cannot remain as a tail; instead, they must be embedded structurally with the combat warrior. Those of us who serve in TSCs must remain relevant.

The TSC must have a flexible structure that can expand and change, in much the same way that an amoeba adapts to its environment. The future logistics force must be able to respond with the combat warrior to a hotspot, complete the mission, and rotate out. As logisticians, we must be able to expand and contract to fit the warfighter's need.

What is in store for the TSC? Based on the logistics transformation challenges of today, it is apparent that we need to change the paradigm of how the TSC is administered, supported, trained, and organized.

Problems With TSC Headquarters

Let's look at the integrated TSC headquarters. Do we really need the number of Active and Reserve component slots currently in the headquarters element of the TSC? Maybe not! Does the day-to-day support environment really require the number of Active component soldiers currently assigned to the TSC? It might be more logical to have senior military managers oversee a civilian structure in normal headquarters operations. Under this scheme, brigades would launch forward with added support from a Reserve logistics augmentation to meet requirements for a split-based or forward headquarters. Without the reserve augmentation, the Active component TSC would become overwhelmed in a contingency scenario.

Without Reserve component personnel serving on a full-time basis, TSCs headquarters are thin in personnel. This is due in part to the integrated staff structure and low authorized level of organization ratings and because TSCs are not fully supported in their authorized Active component slots. [The authorized level of organization is the percentage of assets (personnel and equipment) in a unit's table of organization and equipment (TOE) that the unit is authorized to maintain.] TSC Active component elements compensate for their lack of Active fills and activated Reserve component soldiers by increasing the number of table of distribution and allowances slots and hiring Department of the Army (DA) civilians and local nationals. This allows TSC headquarters to fulfill their assigned missions.

Currently, if the Reserve component element of a TSC headquarters is activated and is not employed in a split-based operation, its soldiers have no work to do and are redeployed to their home station. TSC leaders must carefully weigh how they will employ added Reserve component soldiers immediately following a contingency operation.

A Proposal for TSC Restructuring

The TSC restructure I envision would delete the Reserve component elements from the current modification TOEs (MTOEs) of the four TSCs and combine them into one, stand-alone MTOE document. [The four TSCs are the 19th TSC at Daegu, Korea, with continental United States augmentation (CONUS AUG) headquartered at Des Moines, Iowa; the 9th TSC at Camp Zama, Japan, with CONUS AUG based at Fort Belvoir, Virginia; the 21st TSC at Kaiserslautern, Germany, with CONUS AUG headquartered at Indianapolis, Indiana; and the 377th TSC at New Orleans, Louisiana.]