DOCC—personnel recovery

Military Review, May-June, 2003

CW5 John D. Wallace, USA, Fort Hood. Texas--General Burwell B. Bell's Military Review article, "The New DOCC" (January-February 2003), is informative and well thought out. Bell addresses many deep operations coordination cell (DOCC) problem areas such as personnel, equipment and techniques. One area he does not address is personnel recovery (PR). Combatant commanders today direct all units in their areas of responsibility (AOR) to conduct personnel recovery in support of their own operations. If a corps is "JSCP'd" [Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan] against a theather, its commander Should take the time to read the joint Task list and initial AOR-entry PR requirements. A corps' PR programs has strategic, operational, and tactical implications, and it stretches the corps PR battlespace from the seaport of debarkation through the ground component's command's forward boundary. Success in personnel recovery will not be achieved by assigning the task to the next available liaison officer.

I suggest that the hub of a viable corps PR program reside in a rescue coordination center in the corps DOCC fusion cell, and that the rescue coordination center position, located within the G3 Air, be staffed by an aviation Chief Warrant Officer 5 with a carrer field designation "I" or by a tactical operations officer. If staffed by a nonaviation operations officer, the officer should be trained through the Joint Targeting Staff Course, the Joint Search and Rescue Coordinator Course, the Joint Aero-space Command and Control Course, and the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency PR (JPRA) 101/301. The tactical operations officer can provide the corps plans and fusion cell staffs with long-term planning and execution-related institutional knowledge of aviation and PR subject matter. The tactical operations officer Should work in the fussion cell via a Personnel recovery mission software, MIRC-capable laptop; Tactical Internet, and digital non-secure Voice terminal while tethered to the Plans cell.

I recommend the corps rescue coordination center position be created by modifying the corps HHC MTOE, FC0103, dated 2 October 2002, which is a direct link to other rescue coordination centers, Theater Joint Search and Rescue Center, JPRA, and national support for PR operations. Although considered aviation-centric, personnel recovery, or its subset, combat search and rescue, is often conducted for nontraditional ground customers, as demonstrated recently during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In war or peace, the CW5 tactical operations officer in the corps G3 Air rescue coordination center is the subject matter expert for PR training and operations.