What is the Army's life cycle program really mean?

Question

Does anyone know what the life cycle classification actually means? I heard no one can leave the unit but does that mean just PCSing or also ETSing or going to OCS or what? Does anyone actually know?

Answer 1

BLUF - Basicly your stuck in the unit for the duration of the lifecycle... NO ONE will PCS/ETS from a Brigade on the lifecycle (approx 3 years).... The only exceptions are priority assignments (Drill Sgt, Recruiter, SF Q course etc.) not sure if OCS is considered priority assignment.

Here's an article that tells you all about the great stuff of Force Stabalization... of course it's slanted

Force Stabilization increases readiness, predictability
By Joe Burlas
February 9, 2004


(Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series of articles on Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker's focus areas. This one also coincides with a major announcement on initiatives to stabilize the force.) WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 9, 2004) -- While the primary goal of stabilizing Soldiers is to increase the readiness of their units for national security requirements, that stabilization also supports Well-Being for Soldiers and their family members, according to officials.

Force Stabilization is one of the 16 focus areas Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker identified last fall that the Army will work to remain ready and relevant in the near term and the future.

"We think by stabilizing the Army, where we don't move the Army every two to three years on an individual basis, but we keep people in place, develop cohesive, stable units, where spouses can work, where kids can go to school, where people can invest in homes and develop equity, stabilizes forces," Schoomaker told members of the House Armed Services Committee, Jan. 28. "It's better for the fighting forces. It's better for the families. And, it will increase our retention."

To stabilize Soldiers and their families in the near term, the Army plans to implement two strategies -- Home-basing and Unit Focused Stability, said Col. Paul Thornton who has been working the issue for the past 17 months as a member of the Unit Manning Task Force and chief of its successor, Task Force Stabilization.

Under Home-basing, all initial entry Soldiers -- enlisted and officers -- initially assigned to selected installations will remain on their initial duty-assignment installation following training for six to seven years. This allows Soldiers and their families time to grow community roots and have a known family support structure in place for those families if the Soldiers deploy, Thornton said. It also allows predictability in where they will be for a longer period than the current system permits, he said.

Currently, the average assignment tour length for enlisted initial entry Soldiers is about 31 months, said Brig. Gen. Sean Byrne, director of Military Personnel Policy, G-1.

Home-basing does not apply to midterm or career Soldiers, only initial entry Soldiers, Thornton said, but should lead to return assignments to the Home-base for all Soldiers eventually.

Nor does the initiative stop Home-based Soldiers being levied for a short-term assignments at other locations.

Soldiers need to know that there may be a chance they'll have to do other things during their initial extended tour-- short tours in Korea, Bosnia, Kosovo -- but with Home-basing, they will return to their initial-assignment installations, Byrne said.

The six-to-seven-year career mark for ending Home-basing was established because that is the point where the Army's manning needs outside of tactical units significantly increases, Thornton said.

"It's the point where that initial entry officer has made captain, completed a company command, and the Army may need that officer as a Pentagon staff officer, an instructor at the schoolhouse, or to complete advanced civilian schooling," Thornton said. "The enlisted Soldier will have likely made sergeant by that time and is ready for assignment as a recruiter, drill sergeant or an instructor."

Leader development training, such as basic and advanced noncommissioned officer course, and the captain's career course should not be impacted by Home-basing, as Soldiers will be sent to that training on temporary duty and then return to the installation.

Home-basing is set to start at selected Forces Command installations with divisional brigade combat teams sometime in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year. It will eventually include most FORSCOM bases in the United States and may include some combined FORSCOM / Training and Doctrine Command posts, Byrne said.

Under the second initiative, Unit Focused Stability, all members of a unit initially arrive at the same time and are stabilized in that unit for three years.

"Optimally, if you want to build unit cohesion, you keep members of a team together through training, deployment and employment," Thornton said. "This is about building more capable warfighting units that require less train-up time when alerted for deployment."

The Army understands that losses occur to any unit due to medical, administrative, hardship or judicial issues, Thornton said, so there is a plan for an annual package of replacements who would remain with the unit through the remainder of the 36 month unit lifecycle. Individual replacements for key positions will be filled as required and requested by the unit, he said.

A key aspect to Unit Focused Stability is that the majority of these scheduled replacements joining the unit will be initial entry Soldiers.

"Let's say you need to replace a company commander due to a loss," Thornton said. "His replacement will come from within -- somebody who has been with the unit at the start of the unit lifecycle, somebody like the company executive officer or one of the battalion staff officers. Then you take a senior platoon leader and backfill the position left vacant. The initial entry replacement comes in and then fills the empty platoon leader position. It works the same way on the enlisted side."

Recruiters have been armed with a variable enlistment incentive to encourage those entering the Army to sign on for duty with a Unit Focused Stabilization unit. Recruits who sign up for the bonus must serve on active duty the amount of time it takes them to complete basic and advanced individual training plus three years in the unit rather than the standard three, four or six year enlistment.

Opportunity for leader development training, such as basic and advanced noncommissioned officer course, and the captain's career course will continue under Unit Focused Stability, only the timing of attendance may be affected.

The 172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate), based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, is the first Army unit to use Unit Focused Stability when it started the process to become the Army's third Stryker Brigade Combat Team this past summer.

Unit Focused Stability will take longer to implement across the Army than Home-basing because of operational requirements and the need for coordination with multiple Army organizations for each unit transitioning to the new manning system, Thornton said. Eventually, the Army plans to transition one brigade combat team a month, he said.

Both Force Stabilization initiatives should not impact anybody's chances for promotion, Byrne said, as promotions are based upon Army requirements, not unit requirements.

"We are increasing the readiness of the Army through stability and unit cohesion, while providing more predictability to Soldiers and their families," Byrne said. “We have always said that we enlist Soldiers and reenlist families.”

(Editor's note: See a related article on the Variable Enlistment Length initiative. The 16 focus areas include: The Soldier; The Bench; Combat Training Centers/Battle Command Training Program; Leader Development and Education; Army Aviation; Current to Future Force; The Network; Modularity; Active Component/Reserve Component Balance; Force Stabilization; Actionable Intelligence; Installations as Flagships; Authorities, Responsibilities, and Accountability; Resource Processes; Joint Expeditionary Army with a Campaign-quality Capability; and Strategic Communications. To view a brief synopsis of each area, visit The Way Ahead.)

Answer 2

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Answer 3

yes thay teach you how to duck and roll