(You can watch a video version of this here)
One of the many benefits of our Coast Guard Modernization effort is the work we are doing to improve the readiness of our Reserve Forces. Since our integration of our reserve forces into the active duty component in the mid '90s, we have constantly looked for an opportunity to make the adjustments needed at the field level to improve the readiness of our reserve forces. Modernization now provides us the right means to do that. The loss of the (fot) staffs at the ISCs also requires us to act. The Reserve Forces Readiness System, or RFRS is the part of Modernization that will accomplish this action. If you saw our recent addition of the Reservist Magazine, you probably read a little bit about RFRS and how we are modernizing our Reserve Forces organization right along with our other efforts within the Coast Guard. If not, please check it out.
When we eliminated separate Reserve Units and integrated our reserve personnel with our active duty component, we did not provide our operational commanders, now responsible for both their active duty and reserve members, with the necessary resources to adequately manage their reserve forces. While we recognized this short-coming, we simply expected existing resources and our newly established ISC support personnel to fill this gap along with the many other support functions they provided to the operational commanders. It was not the way to ensure the maximum readiness of our reserve forces, and we soon learned this the hard way after 9/11.
Just about every operational District Commander mobilized reservists immediately following Sept 11th and at one juncture we had nearly 50% of our entire reserve force on active duty. Yet, our operational commanders had no dedicated resources to properly accomplish this. They also had to manage the flow of their reserve forces for the next several years as they constantly moved from the SELRES on and off of active duty. Fully recognizing this gap within our operational construct, the Reserve Program has constantly looked for the means and opportunity by which to correct this organizational shortcoming.
Disestablishment of the ISCs and MLCs allows us to now deliver the resources needed to manage our reserve forces to the operational commanders who really need them. This is the very essence of RFRS, and is great news for every operational Sector and District Commander. This is all about pushing resources out to the "pointy end of the spear" to enhance mission execution. Once RFRS is completed over the next couple years, nearly 100 billets will move to the Sectors and Districts for direct reserve support and readiness.
To provide the necessary resources to accomplish RFRS, we are sourcing the required positions in the field with our Full Time Support billets, known as "FTS" billets. Many of our 536 FTS billets, which are separately funded by our AFC-90 Reserve Appropriation, have been moved around the organization over the years with many of these billets no longer providing any support to the reserve program. As part of RFRS, we are re-aligning these billets back to the purpose they were established for. Most of these positions are in the support and training fields. While the loss of these billets creates a gap, re-alignment of these billets is the right thing to do to support our reserve forces and most importantly, a required action if we intend to pass an audit of our AFC-90 account to clearly show the appropriated funds for our reserve forces is being expended properly. Most of these FTS Billets will be filled with Reserve Program Administrators (RPAs) or with personnel trained to manage our reservists. That's exactly what our operational commanders need to accomplish the many administrative, training and management functions necessary for their reservists.
Thus, RFRS provides not only the personnel resources needed by the operational commander to manage their reserve forces, it also anticipates these personnel will have the appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience to properly accomplish this important mission. You can think of RFRS this way; it is putting the right people with the right skills in the right place within the organization.
Once RFRS is fully completed in 2012, our organization will finally have the right organizational structure to ensure the maximum readiness of our reserve forces. That's what RFRS is all about; getting the right resources out to the field to support and manage our reserve forces to enhance mission execution.
And the benefit to all of our reserve forces will be improved readiness and a greater capacity to meet the many demands that we have asked of, and continue to ask of, our reserves. Having the right resources to support all of our reservists is really the key, and RFRS will do that for us. So, for all the Reservists out there, this is truly a significant organizational change that will surely benefit you for as long as you serve in the Coast Guard.
We hope this information will help you better understand this small, but very important portion of our Modernization efforts.
Thank you and Semper Paratus!
RDML D.R. May
Director of Reserve & Training
MCPO J. Smith
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Reserve Forces
