Dominant Logistics
Training Issues
With this new logistical concept of Dominant Logistics comes a variety of training issues that must be addressed. This will include defining a basic logistics skill set, defining the roles and skills for logistics assignments, establishing a Logistics Corps, and developing a training doctrine to deal with these issues.
Note: This particular section details highly specific issues that are tailored to U.S. Army logistics because that happens to be my area of experience. These same ideas should be adopted in an appropriate form by the Air Force and Marine Corps.
Logistics Skill Set
What is a Logistician? This is a fairly reasonable question that, unfortunately, currently has no reasonable answer. While the concept of logistics typically covers the areas of transportation, supply, maintenance, and communications, each of these areas falls under separate and unrelated Corps commands. In the U.S. Army, there is a Transportation Corps that dictates and manages transportation issues, a Quartermaster Corps that dictates and manages most supply issues, an Ordnance Corps that handles most maintenance issues, and a Signal Corps that handles communications. To give you an idea of just how convoluted this system is for providing logistics, let's take a look at a specific function that is common to many Army units, the position of dispatcher.
The dispatcher is responsible for managing the issuing and operating of military vehicles, as well as maintaining vehicle and operator records. These are obviously transportation issues, but the dispatcher is not a member of the Transportation Corps. Since the dispatcher is a position in the motorpool (maintenance section), the person must be a member of the Ordnance Corps, right? Wrong again. In the Army, the dispatcher comes from the Quartermaster Corps even though virtually none of what they are doing has anything whatsoever to do with supplies. When it comes to logistics in the U.S. military, up is down, black is white, and left is right. To begin to correct this problem, let's define what skills all logistics-related personnel should have.
To begin with, everyone working in logistics must be functional in all supply operations. This is not that complicated of an area, but it is the cornerstone of the concept of logistics. Nothing else matters in this field if you do not have materials. All logistics personnel should also be functional in all transportation operations. We're talking truck driving here, not rocket science. It is not much to ask personnel who already drive their own cars to be able to operate a military vehicle. All logistics personnel should also be able to operate all unit level communications equipment. If you can't communicate, the rest of this stuff is moot. And finally, all logistics personnel need a fundamental understanding of the concepts of troubleshooting.
Supply, transportation, and communications are not that difficult to deal with but many will question the inclusion of troubleshooting. All logistics personnel are not going to be mechanics nor should they be expected to be. But they should be able to recognize fundamental problems with equipment like whether or not batteries are dead or where an oil leak is coming from in a vehicle. These personnel need to be adept at all areas of operator-level and organizational-level maintenance and they need to be able to recognize when a system has a serious problem. They need to know the basic components that make up an electrical system, a hydraulic system, and how these systems function. They do not need comprehensive training - just enough so that when something ceases to function, they can send the equipment to where it needs to go in order to be repaired.
Every unit has specific personnel assigned to the roles of unit maintenance, unit supply, and unit communications (pretty much everybody drives). These separate areas should be merged at the unit level into a single role of Combat Technician.
Combat Technicians
The idea of a Combat Technician is for units to have a substantial group of personnel that are trained and experienced in all organizational level logistics functions. The operative phrase here is organizational level; higher echelons of support will still be manned by personnel with more specific skills. But at the unit level, there should be no separation of maintenance, supply, transportation, and communications.
The primary reason for this change in structure is simple - too many of these tasks are currently performed by one or two people and an everyday occurence like personnel turnover can cause the units logistics to shut down. And this is without even having an enemy shooting at us. By having all of these personnel trained in the full spectrum of logistics, the unit can simply move remaining personnel around to adjust for loss. While this isn't the most efficient means of dealing with the problem, it will keep the unit functioning at a sufficient level until personnel can be replaced.
This also allows for the unit to shift personnel to meet short-term critical needs. Oftentimes, a requirement will come up in a certain section requiring additional assistance and this program will ensure that qualified personnel are readily available to fill these short-term needs. As an example, when a new commander is assigned to a unit, they are required to inventory the entire unit for the transition. With this system, additional personnel can be shifted to the unit's supply section to assist in the transition. Another example would be when a unit gets new vehicles or is pulling vehicles out of storage. This often requires more personnel than the typical motorpool has for performing the necessary inspections and small repairs. With this system, additional personnel will be available and properly trained to help.
The unit will retain the same total number of personnel for these unit logistics function; the personnel will simply be trained to engage in a wider array of missions than they currently are. This builds redundacy within the logistical system without increasing the total number of personnel. In the interim, unit commanders should insist on cross-training all personnel in the unit's logistical areas to perform the other missions. Oftentimes, leaders make the mistake of allowing personnel to cross train into higher support echelons because the soldier will need this training later in their careers. Unfortunately, the unit rarely has the resources or workload to justify this training. What tends to get lost is that as these soldiers gain rank, they will also be required to engage in the other areas of logistics. Every military unit has the resources to provide this horizontal type of cross training at the organizational level. The soldier will benefit more in the long run from learning the rest of the logistical areas than from learning a higher echelon of support and the unit will be stronger as well.
A Logistics Corps
To manage this new field, we will need to establish a Corps that can oversee training and personnel issues for Combat Technicians. Essentially, the various MOS that are being combined into the Combat Technician concept will be removed from their respective Corps' and merged in the Logistics Corps. A joint Logistics Corps that will effectively function as an entirely new branch of service will manage and provide higher echelon support. The following MOS should be merged to form the Logistics Corps:
31C - Radio Operator Maintainer
52D - Power Generation Equipment Repairer
63B - Light Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic
63S - Heavy Wheel Vehicle Mechanic
63Y - Track Vehicle Mechanic
92A - Automated Logistical Specialist
92Y - Unit Supply Specialist
88H - Cargo Specialist
88M - Motor Transport Operator
At first glance, this list appears to be rather huge and unmanageable for merger into a single job, but remember, we're only combining the organizational level activities of these MOS and we're also streamlining them. For example, the MOS of 63B covers all light wheel vehicles but in the proposed construct, the only light wheel vehicle will be the HMMWV. In the case of some MOS listed, the current timeframe for training is only a couple of weeks. And by focusing on generalized training instead of going into great depths that aren't required, there's no reason that training for this new MOS should take more than 16 weeks. Most of the necessary training will come on the job.
Combat Technicians will occupy all of the logistics-related positions within units. Promotions will lead to higher positions within the unit or to higher levels of logistics such as the S-4 sections at battalion and brigade levels. They will also be manning the Transportation units, including the Transportation Assault Battalions. Senior NCOs and Officers in the Logistics Corps will hold the position of Combat Logistician. Appropriate training will educate these personnel in the command side of logistics functions.
Training Doctrine
As with all of the administrative Corps units, the Logistics Corps will have its own training doctrine and facilities. For facilities, the Corps will take over those training facilities currently used by the 63B training program. These facilities exist at a number of bases and will be available anyway as 63B is included in the Logistics Corps. A 16 week training course will be structured on the lines of:
Additional Skill Identifiers should include the following:
Basic NonComissioned Officers Course should cover:
Advanced NonCommisioned Officers Course will address:
Basic Officers Course should cover all of the above items. Upon completion of the above items, the soldier becomes a Combat Logistician.
Warrant Officers will have already completed the mentioned courses and will need to complete additional training in the following areas:
Officers will be required to complete all of the above training for promotion to ranks O-4 and above and will also be required to have completed all of the above in order to hold the position of S-4.