Air Force financial management in time of war: changes are felt both on deployment and at home.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his recent Armed Forces Comptroller article ("Resourcing Operation Iraqi Freedom--Magnitude and Complexity," Fall 2007), Colonel Thomas A. Horlander discussed how Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNC-I MNC-I Multi-National Corps - Iraq ) resource managers deal with fiscal demands presented by the dynamic nature of war, competing budget priorities, and the impact of frequent personnel rotations. While reading his article, I was reminded of my deployment as an augmentee on the MNC-I staff in 2005 and was stirred to reflect on United States Air Force United States Air Force (USAF) Major component of the U.S. military organization, with primary responsibility for air warfare, air defense, and military space research. It also provides air services in coordination with the other military branches. U.S. financial management (FM), our wartime mission, and some implications of the ongoing war on home station operations. Ours Is a Complex Battlefield Let me begin by stating the obvious--we are at war. Our nation is engaged in a geopolitical ge·o·pol·i·tics n. (used with a sing. verb) 1. The study of the relationship among politics and geography, demography, and economics, especially with respect to the foreign policy of a nation. 2. a. struggle to restore the freedom and security that many Americans too often have taken for granted Adj. 1. taken for granted - evident without proof or argument; "an axiomatic truth"; "we hold these truths to be self-evident" axiomatic, self-evident obvious - easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind; "obvious errors" . This is tough combat under extremely difficult conditions. We have been actively fighting the Global War on Terrorism Terrorist acts and the threat of Terrorism have occupied the various law enforcement agencies in the U.S. government for many years. The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, as amended by the usa patriot act (GWOT GWOT Global War on Terrorism ) for at least 6 years and have been heavily engaged in expeditionary operations since the first Gulf War began some 17 years ago! Armed conflict is expensive, and our current endeavor is no exception. The Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is responsible for economic forecasting and fiscal policy analysis, scorekeeeping, cost projections, and an Annual Report on the Federal Budget. The office also underdakes special budget-related studies at the request of Congress. reports that the amount appropriated so far and requested for next year for the GWOT will total $747 billion. (1) And this does not take into account indirect costs Indirect costs are costs that are not directly accountable to a particular function or product; these are fixed costs. Indirect costs include taxes, administration, personnel and security costs. See also
Within such an environment, resource managers clearly play an important role. They maximize the effect of every taxpayer dollar to take the fight to the bad guys and ensure the safety of our nation and deployed forces. In our current conflict, Air Force financial managers find themselves increasingly in harm's way harm's way n. A risky position; danger: a place for the children that is out of harm's way; ships that sail into harm's way. in roles ranging from the traditional paying agent Paying Agent An agent who accepts payments from the issuer of a security and then distributes the payments to the holders of the security. Also known as a "disbursing agent. or military pay technician to an Army staff augmentee and even convoy security. Gone are the days when support personnel wished aircrews luck as they "slipped the surly bonds of earth "--and then prayed for their safe return. The notion of an officer or an aircrew warrior caste Warrior caste can refer to;
adj. 1. Of or in the continental United States. 2. Alaska Of or in the 48 contiguous states of the United States. adv. Informal 1. locations. With nearly 150 ongoing deployment taskings, Air Force financial managers arguably are closer to and more frequently engaged in--the fight than ever before. There is also a second front. It is not a kinetic fight but rather a long-term campaign to realize some of the promise of a post-Cold War peace dividend. Prosecution of the GWOT and spiraling costs in areas such as technology and health care demand that we shift resources from "tail" to "tooth." (For another view of this topic, see "Transforming Cost Improvement from a Tooth-to-Tail Mentality," Armed Forces Comptroller, Winter 2006). As a result, Air Force resource managers are hotly engaged in improving the efficacy of actionable financial information they provide to decision makers--so-called decision support--while also reducing costs by shrinking the footprint Shrinking the footprint is a campaign by the Church of England to reduce its carbon footprint. The campaign is being lead by the Bishop of London, Dr Richard Chartres and was launched on World Environment Day in June 2006 with an invitation to all churches to carry out an of largely transactional services such as travel and military pay. Leading any major change effort is a difficult endeavor in peacetime; it is exponentially moreso when simultaneously engaged in the fight of our generation. It is within such an environment of uncertainty and stress that Air Force financial managers find themselves. The Air Force Presents Forces to Combatant Commanders Differently ... and for Good Reason In light of all that has transpired since 9/11, it is difficult to fathom that just a few years ago the primary frame within which we viewed our world was the Cold War. Think about it. Few then could imagine that we would pine for the days when our enemies were easily identifiable across the Berlin Wall or the Demilitarized Zone See DMZ. in Korea and most of us cared little about historic animosity between sects of Islam or the impact of failed states on our family's security. My service began post-Cold War, and yet I too have witnessed this dramatic reframing reframing (rē·frāˑ·ming), n the revisiting and reconstruction of a patient's view of an experience to imbue it with a different usually more positive meaning in the as well as corresponding changes in how the Air Force postures forces for operations in a less certain world. Colonel Horlander alluded to the challenges of frequent personnel rotations in his article, and I believe it is useful to address how Air Force financial managers meet their wartime mission. First, a little history is in order. Following the first Gulf War, U.S. forces dovetailed into Operation Northern Watch Operation Northern Watch, the successor to Operation Provide Comfort, was a US European Command Combined Task Force (CTF) charged with enforcing its own no-fly zone above the 36th parallel in Iraq. Its mission began on 1 January 1997. and Operation Southern Watch Operation Southern Watch was an operation conducted by Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) with the mission of monitoring and controlling airspace south of the 33rd Parallel in Iraq, following the 1991 Gulf War until the 2003 invasion of Iraq. to enforce the respective no fly zones in Iraq above the 36th parallel and, eventually, below the 33rd parallel. These operations were of strategic significance to U.S. influence in the Persian Gulf Persian Gulf, arm of the Arabian Sea, 90,000 sq mi (233,100 sq km), between the Arabian peninsula and Iran, extending c.600 mi (970 km) from the Shatt al Arab delta to the Strait of Hormuz, which links it with the Gulf of Oman. . Yet by the mid-1990s, as the U.S. economy boomed and no-fly enforcement ground into mind-numbing patrol missions that demanded huge investments of time away from home, the Air Force found it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain personnel. Within this environment and in light of the changing nature of our adversary, Air Force leaders instituted what we now call the Air and Space Expeditionary Force An armed force organized to accomplish a specific objective in a foreign country. expeditionary force n → cuerpo expedicionario expeditionary force n → corps m (AEF AEF: see World War I. ) construct. Under this concept, most Air Force members are assigned to one of 10 AEFs. Each AEF "pair" operates on a 20-month cycle consisting of 14 months of normal training, 2 months of final deployment preparation, and a 4-month deployment on-call period (Figure 1). In the broadest sense, the AEF presents a tailorable menu of forces to a combatant commander; an important adjunct is that it improves force stability and deployment predictability with obvious positive implications to recruiting and retention. (2) [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Air Force financial managers posture and deploy within this construct, whether it is to build an airfield from a bare base A base having minimum essential facilities to house, sustain, and support operations to include, if required, a stabilized runway, taxiways, and aircraft parking areas. A bare base must have a source of water that can be made potable. , support existing flying operations, or augment an Army staff element. One obvious challenge for deployed leaders is to ably manage disparate deployment policies within a joint unit. For example, during my deployment to Camp Victory, Army resource managers assigned to XVIII Airborne Corps (then serving as MNC-I) were deployed from Fort Bragg Fort Bragg, U.S. army base, 11,136 acres (4,507 hectares), E N.C., N of Fayetteville; est. 1918. Originally an artillery post, it is now the principal U.S. army airborne-training center and the site of the Special Warfare School. for a year or more, the Navy and Marine Corps augmentees for six months, and most Air Force personnel for between four and six months. Some suggest that the shorter deployment spans for most airmen lead to sub optimal deployed support because by the time they have spun up, they are redeploying. Air Force FM leaders acknowledge the need for longevity in some critical positions and currently source some 23 ongoing 365-day deployments for FM personnel. Moreover, the AEF is flexible enough to accelerate or increase deployed time if required. Case in point: Today, four in ten airmen deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan can expect to be gone six months or longer. (3) But let me approach this from a slightly different tack. Under the AEF, a broader crosssection of airmen deploys and does so more frequently. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the Air Force Personnel Center, as of January 2007, over 30 percent of eligible Air Force FM officers and nearly 45 percent of eligible enlisted personnel had deployed since 9/11. And the numbers are growing with each AEF rotation. (4) Under the AEF, airmen must be prepared to go at any time during their eligibility window. Even if not selected to deploy, they must attain currency in career field deployment training and other wartime skills during the run up to their on-call period. The necessity of the AEF to Air Force recruiting and retention notwithstanding, this construct creates a far more capable base from which to prosecute what is shaping up to be a lengthy and arduous struggle. In short, Air Force financial managers possess more real-world contingency experience than ever before--this should serve as a source of great comfort to deployed leaders. The Training Imperative Inextricably in·ex·tri·ca·ble adj. 1. a. So intricate or entangled as to make escape impossible: an inextricable maze; an inextricable web of deceit. b. linked with the promise of the AEF construct is the fact that deployment training cannot begin when we set foot in the area of responsibility (AOR AOR The ISO 4217 currency code for Angolan Reajustado Kwanza. ). Success in battle demands persistent preparation at home, a fact the Air Force has long recognized. For proof, one need only to consider the farsighted far·sight·ed or far-sight·ed adj. 1. Able to see distant objects better than objects at close range; hyperopic. 2. Capable of seeing to a great distance. implementation of Red Flag and Blue Flag aerial combat training exercises in the mid 1970s. Getting Air Force resource managers on point largely was the brainchild of Colonel Jack Mechanic (USAF-Ret.), who, after assessing operations in Grenada and Panama, concluded that the Air Force needed expeditionary financial managers. While serving as comptroller for Strategic Air Command and then United States Air Forces in Europe  The United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) is the U.S. Air Force component of U.S. , he
implemented Top Dollar. This contingency training regimen demanded that
financial managers continually drill wartime FM skills and culminated in
an annual weeklong competition between the best comptroller and
contracting teams from across the Air Force. Through Top Dollar, the Air
Force FM community began to see itself in a different light.
Today, deployment preparation has become embedded in the Air Force FM culture. Base-level comptrollers conduct several hours of contingency training each week, practice deployed skills during wing exercises, and are held to an exacting standard during operational readiness The capability of a unit/formation, ship, weapon system, or equipment to perform the missions or functions for which it is organized or designed. May be used in a general sense or to express a level or degree of readiness. Also called OR. See also combat readiness. inspections. They also are required to participate in Air Force-wide deployment exercises, including Silver Flag and Eagle Flag. There are other AOR-specific skills to which Air Force financial managers may not have been exposed but can be if deployed leaders plan and take action. For example, the Air Force doesn't use the Army's Database Commitment Accounting System (dbCAS) to track budget execution. But FM non commissioned officers are skilled in similar systems and possess detailed knowledge of the accounting process. During my deployment, MNC-I leaders worked with the United States Army Forces Command U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) is the Army's largest major command. Headquartered at Fort McPherson, Georgia, FORSCOM consists of more than 730,000 Active Army, U.S. Army Reserve, and Army National Guard soldiers. to ensure that the subsequent AEF rotation received training on dbCAS prior to deploying. Such thoughtful preparation is a great way to ensure that airmen arrive in theater as "full-up rounds." Air Force financial managers must also ensure personnel are well-trained to fill in the gaps resulting from deployments. This is particularly acute for organizations that deploy personnel without some of the home base mission accompanying them. For example, when I served as commander of the 12th Comptroller Squadron at Randolph Air Force Base Randolph Air Force Base (Randolph AFB) is a base of the United States Air Force located in Universal City, Texas, near San Antonio. Randolph AFB was dedicated in June 20, 1930, as a flying training base and continues in that mission today. It serves as headquarters of the U. , Texas, three of my military personnel deployed during one AEF cycle. Neither 12th Flying Training Wing aircraft nor aircrew deployed, however, so our peacetime mission continued as before and our customer base remained intact. This reality stands in sharp contrast to major Army units (such as the XVIII Airborne Corps), which uproot and deploy large portions of the customer base along with their resource managers. There are risks and challenges associated with either approach, but the Air Force reality demands forward thinking and focused training to fill the home station gaps. One word of caution: During periods of resource scarcity, training budgets tend to be plucked as "low-hanging fruit." In fact, recently I was asked to chop on a commander's request to "shortfall" several quotas to Silver Flag due to resource constraints. The cost estimate was $10,000. While the reclama request eventually was withdrawn, it serves as a reminder of the perpetual risk of bad decisions and that financial managers must help our leaders prevent resource constraints particularly low-dollar ones--from getting in the way of preparation or prosecution of the war. The Second Front: Stretching Resources and Transforming Who We Are Although the Armed Forces endeavor to use scarce resources effectively in a contingency environment, the vast preponderance of the effort to drive budget efficiencies--the second front--is done at home. Air Force financial managers seek to maximize the effect of every taxpayer dollar by using their skills to mitigate the impact of the war on peacetime budget execution and through meaningful transformation. Effectively Managing Peacetime Budgets A common second-order consequence of war is peacetime budget instability. Financial managers must be alert for these fiscal challenges and swiftly take action to mitigate them. This is easier said than done. For example, in Fiscal Year 2007, the Air Force made the tough but necessary choice to modernize and recapitalize weapon systems by taking risk in areas such as the operation and maintenance appropriation upon which many installations and missions across the Air Force depend. Here in the Air Force Materiel Command  Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) is a major command of the United States Air Force. (AFMC AFMC Air Force Materiel CommandAFMC Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care AFMC Armed Forces Medical College (Pune, India) AFMC Armed Forces of America Motorcycle Club AFMC Auxiliary Fuel Management Computer ), leaders made some very tough choices and increased risk in some previously sacrosanct sac·ro·sanct adj. Regarded as sacred and inviolable. [Latin sacr  s programs, including civilian pay. Moreover, when it appeared that the
spring supplemental would get tied up in legislative deliberation, we
had to slow execution and craft a plan to free up available balances to
cover potential Army shortfalls. Thankfully, the Congress appropriated
additional dollars and we were able to get back on track. The AFMC
experience is but one example, but the message should be clear: Buckle
up for continued turbulence in execution of home station budget
operations.
The war also creates temptation to abuse GWOT funds that are, in these times, one of the very few sources of budget growth. Financial managers must be cautious of developing an addiction to supplemental appropriations to the point that they require an execution-year legislative "fix" for ostensibly os·ten·si·ble adj. Represented or appearing as such; ostensive: His ostensible purpose was charity, but his real goal was popularity. peacetime requirements. For once GWOT supplemental appropriations dry up--and one need only follow the ongoing war debate across the nation and on Capitol Hill to presume it will happen--those dependent upon GWOT will suffer a painful case of withdrawal. This reality holds true at all levels of command, but it is at the installation level where most contracts are let and obligations are recorded--the "pointy point·y adj. point·i·er, point·i·est Having an end tapering to a point. end" of the peacetime budget spear, if you will--where it will be most acute. Seeking Transformation Efficiencies Beyond the challenges of executing budgets, there are some dramatic and necessary--transformation efforts under way in the Air Force FM community. One major element in the drive to reduce the FM "tail" is a determined effort to streamline transactional processes through centralization of Air Force financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. at a single location in Ellsworth Air Force Base Ellsworth Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base near Rapid City, South Dakota and is home to the B-1B Lancer. The host wing is the 28th Bomb Wing, which includes an operations group, a maintenance directorate, a mission support group, and a medical group. , South Dakota South Dakota (dəkō`tə), state in the N central United States. It is bordered by North Dakota (N), Minnesota and Iowa (E), Nebraska (S), and Wyoming and Montana (W). . As John C. Dean pointed out in his recent article in the Armed Forces Comptroller ("Centralizing Air Force Financial Services," Fall 2007), the Air Force plans to save nearly $200 million in the first 10 years following activation of the Air Force Financial Services Center. A complementary Air Force effort is the determined maturation of decision support. In a nutshell, this entails developing and training cutting-edge skills with which to assess and ably communicate the best financial options to decision makers and, in so doing, to maximize the effect of scarce resources. Toward this goal, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller) has developed interactive Web-based training, built a new Decision Support Course into the Defense Financial Management & Comptroller School curriculum, and is embedding decision support training in its basic and mid-level formal training programs. (5) In time, these and other transformation efforts will enable Air Force financial managers to reduce costs, improve the utility of their counsel, and leverage technology to help mitigate the impact of programmed personnel reductions. And while war planners will ensure that the Air Force meets all deployment requirements, planned end-strength reductions further underscore the necessity of stable and sustainable deployment planning Operational planning directed toward the movement of forces and sustainment resources from their original locations to a specific operational area for conducting the joint operations contemplated in a given plan. embodied in the AEF construct. It Comes Down to People In the end, it is only through our people that we will meet head-on these daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin resource management challenges. During the American Society of Military Comptrollers 2007 Professional Development Institute in Kansas City Kansas City, two adjacent cities of the same name, one (1990 pop. 149,767), seat of Wyandotte co., NE Kansas (inc. 1859), the other (1990 pop. 435,146), Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties, NW Mo. (inc. 1850). , I attended a session called "Taking Care of People," presented by Colonel Dave Weinberg (USAF-Ret.) The title clearly articulated the focus of his superb presentation. One of his comments--"It's the people, stupid!"--particularly hit home, perhaps because his exhortation seemed specifically addressed to me. Indeed, everything we have discussed--preparing our financial managers to deploy, making smart resource decisions, reducing financial services footprint, ably filling the gaps at home--demands that leaders at all levels take good care of the human resources that make it all possible. Challenge them. Treat them with respect. Reward them. This first great struggle of the current century demands strategic vision and strong leadership. While there are tremendous challenges ahead, our capable workforce has proven to be up to the task time and again. That is a tribute to our forebears and challenges today's Air Force FM leaders to live up to their distinguished history of excellence. ENDNOTES (1) Congressional Budget Office, Statement of Robert A. Sunshine, Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. "Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and of Other Activities Related to the War on Terrorism" presented before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives, July 31, 2007. Found at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/84xx/doc849 7/07-30-WarCosts_Testimony.pdf (2) For more information on the AEF construct, organization, and capabilities, refer to Chapter 2 of Air Force Instruction 10-401, AirForce Operations Planning and Execution, 4 May 2005. (3) Rolfsen, Bruce. "Longer tours: 6-month deployments becoming the new standard," Air Force Times, Vol. 68, No. 3, p. 14. (4) Interview with Captain Andy Grab, Air Force Personnel Center Financial Management Officer Assignments, 26 Jul 2007. (5) For more detail on the Air Force drive to improve decision support, refer to "Roadmap to Decision Support" printed by U.S. Air Force Financial Management Transformation, 2007. On-line courses are hosted at https://fm.csd.disa.mil/kc/login/login.asp. Air Force Financial Services Center (AFFSC) grand opening Ellsworth AFB AFB abbr. acid-fast bacillus AFB Acid-fast bacillus, also 1. Aflatoxin B 2. Aorto-femoral bypass , SD--"Transformation delivered," proclaimed Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne, as he joined hundreds of Air Force and community leaders in celebrating the recent grand opening of the Air Force Financial Services Center (AFFSC) at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. The event kicked off a new chapter in financial management transformation. "Opening the AFFSC is a significant step forward in the transformation of Air Force Financial Management. Air Force Financial Management is leading the way to a smarter, leaner Air Force," Secretary Wynne said. At its full operational capability, the AFFSC will consolidate current Air Force financial services through a central processing center and a 24-hour contact center manned by military and civilian personnel who will provide total force financial services by centralizing the traditional customer support functions (voucher processing) and reengineering the delivery of customer service. With the tremendous dedication and support from the major command leaders and their financial management teams, along with the Air Force Financial Management Transformation Team, the AFFSC moved from vision to reality in just two years. The meticulous planning and exemplary execution will ensure the highest-quality customer service for Air Force members and employees while continuing to advance the future Air Force Financial Management service delivery model and efficiencies within the AFFSC. In his closing comments, Mr. Vonglis pointed out the AFFSC will result in"$210 million in real dollar savings and ... approximately 600 positions back to the warfighter." These changes help fulfill the ultimate mission of Financial Management: to "finance the fight." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lieutenant Colonel Sam Grable, CDFM CDFM Certified Defense Financial Manager CDFM Computational Dynamic Fracture Mechanics (Dept of Aerospace Eng, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India) |
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