Always out front.

Commanding General's Letter to the Field, April 2006

Officer Personnel Management System (OPMS) Update

A number of decisions concerning Officer professional development and management were recently made by the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) at a 9 February 2006 briefing. This briefing was the second in a series of briefings provided to the CSA on OPMS. His intent remains to better position the Officer Corps to meet current and future operational requirements in light of Modularity and Army Transformation. Specifically, at this briefing, he approved a new Functionally Aligned Design to be implemented over the next year. What this does to Military Intelligence (MI) is to confirm that we remain in the Operational Support group along with Signal and a number of other direct support functional areas such as Space Operations and Telecommunications.

While we see no major impact at the moment, especially in terms of promotion or selection for command, this shift in association may prove to be important to all of us because the CSA further directed the implementation of position sharing within and between the three new management categories. His intent is to broaden officer professional development. This means that MI, both Area of Concentration (AOC) 35 (All Source Intelligence Officer) and Functional Area (FA) 34 (Strategic Intelligence) Officers, will continue to be selected for promotion and command based on branch and FA 34 coded requirements, respectively. However, under the position sharing concept, roughly 20 percent of all MI and FA 34 coded positions will be identified for sharing among the MI Branch, FA 34, and Foreign Area Officers.

Additionally, another 10 percent (this could be from within the previously identified 20 percent) of all branch and functional areas positions will be made available for sharing across the Army. While serving in any of these positions may require officers outside of MI to receive additional training in order to perform in a specific assignment, the overall intent of the CSA is to build a Corps of well-rounded Pentathlete Officers. There remains quite a bit of work to be done on implementation but you can expect to start hearing more about this in the days ahead.

Advanced Schooling Opportunities

The CSA has also approved an increase of Advanced Civilian Schooling (ACS) opportunities starting in fiscal year (FY) 2006. In addition to traditional ACS opportunities the Army will start offering additional graduate school opportunities to outstanding junior Officers in order to broaden their experience and to enhance their value in a Joint and Expeditionary Army.

The Expanded Graduate School Opportunities for Junior Officers Program will be offered to officers in Year Groups (YGs) 1998 through 2003, with a portion beginning graduate school in FY 2007. Officers will generally begin attendance between their eighth and twelfth years of service. Officers in YGs 2004 and 2005 are expected to be offered increased graduate school opportunities in their third year of service. The majority of the expanded graduate school opportunities will be distributed through the major commands (MACOMs) to local commanders to use as a developmental and retention tool for outstanding officers. Projected goals are: 35 for YG 1998; 54 for YG 1999; 62 for YG 2000; 83 for YG 2001; 420 for YG 2002, and 420 for YG2003. MILPER Message 05293 will provide you with the details of this program.

Centralized Command Selection List (CSL):

Prior to the CSA's briefing, the Vice CSA (on 26 January 2006) also approved an OPMS recommendation to have Centralized Battalion Commander Selection elects assume their duties one year later. On average officers should expect to command at the 19 year mark for battalion command. This is being done to provide officers with additional time to gain broadening and Joint experience prior to command. It will also allow for a longer developmental timeline to complete pre-command training.

Warrant Officer Accession Bonus Update:

In my last note I told you that we had requested an accession bonus for those Soldiers who agree to become MI Warrant Officers (WOs) in the following Military Occupational Specialties (MOS): All Source Intelligence Technician (350F), Counterintelligence Technician (351L), Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Collection Technician (351M), Area Intelligence Technician (351Y), Traffic Analysis Technician (352N), and Intelligence Electronic Warfare Systems Maintenance Technician (353T). This request was approved effective 8 March 2006 and qualified individuals will now be paid a lump sum of $20,000 for accession into the WO ranks upon completion of technical certification and the MI WO Basic Course. Additionally, enlisted Soldiers who are receiving a Selective Retention Bonus (SRB) or Critical Skills Retention Bonus (CSRB) and are appointed as a WO, will no longer be required to repay previously awarded SRB/CSRB disbursements. (NOTE: The March 2006 WO Board results are out. Although MI continues to make progress in most WO MOS, we are still falling behind in accessions for MOSs 351L and 351M. With your continued recruiting efforts and the above bonus we will get there.)

HUMINT MOS Update:

On 19 December 2005 I provided a briefing to the MI leadership (the Deputy Chief of Staff, G2 and the Commanding General, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM)) on our recommendations for the way ahead with regard to MOSs 97E (HUMINT) and 351M. The briefing was the culmination of a review of the two MOS by the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca (USAIC& FH) with assistance from Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA), the Human Resources Command (HRC), and the U.S. Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). The thrust of the review was to determine how to solve the current problem of keeping pace with the rapid growth of MOS 97E/351M requirements while sustaining continued support to the Global War on Terrorism. The MI community agreed that for MOS 97E we must take the following steps:

* Temporarily suspend the language requirement as an MOS qualification for 97E for all Soldiers who obtain the MOS during the suspension period. This decision will be reviewed annually and the language requirement will be reestablished once the MOS reaches an operating strength near 90 percent. When the strengths support reestablishing the language requirement we will also review whether language training should remain at Skill Level (SL) 30 or revert back to SL10.

* Merge MOSs 97B and 97E at the Master Sergeant (MSG) rank rather than the Sergeant Major (SGM) rank (already in place for 96 and 98 series). Establish an incremental bonus based on the DLAB score in order to expand the in-service recruiting pool for MOS 97E.

* Increase the SRB from a maximum of $20K to $40K (DA G1 supports $30K).

* Offer a CSRB of $150K to Sergeants First Class (SFCs) and MSGs to improve careerist retention.

For WO MOS 351M the MI community agreed the following steps should be undertaken:

* Approve an accession bonus of $20K. (Already approved).

* Access WO candidates without a language but require language qualification prior to their first assignment; (anyone dropped from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) will be encouraged to transfer to another shortage MI Specialty).

* Increase the MI WO MOS 351M CSRB to $150K to match the senior enlisted bonus.

All of these recommendations have been endorsed by TRADOC and were forwarded to the Army Staff for action on 8 March 2006. I will update you as the above changes are approved and implemented. Our analysis indicates that, if these strategies are undertaken, we should see the MOS 97E force filled to approximately 90 percent in FY 2009 and the MOS 351M force at approximately 94 percent by FY 2008.

Revision of Career Management Field (CMF) 98

The Transitional Training Strategy for CMF 98 Soldiers (Effective 1 October 2005) changes as approved in Notification of Future Change to DA Pam 611-21, Military Occupational Classification and Structure, E030423, Revision of CMF 98 (Signals Intelligence/Electronic Warfare), dated October 2002, were implemented. This implementation merged several MOSs to reduce the total number of MOS and to create multifunctional Soldiers better suited to answer commanders' Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) needs for the future. This implementation created a new MOS (98Y, Signals Collector/Analyst), and a transition training requirement for existing 98C (SIGINT Analyst); 98J (Electronic Intelligence Interceptor/Analyst), and 98K (Signal Collection/Identification Analyst) Soldiers in the force. The original plan was that the required MOS qualification training requirement would be addressed via resident training courses noted below:

Course Number              Course Title                        Length

233-98Y1/2/3/4 (98K) (T)   Signals Collector/Analyst (Trans)   7 weeks
232-98C1/2/3/4 (T)         98C Transition                      4 weeks

These courses came with a significant Trainees, Transients, Holdees, and Students (TTHS) bill. The initial plan was to address the resident training requirement via 30 percent temporary duty (TDY) enroute seats, and 70 percent TDY and Return seats. In an effort to mitigate training resource requirements and TTHS growth, USAIC has reviewed and approved an INSCOM proposal regarding alternatives to resident transition training in two areas. While the preferred method for transition training is still attendance at the resident courses (especially for Soldiers who may have been working outside the scope of their MOS or due to a permanent change of station (PCS) have the opportunity to come TDY enroute), USAIC understands that the current world situation and resource realities require flexibility as long as the training standard is maintained. Details of approved alternatives are listed below:

* MOS 98C (new) Soldiers (former 98Cs) needing to receive Operational Electronic Intelligence (OPELINT) training can obtain Transition Training Credit through completion of National Cryptologic School courses:

** FUSE1100: Introduction to ELINT in Fusion Analysis

** SIGE3110DV: Apprentice Level Operational ELINT (Classroom in Denver, Colorado)

INSCOM has approximately 70 percent of all the 98Cs in the force so this alternative training method potentially reduces the TTHS impact of this part of training by 70 percent. At Denver, where the SIGE3110DV course is currently being conducted, unit personnel rotations over a three year period could potentially cover 150+ 98C Soldiers.

* MOS 98Y Soldiers (former 98Ks) needing to receive Technical Electronic Intelligence (TECHELINT) training can obtain Transition Training Credit through completion of National Cryptologic School courses:

** MATH1030: Math for SIGINT (self paced or classroom).

** SIGE2810: Fundamentals of TECHELINT (self paced with unclassified CD) plus Gale Lite system training via on-the-job training (OJT) at their unit.

INSCOM has approximately 90 percent of all the 98Ys in the force so this alternative training method potentially reduces the TTHS impact of this part of training by 90 percent.

I or my designated representative will retain the final approving authority that a Soldier has completed required transition training. My point of contact for this transitional training strategy is Walter J. Crossman at commercial: [phone]; DSN 821.

by Major General Barbara G. Fast

Commanding General, U.S. Army Intelligence

Center and Fort Huachuca