Army Force Generation: Army works stabilize deployment cycle, training

by Staff Sgt. Alexandra Hemmerly-Brown
FORSCOM PAO

FORT MCPHERSON, Ga. — Rebecca Feathers keeps a watchful eye on her nine-month-old son, Eric as he squirms in his stroller. It is 10 p.m. on a chilly September evening at Fort Dix, N.J., and she been waiting in this building for a few hours.

Feathers’ husband, Spc. Jeremiah Feathers, is one of 4,000 Pennsylvania Army National Guardsmen from the 56th Stryker Brigade returning home after a year-long deployment in Iraq.
“It’s been really rough,” Feathers said. “I cried a lot … I’m surprised I made it. I don’t know if I could do it again.”

Feathers’ story and thousands more like it are being played out across the U.S. each year as Soldiers continue to deploy. Being separated from one’s Family for a year at a time would put stress on any relationship, but with some Soldiers facing their third and fourth tours overseas, many are left wondering if there is a plan to deal with multiple deployments.

Army Force Generation
Well, there is a plan for deploying troops and it’s called ARFORGEN. Short for Army Force Generation, ARFORGEN is the Army’s core process of building trained and ready forces.
“ARFORGEN is the Army’s process for meeting combatant commanders’ requirements — like providing units to support Operation Iraqi Freedom—by synchronizing the building of trained and ready units,” said Lt. Col. Jeffery Hannon, deputy chief of the ARFORGEN Branch at U.S. Army Forces Command.

Prior to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army trained and prepared a select group of units to respond quickly to limited conflicts. With no perceived near term, large-scale threat, there was no need to maintain a sizeable portion of the Army at full readiness, Hannon explained. 
Col. V.J. Tedesco, Chief of Plans at U.S. Army Forces Command. explained that this system of having a smaller group of units immediately ready for deployment would also buy time to train up other Soldiers to take their place.During Bosnia and Kosovo this method was used, and although Soldiers were deployed on a roughly one-year basis, the demand for troops during those conflicts was much less.

“Since 2003, demand has exceeded the requirements of Bosnia and Kosovo by eight or 10-fold, so the way the Army prepares and deploys units needed to change,” Hannon said.

The ARFORGEN model was approved by the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff in 2006. The underlying idea was to tap into the total strength of the Army, leveraging all Active and Reserve units, while sustaining the process by employing a rotational, more predictable plan for deployments, explained Hannon.

The result was ARFORGEN’s three-stage cycle: Reset, Train/Ready and Available. According to the ARFORGEN model, Army units will now always fall into one of these three phases.

In the reset phase, Soldiers will return from deployment, have some down-time to reconnect with their Families and return to their regular training schedule.

During the train/ready phase, units begin to train more extensively, are eligible for deployment and begin preparing for a specific overseas mission.

In the available stage, Soldiers are ready for deployment. Once a unit deploys and returns to their home station, the cycle repeats itself.

This process makes deployments more predictable, and with the Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George W. Casey, Jr.’s goal to “restore balance” in the force.

“As I travel about the length and breadth of Forces Command, if there’s one consistent message that is communicated to me by Soldiers and their Family members, it’s that more time not deployed is the most important condition to them,” explained Gen. Charles C. Campbell, Commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, who has been deeply involved in implementing ARFORGEN since its inception.

“To the Soldier on the ground and to the Soldier’s Family, I think the one feature of ARFORGEN that particularly resonates is the fact that there is more predictability in terms of understanding when a unit will deploy, for what period of time, and to execute what mission,” Campbell said.
Campbell explained that the near-term goal for Soldiers deploying is one year deployed for every two years at home for the active-duty, and a 1-to-4 ratio for the Reserve and Guard. The Army’s longer-term goals are ratios of 1-to-3 for active-duty, and 1-to-5 for the Reserves.

Improved training
Along with changes in how often troops are deployed, training to get them ready for urban combat has also been adapted.

“ARFORGEN supports the Army model of providing units to combatant commanders,” explained Brian P. Stephenson, Mission Support Element G-3/5/7 at Fort Bragg. “So instead of the corps commander taking his entire command, he takes what the Army gives him and trains them to deploy and support the mission.

Stephenson said the XVIII Airborne Corps is now a modular corps headquarters and the senior commander is responsible for training the units on Fort Bragg, ensuring that they are ready to support the Army’s mission with any other predetermined major command.

The MSE is also responsible for overseeing that Soldiers go through the ARFORGEN cycle.
“Recently, the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Abn. Div. redeployed,” Stephenson said. “Now they’re going through a process. Once they arrived back here at Fort Bragg, they began their reset phase with reintegration training. This allows them time to take block leave and spend time with their Families, transfer to other assignments or attend any schools that may be necessary.”
He said it also allows the unit time to field new equipment and repair or replace any damaged or lost equipment.

“The first six months following redeployment is designed to limit the amount of time (Soldiers) spend away from their Families,” Stephenson explained. “That way, after six months, they should be ready for collective training, which includes individual and team-level training. Now they’re ready to focus on training for the next mission.”

The bottom line
ARFORGEN is here to stay. It is changing the fundamental way the Army operates, and pending unforeseen mission requirements, the ripple effects of ARFORGEN will become more apparent in 2011.

“(ARFORGEN) has changed the face of the Army,” said Campbell. “It is creating a new norm.”