By Ann Roosevelt
U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), the Defense Department’s joint force provider, is providing trained and ready military forces for President Obama’s new strategy in Afghanistan, a command official said.
“I see my strategic role as being helpful, and one of the building blocks to achievement of the new strategy, the president’s strategy,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Yates, director for operations, plans, logistics and engineering J3/4 at JFCOM, said in a teleconference Dec. 10.
Looking below the strategic level, Yates said he sees fulfilling Central Command requests “as something that is fundamental at the operational level” to U.S. Central Command leader Gen. David Petraeus and Afghanistan Commander Gen. Stanley McCrystal for achieving their goals in the mission they have within Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Since the president announced his new war strategy Nov. 30, 16,000 soldiers received orders for Afghanistan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said last week. About 1,500 Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., are slated to arrive in Afghanistan this week. The president overall has ordered 30,000 troops for Afghanistan.
“We know the magnitude of the effort,” Yates said. “We are getting final details on some of the requirements. I would say that we know most of them, but not all of them.”
Providing those trained and ready forces for combatant commanders is a critical mission for JFCOM.
Earlier this year, JFCOM Commander Marine Gen. James Mattis told the House Armed Services Committee the command “responded to more than 200 requests for forces from combatant commanders resulting in the sourcing of more than 437,000 personnel supporting several global missions.”
The force provider process moves through a series of steps. In the case of the surge, a requirement comes initially from McCrystal to U.S. Central Command where it is vetted and coordinated. Petraeus sends it on to the Joint Staff, which validates the requirement and passes it on to JFCOM.
“I’m in the middle, I don’t make the decisions on what’s going to flow,” said Yates, whose responsibilities include identifying capabilities to meet the requirements of supported combatant commanders and recommending joint source solutions from the global conventional force pool.
JFCOM turns to its components to find out which service, or services, can fulfill the requirement. The command then develops courses of action and makes recommendations that then are sent to the Joint Staff for consideration and decision. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs looks over the decision, the Defense Secretary signs the decision into an order, and then the force moves.
JFCOM is applying what it learned from the surge into Iraq, Yates said. The biggest lesson learned by all involved, the defense enterprise, combatant commanders and Joint Staff, all understand that adhering to the global force management process, carefully managing the deployment, redeployment, and regeneration of the forces that are assigned to the Department of Defense, is to get the most out of the system.
“If we adhere to the process it leads to most efficient application of the resources that we have as a nation,” he said. “I think we learned that very well in Iraq and we are applying that.”
However, the process needs to continually improve, despite its success, Mattis said. One example is improving the ability to respond quickly and efficiently to requests for forces and enabling capabilities.
Facilitating connectivity between JFCOM and the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, in October the Joint Deployment Center/Maritime Operations Center opened. The combined facility improves the exchange of expertise and awareness of options when joint force requirements come in, a command official said at the opening. The state-of-the-art facility also allows JFCOM to respond to force requirements more quickly with options and recommendations because personnel are located in one building.
“In a time such as this, the challenge is just making sure I complete everything I need to get done on a daily, hourly, weekly and perhaps monthly basis,” Yates said.