Profile of the United States Army: Direct Reporting Units
Profile of the United States Army: Direct Reporting Units
This is Chapter 10 of the 2022 Profile of the United States Army, a top-to-bottom reference handbook that lays out everything you need to know about how and why the Army works—and what it’s doing around the world right now. Links to other chapters can be found at the bottom of this page.
Direct Reporting Units (DRUs) have institutional or operational functions, providing broad and general support to servicemembers and organizations across the Army. There are 13 DRUs:
- U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC);
- Arlington National Cemetery (ANC);
- Civilian Human Resources Agency (CHRA);
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE);
- U.S. Criminal Investigation Division (USACID);
- U.S. Army Human Resources Command (HRC);
- U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM);
- U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM);
- U.S. Military Academy (USMA);
- U.S. Military District of Washington (MDW);
- Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA);
- U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC); and
- U.S. Army War College (AWC).
U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center
(USAASC)
Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Mission: USAASC shapes and develops the Army Acquisition community’s capabilities through superior support and the development of world-class professionals. It provides oversight of the Army Acquisition Workforce and supports the program executive offices with resource management (manpower and budget), human resources program structure and acquisition information management. USAASC is a DRU of the ASA(ALA)—that is, the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology).
Within USAASC, the Army’s Director of Acquisition Career Management Office ensures a highly capable, agile, adaptive and professional Army Acquisition Workforce in compliance with the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act and the Back-to-Basics Acquisition Workforce Framework.
Activities: USAASC is responsible for a number of objectives, including:
- providing oversight of the Army Acquisition Workforce;
- providing support to program executive offices in the areas of resource management, human resource management and Army Acquisition-wide force structure;
- planning, programming, overseeing and executing career management activities for the Army Acquisition Workforce (e.g., policies, training, leader development opportunities, etc.);
- providing the Army Acquisition Executive, the Director of Acquisition Career Management, the ASA(ALA) staff and the Army acquisition community with: policy, guidance and support, as well as services regarding acquisition issues and initiatives; and
- through the Army Acquisition Center of Excellence, providing a dynamic learning environment to develop world-class Army acquisition professionals who are equipped to provide and sustain superior acquisition support to Soldiers.
Arlington National Cemetery
(ANC)
Arlington, Virginia
Mission: Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) represents the American people for past, present and future generations by laying to rest those who have served the nation with dignity and honor. ANC also serves the living by immersing visitors in the cemetery’s living history; it remains a place for every generation to honor, remember and explore the depths of the creation of this great nation and the heroes who have made incredible sacrifices for freedom:
- Honor the service and sacrifice of servicemembers, veterans and their family members with dignity, compassion and accountability.
- Remember the sacrifices of those from each generation who have answered the call to serve by preserving cemeteries befitting of their sacrifices.
- Explore the rich, living history of the cemeteries and gain an appreciation for those who have defended our freedom and helped shape the nation’s history.
Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), along with servicemembers from the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Coast Guard, place U.S. flags at every gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery as part of Flags-In, Arlington, Virginia, 26 May 2022 (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser).
Activities: The cemetery is the final resting place for more than 400,000 active duty servicemembers, veterans and their families. “Service to country” is the common thread that binds all who are honored and remembered here. The cemetery remains active, with funeral services Monday through Saturday (except federal holidays), conducting between 27 and 30 services each weekday and between six and eight services each Saturday. Information on burial eligibility and military honors is available on the cemetery’s website: www.arlingtoncemetery.mil.
More than 3,000 ceremonies and memorial services also take place at the cemetery each year, including national observances for Memorial Day and Veterans Day at the Memorial Amphitheater. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, one of Arlington’s most well-known memorials, includes the remains of unknown servicemembers from World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) keep a constant vigil at the Tomb, with an elaborate ritual to change the guard every hour.
Civilian Human Resources Agency
(CHRA)
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
Mission: CHRA is a global, premier and engaged organization committed to providing Civilian Human Resources (CHR) services in the most effective and timely manner in support of national defense. Core functions are to provide appropriated and non-appropriated funds service to Army and to select Department of Defense (DoD) civilian employee populations, including Army Reserve and National Guard military technicians.
Activities: Core capabilities include staffing, classification, labor relations, management-employee relations, the Federal Employee Compensation Act (worker’s compensation), employee benefits, personnel actions processing, CHR information technology services, human resources (HR) development and foreign entitlements. CHRA provides HR services, advice and support to approximately 300,000 Army and DoD civilian employees worldwide.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
(USACE)
Washington, DC
Mission: USACE delivers vital engineering solutions, in collaboration with its partners, to secure the nation, to energize the economy and to reduce disaster risk.
Activities: USACE’s story began more than 200 years ago, when Congress established the Continental Army with a provision for a chief engineer on 16 June 1775. The Army established the Corps of Engineers as a separate, permanent branch on 16 March 1802; it gave the engineers responsibility for founding and operating the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Since then, USACE has responded to changing defense requirements and has played an integral part in the development of the country. Throughout the 19th century, USACE built coastal fortifications, surveyed roads and canals, eliminated navigational hazards, explored and mapped the Western frontier and constructed buildings and monuments in the nation’s capital. While the mission and tasks have evolved with the needs and priorities of the nation, the dedication and commitment of the workforce has remained constant.
USACE:
- is the nation’s number one federal provider of outdoor recreation;
- is the nation’s environmental engineer;
- owns and operates more than 600 dams;
- operates and maintains 12,000 miles of commercial inland navigation channels;
- dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of construction and maintenance material annually;
- maintains 926 coastal, Great Lakes and inland harbors;
- restores, creates, enhances or preserves tens of thousands of acres of wetlands annually through its regulatory program;
- provides a total water supply storage capacity of 329.2 million acre-feet in major Corps lakes;
- owns and operates 24 percent of the U.S. hydropower capacity, or 3 percent of the total U.S. electric capacity;
- supports Army and Air Force installations;
- provides technical and construction support to more than 100 countries;
- managed an Army military construction program between 2006 and 2013 totaling approximately $44.6 billion—the largest construction effort since World War II; and
- researches and develops technologies to protect the nation’s environment and enhance quality of life.
U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division
(USACID)
Quantico, Virginia
Mission: USACID is an independent criminal investigative organization that supports all elements of the Army in times of conflict and peace. It is capable of performing complex, felony-level criminal investigations anywhere in the world. Its independence is specifically structured to prevent any potentially interfering influences and to allow unencumbered investigations, regardless of environment and circumstances.
Activities: USACID special agents are highly trained criminal investigators and sworn federal law enforcement officers. Their investigations are routinely and successfully prosecuted in military and federal judicial forums, as well as in state courts and foreign judicial venues across the globe. They provide crime investigative support to local commanders in cases including general crimes (against persons or property), computer crimes, economic crimes and counter-drug operations. They are dedicated to making the Army community as safe as possible. Their dedication and professionalism are nowhere more evident than in the organization’s impressive solve rate, which continually remains well above the national average. These agents also possess battlefield skills and deploy on short notice to provide direct support to Army divisions and corps. Contingency operations and battlefield missions include logistics security, criminal intelligence and criminal investigations. During agents’ battlefield missions, criminal investigations can be expanded to include war crimes, antiterrorism and force protection operations.
USACID also conducts protective service operations for the Department of Defense (DoD), the joint chiefs of staff and the Department of the Army. Additionally, it provides forensic laboratory support for all DoD investigative agencies, maintains the repository for the Army’s more than 2.7 million crime records and conducts other sensitive or special-interest investigations as required or directed.
U.S. Army Human Resources Command
(HRC)
Fort Knox, Kentucky
Mission: HRC conducts world-class talent management and leads modernized human resources and data systems initiatives to enable the Army to deploy, fight and win the nation’s wars. It comprises a cohesive team of dedicated professionals who are devoted to caring for the Army’s Soldiers and civilians and delivering innovative human resources solutions to meet the challenges of 2028 and beyond.
Army Second Lieutenant Daii Gardner, Theater Gateway inbound officer in charge with the 178th Human Resources Command, and Specialist Natasha Washington, a postal clerk with the 650th Adjutant General Company, hand out voting ballots to Soldiers at the Theater Gateway, Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, 21 October 2020. The option to vote in person at Camp Arifjan and the surrounding bases was a first and gave Soldiers and deployed personnel a more convenient way to exercise their right to vote (U.S. Army Reserve photo Staff Sergeant Luke Wilson).
Activities: HRC has a rich history and legacy of providing first-class personnel service and support to Soldiers, veterans and their families. For nearly 50 years, this enterprise-level support has enabled the Army not only to deploy, but to fight and win the nation’s wars.
HRC’s workforce consists of active and reserve component Soldiers, Department of the Army civilians and contractor personnel. Together, they: staff the Army; conduct strategic talent management; provide enterprise human resources information technology capability; and execute a variety of programs and services that take care of Soldiers and their families.
The command is organized with a traditional command and staff element as well as five distinct directorates:
- The Enlisted Personnel Management Directorate (EPMD) builds and sustains enlisted personnel readiness for the Army. EPMD supports an active component Soldier population of more than 385,000 junior enlisted and noncommissioned officers spread across 178 different military occupational specialties.
- The Officer Personnel Management Directorate (OPMD) focuses on Army operational readiness by developing today’s Army officer corps to meet all present and future requirements. OPMD manages a population of approximately 87,000 commissioned and warrant officers.
- The Reserve Personnel Management Directorate (RPMD) provides human resources services, support and professional development for more than 16,500 Soldiers serving in an Active Guard/Reserve status, almost 82,000 members of the Individual Ready Reserve as well as Soldiers serving in the Individual Mobilization Augmentee program. Overall, RPMD’s Personnel Actions Branch serves 1.1 million U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers.
- The Adjutant General Directorate is the most expansive and diverse directorate within HRC. It exemplifies a commitment to excellence that directly affects every phase of the Soldier’s tenure in the Army, spanning from the very first day Soldiers don the uniform until their eventual separation and beyond.
- HRC’s Personnel Information Systems Directorate provides enterprise-level human resources information technology and data center capabilities to the Total Army.
U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
(INSCOM)
Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Mission: INSCOM executes mission command of operational intelligence and security forces; conducts, synchronizes and integrates worldwide multi-discipline and all-source intelligence and security operations; and delivers linguistic support and intelligence-related advanced skills training, acquisition support, logistics, communications and other specialized capabilities in support of Army, joint and coalition commands and the U.S. intelligence community.
Activities: INSCOM is the Army’s operational intelligence command. It is uniquely positioned, globally postured and fully integrated with Army Service Component Commands, combatant commands and across the intelligence community. The command provides critical intelligence, cutting edge training and intelligence connectivity to fully enable the warfighter and senior decisionmakers. As the global integrator for Army intelligence, INSCOM’s Soldiers, civilians and contractors operate 24/7 in over 180 locations around the globe. INSCOM collects and produces intelligence that is critical to tactical commanders, theater and combatant commanders, consumers of strategic intelligence and national decisionmakers. INSCOM brings both intelligence and security together to ensure that its Soldiers connect, deliver and protect a globally integrated intelligence enterprise to enable the joint force to compete and win.
U.S. Army Medical Command
(MEDCOM)
Fort Sam Houston, Texas
Mission: MEDCOM provides ready and sustained health services support and force health protection in support of the Total Force to enable readiness and to conserve fighting strength while caring for Army people and families. It does this by optimizing Soldier performance and by treating wounded, ill and injured servicemembers, providing comfort and care to those in need. Army Medicine’s history demonstrates an ethos of selfless service and innovation in expeditionary healthcare; it must embody this ethos to remain first among peers in expeditionary medicine.
Activities: MEDCOM’s fundamental tasks are promoting, improving, conserving or restoring the behavioral and physical well-being of those entrusted to its care. It supports the operational requirements of combatant commanders while ensuring a ready and healthy force. It operates with modernized doctrine, equipment and formations that maximize time, money and manpower while strengthening alliances and partnerships.
MEDCOM is restructuring according to operational and strategic imperatives. As it effectively and efficiently reorganizes to meet Army mandates and reforms, there is a need for scalable and rapidly deployable medical capabilities. The effort to meet this need is incorporating lessons learned from recent combat experiences and from the global COVID-19 response. Simultaneously, MEDCOM is developing agile and adaptive leaders of character who are able to achieve success in a constantly-changing environment by providing expeditionary, tailored, medically-ready forces who support the Army mission to deploy, fight and win decisively. In all of these efforts, MEDCOM seeks to ensure that Soldiers, civilians and families enjoy the professional opportunities and quality of life that they deserve.
U.S. Military Academy
(USMA)
West Point, New York
Mission: Founded in 1802, USMA educates, trains and inspires its corps of cadets, ensuring that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character, committed to the values of duty, honor and country—and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation. It is a vital part of the Army’s overall current and future readiness, as well as the Army People Strategy.
Activities: USMA directly supports the Army’s mission and sustained readiness by developing the leaders of character who are committed to the values of West Point and the Army and ready to lead, fight and win in the crucible of ground combat. Admission is open to all U.S. citizens ages 17–23 and is extremely competitive. Candidates must receive a nomination from a member of Congress or the Department of the Army to be considered. They are evaluated on their academic, physical and leadership potential; only those who are fully qualified receive appointments to the Academy. Its leader development model deliberately and purposefully integrates individual focus through its academic, military, physical and character programs, exercises and experiences, all within a culture of character growth. Upon graduation, cadets are expected to live honorably, lead honorably and demonstrate excellence.
West Point’s challenging academic program, recognized nationally for excellence, develops graduates who think critically, internalize their professional identity and employ their education in service to the Army and the nation’s future. Additionally, cadets receive robust training in foundational military competencies, physical training appropriate for their futures as Army officers and, most important, character development that is deliberately woven into every aspect of the cadet experience.
USMA graduates approximately 1,000 new officers annually, representing about 20–25 percent of the new lieutenants required by the Army. Additionally, it contributes to the Army through its resident intellectual capital and 27 research centers; its “second graduating class” of rotating junior faculty who assume leadership roles at the battalion and brigade levels; and a variety of outreach efforts and partnerships in support of Army priorities.
U.S. Army Military District of Washington
(MDW)
Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC
Mission: USAMDW has five subordinate commands; exercises geographic senior commander responsibilities over three Army installations (Fort George G. Meade, Fort Belvoir and Fort A.P. Hill) and one joint base (Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall); provides executive, operational, ceremonial and musical support across a full range of worldwide responsibilities; and serves as the Army forces component and core staff element of the Joint Task Force–National Capital Region to achieve Army and joint requirements. USAMDW also exercises senior commander responsibilities over the Soldier Recovery Brigade-National Capital Region, Soldier Recovery Battalion-Fort Belvoir, Joint Air Defense Operations Center and U.S. Army Medical Department Activity at Fort George G. Meade. It is the general court-martial convening authority for more than 400 worldwide organizations that do not have this authority.
Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) support an Army Full Honors Wreath-Laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, 23 August 2022 (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser).
Activities: USAMDW serves as the Department of the Army’s executive agent for official ceremonial events. It represents the armed forces on behalf of the Department of Defense during national-level ceremonial functions that include but are not limited to: presidential inaugurations, official wreath ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and state funerals. Its five subordinate commands are:
- the Army Aviation Brigade, which provides executive support to Army leadership and also has a rescue force element;
- the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), the oldest active duty infantry unit, the official ceremonial unit and escort to the president, responsible for conducting memorial affairs missions and official military ceremonies at the White House, the Pentagon, national memorials and elsewhere in the nation’s capital;
- the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” the Army’s premier musical organization, that, through musical excellence, connects the Army to the American public and provides musical support to senior leadership and a wide spectrum of federal agencies and recruiting initiatives;
- the U.S. Army Transportation Agency, which provides premier, world-wide ground logistical support to White House officials (this is the only all-Army unit under the direction of the White House Military Office—each unit member earns a Presidential Service Identification Badge); and
- the U.S. Army Field Band, which is the premier touring musical representative for the U.S. Army, traveling thousands of miles each year as a musical ambassador and undertaking a mission of public outreach that includes media appearances and performances at secondary schools and universities nationwide.
Military Postal Service Agency
(MPSA)
Arlington, Virginia
Mission: MPSA achieves efficient and responsive processing, transportation and distribution of personal and official mail throughout the Department of Defense (DoD).
Activities: MPSA was formed in 1980 to serve as the single mail manager within the military services. It provides the best value postal services to authorized DoD patrons for personal and official mail around the world, in contingency and non-contingency operations, in peace and war, around the clock and around the world. As a jointly-staffed organization, headquartered in the National Capital Region, it serves as the single point of contact with the United States Postal Service (USPS), and it oversees the Military Postal Service (MPS) for DoD. MPS provides postal support to geographic combatant commands through services’ theater postal commands by assisting with contingency planning. It also monitors transportation expenditures for mail movement, is the proponent for DoD’s cost control policy on official mail and is the functional director for military mail. The MPS operates as an extension of the USPS in over 55 countries and provides similar postal service wherever possible. Differences in postal service are based on restrictions for the assigned country and various types of military operations. Movement of DoD mail by air, ground or surface transportation is accomplished through multiple partnerships among the United States, foreign governments and the commercial sector, facilitated by entities such as the USPS, U.S. Transportation Command, the Defense Logistics Agency, Military Sealift Command, Air Mobility Command and U.S. and foreign flag commercial airlines.
U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command
(ATEC)
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
Mission: ATEC provides direct support to U.S. Army Futures Command (see p. 78) and relevant, timely information to senior Army leaders to make future force decisions enabling Multi-Domain Operations through rigorous developmental testing and operational evaluations, executing its mission in a collaborative environment and investing in both people and infrastructure. Through integrated testing and evaluations conducted in an independent and objective manner, it ensures that the nation’s Soldiers go to war equipped with weapon systems that work.
Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 321st Field Artillery Regiment of the 18th Field Artillery Brigade out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, visited White Sands Missile Range on 14 December 2021. They conducted live fire testing of early versions of the Army Tactical Missile System and confirmed that the older weapons are still reliable and ready for use (U.S. Army photo by John Hamilton).
Activities: With eight subordinate organizations across the country, ATEC has an annual budget exceeding $1.7 billion. ATEC personnel scrutinize everything from individual weapons to the national missile defense Ground-Based Midcourse Defense systems. Since its formation, ATEC has played a major role in Army transformation. It boasts a workforce of over 8,000 military, civilian and contract employees who are highly skilled test officers, engineers, scientists, technicians, researchers and evaluators involved in more than 2,300 events annually. ATEC employees collaborate with individuals across multiple disciplines in other government agencies and in private industry. They also receive hands-on experience with the most sophisticated and advanced technologies in the world. The staff designs and uses precise instrumentation to test sophisticated military systems under controlled conditions at facilities around the country. ATEC seeks the voice of its customers while continuously striving to become more affordable, effective and efficient.
U.S. Army War College
(AWC)
Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania
Mission: Carlisle Barracks was established in 1757 and has been home to the U.S. Army War College since 1951. It enhances national and global security by developing ideas and educating U.S. and international leaders to serve at strategic levels and by delivering strategic-level education to Army general officers and to a joint and combined student body of majors, colonels and Army strategists.
Activities: AWC examines strategic issues and creates strategic ideas through the Strategic Studies Institute, Center for Strategic Leadership. It is supported by military history archives and by the research and analysis that comes through the Army Heritage and Education Center. On 473 acres, 18 miles southwest of Harrisburg, it stands as the only full-service installation in Pennsylvania and boasts a military community of 26,000 individuals, including 615 servicemembers, 1,000 family members and 838 civilians.
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2022 Profile of the United States Army
Foreword
Chapter 1: National Defense
Chapter 2: The Land Component
Chapter 3: Army Organization
Chapter 4: The Soldier
Chapter 5: The Uniform
Chapter 6: The Army on Point
Chapter 7: Army Families
Chapter 8: Army Commands
Chapter 9: Army Service Component Commands
Chapter 10: Direct Reporting Units