ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

U.S. Army North, already overseeing DoD COVID-19 operations in Texas, will deploy military medical personnel to California as the global fight against the novel coronavirus continues.

“We’re working with FEMA across the entire country to determine what other military capabilities may be needed to assist in this fight,” Lt. Gen. Laura Richardson, Army North commander, said July 14 during the Association of the U.S. Army’s Thought Leaders webinar series.

The military’s reserve components could play larger roles in the overall U.S. defense after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a retired Army general. 

“This is a fairly striking period of time,” retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, a visiting professor of strategic studies and senior fellow at the Merrill Center of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, said during a virtual discussion with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in June. 

Maj. Gen. Jody Daniels, commander of the Army Reserve’s 88th Regional Readiness Division and a former chief of staff for Army Forces Command, has been nominated to be the next chief of the Army Reserve.

If confirmed by the Senate, Daniels will receive her third star and become the first woman to lead a major Army component. She would succeed Lt. Gen. Charles Luckey, who has led the Army Reserve since June 2016.

The Army and the other services should explore new and different ways for troops to serve in the reserve component, which is struggling to recruit and compete for talent with the civilian sector, according to a recent RAND Corporation report.

This could include working from home, job-sharing options, flexible work schedules and even allowing some troops, especially those in highly specialized career fields, to be nondeployable, according to the report, titled “Manpower Alternatives to Enhance Total Force Capabilities.”

Deploying with a force that included active-duty, Army National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers highlighted the “continued strength and mutual dependency” of the total Army, a senior Army leader said.

“It was such a joy to be able to integrate [them] into our force structure, and to have our soldiers and units that are normally assigned to us learn from their example,” said Col. Patrick Sullivan, commander of the 20th Engineer Brigade, during a recent media roundtable at the Pentagon.

The Army should focus on deploying smaller National Guard and Army Reserve units, which are quicker and easier to train, alongside active-duty troops if the service is called upon to quickly mobilize for a major conflict overseas.

A recent RAND Corp. report found it would take too much time to get larger reserve component formations—such as brigade combat teams or combat aviation brigades—properly mobilized and trained during the earlier periods of a conflict or contingency. 

The Army is likely to continue a pilot program that pairs active-duty and reserve component units to build readiness and strengthen unit cohesion across the force, the new director of the Army National Guard said.

The Associated Units Program, launched in 2016, was designed to test whether combining units across the components would increase readiness and improve relationships and unit cohesion.

The pilot program was to run for three years, with senior Army leaders set to decide on the program by Sept. 30.