By According to this article the military is having a hard time filling one of the most important positions needed for operations in Iraq:
Army Capt. Matthew Foster, like many officers, was not thrilled to hear he had been assigned to a training team destined for Iraq to work with the national police.
The job is a growing need as U.S. forces try to prepare the Iraqis to secure their own country and is considered by many in the U.S. ranks as high risk, with little reward. At the same time, commanders at Fort Riley said that as the demand for more trainers increases in Iraq and Afghanistan, they will be able to quickly ramp up their schooling and send even more solders over as advisers. national police.
Still, they and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, said Wednesday they understand that many soldiers are not sold on the program. They also said they are working to ensure that troops on training teams get the rewards and promotions needed to make the assignment more attractive. [Lolita Baldor, AP]
It is not promotions that is making this program unpopular, the fact that transition team training is in Ft. Riley, Kansas is. I have been approached to volunteer to join a military transition team and the job itself doesn’t bother me; leaving my family in Ft. Riley does. I would have to do a PCS move to Ft. Riley than take off for a year or more leaving my wife on a post she knows no one at in the middle of Kansas. Then when I come back, we would then have to do another PCS move all over again to another military posting.
Compare this to PCSing to a normal US Army unit where my wife is wrapped into a Family Readiness Group (FRG) with people she knows and then when I come back from deployment I don’t have to worry about moving again and I stay in the same post and unit I’m familiar with. It is a big enough of a family sacrifice to deploy to Iraq for the amount of time that we do thus adding any additional hardship to something already quite challenging would of course not be a popular assignment.
If the Army trained transition teams on multiple posts such as Ft. Lewis, Ft. Carson, Ft. Hood, and Ft. Bragg where many soldiers liked to be stationed they would have more volunteers for the program. Than when the soldiers return they would have an easy time falling into a unit of their choice on the installation. The soldier’s family could then from the on set be wrapped into the unit’s FRG program while deployed overseas. Additionally by throwing bonus money at the transition team soldiers would further add to the pool of volunteers.
There are a variety of reasons for the difficulties recruiting transition team members and promotions is near the bottom.
10:53 am on April 18th, 2008 1
This article is incorrect. Transition Team members are given the option to PCS to Kuwait and leave their family at their previous duty station or move them anywhere in the US during the assignment. This option is well publicized.
11:56 am on April 18th, 2008 2
You are misunderstanding what I am saying. The PCS to Kuwait option is a band-aid to the problem.
By leaving your family at their home station and then the soldier travels to Riley, this means the soldier is away from their family for nearly three additional months before even deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. Is it any wonder why people with families would not like to volunteer for this?
That is why I said by opening multiple training locations on popular installations that people want to be stationed at you would get more volunteers from people stationed on that post and from other people who want follow on assignments to that post. By basing the training solely at Ft. Riley is a major impediment to people wanting to volunteer for MiTT.
As long as it remains that way I expect that soldiers will continue to be forced to take the MiTT assignment which will only make it even more unpopular.
8:44 am on April 23rd, 2008 3
I just volunteered for this transistion team. I think it will be a good experience and also a good carrer move. I have already been deployed to iraq when the war first started so it isnt a big deal. My wife and kid will be back home with family and I got to pick my follow on assignment. I know people dont want to volunteer to go down range but it something that needs to be done. Either way we are all going to deploy one time or another, the question is do we want to have some control over it??
12:56 am on May 6th, 2008 4
I can't help but wonder if the reason these teams exist is because we don't have enough Special Forces, who's mission it has been to train indigineous army and police forces. Isn't there something about doing a Special Forces mission without the special forces training that is rather distasteful? Aren't these guys huge targets riding around with amateur and untrustworthy Iraqi soldiers and policemen?
4:02 pm on May 9th, 2008 5
I agree with this article. My husband may be assigned to a MiTT team, and we are facing the same problem he refers to. Should I stay where I am, but keep the kids away from him three extra months while he's at Riley? Or do I PCS to Riley and wait in the middle of nowhere with no friends for a year?
I think his idea is great.
7:00 pm on July 15th, 2008 6
I keep hearing about how this assignment helps officers as far as promotion what does it do for the NCO's? Plus they call giving you your choice of a return assignment that only consist of Divisional units. So what is the perk of a choice of returning to a Campbell, Bragg, Drum and so on? There is none, I am presently scheduled to go a team with and I see nothing that does anything for me on a return assignment. This is my fourth trip and I have guys who have not been once working with me that should have been picked for this assignment.