News From USJFCOM: USJFCOM planners play vital role in force deployment


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USJFCOM planners play vital role in force deployment

When requests come in for troops for locations around the world, U.S. Joint Forces Command takes on the mission of deciding where those forces would come from and what missions they will take on.

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By Jacob Boyer
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(NORFOLK, Va. - Dec. 8, 2009) -- U.S. Joint Forces Command’s (USJFCOM) Operations, Plans, Logistics and Engineering Directorate (J3/4) is playing a pivotal role in transforming the recently announced plan to increase troop strength in Afghanistan by 30,000 into actual boots on the ground there.

USJFCOM, the Department of Defense’s joint force provider, manages the process that turns approved force requests from combatant and operational commanders into action by identifying conventional units in the continental United States and ensuring the right assets are deployed when and where they are needed.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Yates, J3/4 director, said once a combatant commander’s request is validated by the Joint Staff, it is forwarded to the command, where sourcers in the Joint Deployment Center (JDC) figure out which forces will best fulfill those needs.

“I call them ‘source-rers,’ because the magic that these guys do is mind boggling,” Yates said. “They take a requirement [and] turn that into forces that will meet that requirement. Sometimes, it’s exactly what was asked for. Sometimes, it is something that would provide the same capability that may not be exactly what [was] asked for but is available and will do the job.”

Once USJFCOM’s sourcers finish, the plan is forwarded to the Joint Staff before being briefed to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense.

In the instance of the recent administration strategy for 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan, the joint force providers are working to source three force packages, Yates said. The force packages are detailed requirements submitted by the combatant commander to request the forces needed to implement the orders of the commander in chief.

Two units already have been announced as part of the troop increase and will be, “at the leading edge of those forces that are being deployed,” Yates said.

To those who saw the president make his announcement at the beginning of December and sees Marines preparing to leave by the end of the year, the process may seem quick, almost chaotic. Yates said his staff worked to be prepared to provide whatever troops were needed immediately following the president’s Dec. 2 speech.

“Is it a quick deployment? Not really. Gen. McChrystal took command in late May or early June,” Yates said. “Right after that, he started his strategic assessment. That assessment was in coordination since about August, so we’ve been anticipating the order to implement some level of change for some time.”

“The president’s speech provided us with the guidance we needed to source the implementation of the new strategy,” he added.

Yates compared his staff’s current challenge to the one it faced in the 2007 Iraqi surge of troops. He said that challenge was one the J3/4’s biggest successes as a joint force provider. While the two situations are similar, there are big differences.

“One informs the other, but they’re unique situations with unique requirements,” he said. “The type of force that we use for an Afghanistan counterinsurgency and training effort is going to be a little bit different than what was needed for the Iraqi surge. Each theater is unique in terms of force requirements and strategy. The similarity is in the magnitude of the effort and the importance of getting it right as the joint force provider.”

The new JDC facility, which opened in October, greatly enhances the J3/4 staff’s ability to complete the complex tasks assigned them by providing “the right environment and resources to do that job extremely well,” Yates said.

“This puts our folks in a state-of-the-art environment where we have people arrayed so that their efforts will be synergistic,” he said. “I have sourcers here, I have analysts here, I have my personnelists (here) … and they’re all working in the same general location, so if there are questions, they don’t have to go halfway across the campus to get them answered.

“You have the state-of-the-art facility, you have great folks who are very, very expert in their areas, [and] you have clear requirements from the combatant commanders,” he continued. “When you take those three things and the assignment of forces to the commander of JFCOM, you have just about the perfect lineup of capabilities that you need to provide the warfighter what he needs to succeed in his war effort.”

Yates said the J3/4 staff understands the urgency and importance of their current task.

“When we come into work every day, it’s not like we’re working thousands of miles away from the war zone,” he said. “We have a sense of urgency. We understand that our efforts are going to be directly translatable into Gen. McChrystal’s ability to realize his vision in Afghanistan. We believe in that and we know it’s going to work, so we’re anxious to get to work so we can provide Gen. McChrystal and our nation what is needed to get the job done.”