How do smaller military elements grow in size?

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 18:12:03 -0500

Im currently in an engineering Detachment that is roughly 9 years old, our detachment is fairly small and very E-4 heavy. Since joining there have been rumors of our det eventually becoming company sized to further help the state. I was wondering what the process is for the Army to make that move and help its soldiers and community.

Response by LTC Curtis Madsen made Feb 1 at 2016 6:53 PM

LTC Curtis Madsen — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 18:53:06 -0500

Really hard to say, since there are a several things that might have happened. I know in my state for example, we've traded a quartermaster company for a special forces company between states. That's always a possibility, again really hard to say where and why the move happened.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Feb 1 at 2016 7:26 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 19:26:46 -0500

TOE

Response by LTC Yinon Weiss made Feb 1 at 2016 8:02 PM

LTC Yinon Weiss — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 20:02:41 -0500

I would guess the final decision/approval is done at the National Guard Bureau level, with State TAGs as key members of the discussion. Some changes may be trades/swaps, while some may just be based on NGB numbers.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 2 at 2016 2:11 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 02:11:02 -0500

The force structure process is incredibly complex and detailed, way more than you might think on the surface. It deals with not just personnel authorizations (spaces) and actual people assigned (faces) but as you drill down it involves service schools for the impact on students loads ( more or less soldiers of various MOS needed) , the rank pyramid of an affected MOS, the impact on recruiting quotas, plus all the issues of equipping the new unit. It gets really really complicated.

But in general it starts with the need to justify why this unit needs to grow. Was there a change in unit mission, or doctrine or operational concepts that justify the change? A commander can't just say he wants more engineers. Then, a huge issue is who is the bill payer? If you get 100 more spaces, someone has to lose 100 spaces. Depending on how i portant the Army considers the change, they may direct your major command to take it out of hide and ID bill payers within your command. Or they may say that it is so important that they will task another command as the bill payer.

If approved as a concept, it will take years to fully staff and change MTOEs involved. So often they will create provisional units, where they allow one command to rearrange their structure internally before all the paperwork is done. I'm not familiar with NGB processes, but I would imagine a force structure change in the Guard would still have to go through the pentagon and the overall Army force structure process. Because as I mentioned, if you want to change 100 clerks into 100 engineers, that affects the engineer school loads which could mean they need more instructors or classes or equipment. So it's pulling on a ball of string that never ends.

So my guess is that ultimately it would involve approval by both the NGB Chief and the Chief of Staff of the Army.

Response by SFC Steven Wheeler made Feb 2 at 2016 7:48 AM

SFC Steven Wheeler — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 07:48:16 -0500

There are so great answers here. Something else to consider with the approval process and MTOE change is if the current armory is large enough to support the additional personnel and equipment (is the motor large enough to support additional vehicles).

Another is with recruiting to fill the additional slots. My unit had moved from Orlando, Florida to Melbourne, Florida. Because the unit requires MOS positions that needing technical skills (electronics repair and electrical mechanical), a survey had to be completed to see if Melbourne and the surrounding area could provide the people needed to fill positions for those not wanting to commute from Orlando to Melbourne (about 70 miles one-way).