FORT KNOX, Ky. – Ensuring Army readiness is vital to our nations’ security and part of that is validating the deployability of Soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve, or IRR.
Soldiers in the IRR are trained individuals who have previously served, most are fulfilling their remaining military service obligation, or MSO, after leaving active duty. To test and evaluate the mechanisms of a mass IRR force mobilization the Strategic Sourcing Branch, or SSB, of the Reserve Personnel Management Directorate, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, conducted its first Rehearsal of Concept, or ROC, Drill July 27-30, here.
From a readiness perspective this drill gave the Army an idea of the availability of IRR Soldiers using a small sample of the population, said Lt Col. Corey Willie, SSB chief.
“Although it was a small sample, this gives us an idea of the overall big picture of what the Army can tap into and expect if a large-scale combat operation were to happen,” Willie said.
The simulation also validated the SSB Individual Mobilization Augmentee, or IMA, program team’s ability to operationalize a mass mobilization. The validation included assessing the readiness posture of the IRR force to meet manning requirements through the implementation of the Ready Reserve Screening Program that would support large-scale combat operations.
“We have to ensure that all IRR Soldiers are ready in case of a large-scale recall,” said Maj. Christopher Golab, an IMA Soldier who serves as the Army training center liaison for large-scale combat operations. “It also validates our ability to work with external agencies like TRADOC [U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command] and USARCG [U.S. Army Reserve Career Group]. In doing so HRC is able to validate its ability to do an IRR recall.”
The IMA, which is part of the U.S. Army Reserve Selected Reserve, provides for the rapid expansion of the active Army’s wartime structure and other U.S. government departments and agencies to meet manpower requirements in the event of an emerging crisis or military contingency operation. The IMA program provides opportunity and flexibility for civilians to work in their profession while also serving in the Army Reserve.
When Golab is not on duty as an IMA Soldier, he is a pilot for United Airlines. Master Sgt. Scott Kiffe, member of the IRR Recall Team, is a Department of the Army Civilian working as the manpower chief for U.S. Army Garrison-Stuttgart, Germany.
“The IMA program gives you flexibility to work when you are available, but also where needed,” Golab said. “I really enjoy the balance between my family life, my work life and being an IMA for HRC.”
Kiffe, who has been an IMA Soldier for 10 years, said the flexibility the program makes continuing his Army service easier as he also pursues his civilian career.
“For me and the job I hold, and the jobs I've held, it works out much better than TPU [Troop Program Unit],” he said. “I'm overseas and my unit is back here in the states, so it’s easier for them to bring me in once and let me do my commitment. On the civilian side, they released me for a few weeks and that’s it for the year.”
What took months to plan, began with five days of training before the drill that brought together the HRC SSB and IMA Recall teams as well as representatives from TRADOC and USARCG at the Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude Complex. During the training the teams familiarized themselves with the various systems they would use for the drill.
“I started the planning process around August 2023,” Willie said. “I needed to see exactly what it looked like first because this is the first time we have done this. I had to figure out how to reach my end state of bringing this to the Army Training Centers – into those battle space locations – and repeat what we did here on a larger scale.”
For the drill, a small sample size of IRR Soldiers from within a 100-mile radius of Fort Knox, Kentucky, were contacted and ordered to present for muster at HRC.
To make drills like this successful it is vital that Soldiers who are in the IRR update their contact information annually, said Master Sgt. Devan Davenport, SSB musters noncommissioned officer in charge.
“The biggest hurdle we had was having good addresses to send out orders,” said Davenport.
The muster area was arranged much like a Soldier Readiness Processing, or SRP, where IRR Soldiers began a procedure known as re-greening by moving through four stations that included a periodic health assessment, or PHA, and an evaluation for deployability and employability conducted by representatives from TRADOC.
At the final station the drill participants met with USARCG staff to discuss their duties and responsibilities as IRR Soldiers and possible career options in the Army Reserve.
Coming together for this drill provided the opportunity for all the agencies involved to streamline the process for future iterations, Golab said.
“All of the supporting staff including the surgeon cell and TRADOC helped out tremendously,” Willie said. “We even had visitors from First Army, who stopped by to see what our ROC Drill looked like.”
Dylan Brooks, a former infantry Soldier who came from Louisville, Kentucky, to participate in the ROC Drill, said the process that only took a few hours to complete went well.
“This is definitely important so that everyone is aware of what’s going on, what their options are and to ensure that all of their information is up to date, such as contact information and readiness,” said Brooks, who now works a plumber.
The SSB team considers the drill an overall success and will apply the lessons learned to future iterations they intend to expand in FY25 to the Army’s four training centers – Fort Moore, Georgia; Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri – for a more robust exercise.
“I’ve definitely taken some lessons learned, things that we can tweak, things that we can make better in the future and things that worked out really well,” Willie said. “Overall, my measurement exercise was: Did I properly plan the operation? Yes. Did we execute the operation? Yes. Did we secure a small sample of IRR availability? Yes. So, I view this drill as a success because we hit the major key points of the operation.”
