Individual Augmentation program

[Bigmack]

Friend has a son in the Navy... chopper pilot. (Ass and trash pilot.)

The Navy has sent him to an Army base for training, then he goes to Afghanistan to do something other than fly helicopters. Sounds like grunt training to me.

Anybody know about this?

I found a website for a naval unit that has "participated" in this program, and it looks like they're in grunt billets.

http://www.hsl43.navy.mil/IA/IA1.html

[MADem]

1. Hey, here are a few links that you might find helpful

http://www.dcmilitary.com/stories/012507/journal_28008.shtml


Rear Adm. Sonny Masso spoke to a room full of surface warfare officers Jan. 17, about Individual Augmentation, working to dispel some of the myths associated with the program.
Masso, who heads Task Force Individual Augmentation, used the opportunity to communicate some of the successes and challenges the task force faces, but mostly to set the record straight....‘‘Since 2002, 82 percent of our have come from the Reserve component, yet I see letters of resignation from officers listing a fear of duty as being the reason they are getting out,” Masso said. ‘‘ duty affects two percent of the surface warfare officer community, yet if you speak to a junior officer on the waterfront, you would think that half of their wardroom are .”

Masso said his remarks were the start of what he calls his ‘‘myth-busting” campaign....‘‘The rumor mill has always been a powerful way for Sailors to get their information, more so than any we publish,” Masso said. ‘‘I want Sailors to know the truth about service. I want them to know we value their service and are doing everything we can to take care of them and their families.”

The notification window for augmentees was one of the largest problems the task force faced when it first stood up as a task force. The notification window begins when a Sailor receives written orders of duty, and ends when that Sailor leaves the area of permanent duty station. Through the work of the task force, the average notification window has increased from under 30 days to a high of 80 days....‘‘We all knew was the right thing to do, it was just a matter of getting the right processes in place to make it happen,” Masso said. ‘‘The gave us very specific guidance on getting this job done. He values the service of , knows the importance of their mission and wants to do the right thing for the Sailors performing this very important duty.”

In addition to the improvements in the notification window, Masso also went over the initiatives announced in 2006 aimed at assisting Sailors who take duty overseas. These initiatives include flexible advancement exams and award points towards advancement. The Navy will also pay for families of Sailors deployed on duty to move from their area of permanent duty station to an area of greater family support during the deployment. ....‘‘The bottom line is that we want our Sailors worried about the mission at hand, not about studying for their next advancement exam or worrying about their families,” Masso said. ‘‘We want them to know that we will take care of them and their career the best way we know how. We value their service and their contributions.”....

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I'm having trouble pulling up the PDF of the original instruction on the program, but here's the cached version (the PDF link is at the top): http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:TaQPYrkosxkJ:www.cpg3.navy.mil/pages/ia/OVNAVINST_1001_24.pdf+OPNAV+1001.24+Navy+individual+augmentation+program&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

It's essentially a backfill program at the CINC level. What it means is that we don't have enough people to do the job--probably has much to do with the number of troops that have been shifted from Afghanistan to Baghdad in the last several months.

I guess from a manpower perspective, it beats trying to push more people into that Blue to Green program, which I understand continues apace. There will come a day, they figure, when they'll need their reserve assets...