Implementing a Unit Manning System

摘要

Three years into a new defense-oriented administration, the U.S. Army finds itself still adjusting to change. The services are enjoying substantial funding increases; U.S. Armed Forces have completed a successful invasion and regime change abroad; and the Army has a new chief of staff. The Army is examining new employment concepts and new technology to fill a capabilities gap between light and heavy forces, and it is implementing a new unit manning system (UMS). Sound familiar? The year: 1983. Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan, 3 years into his first term, had made substantial increases to the Department of Defense's budget, setting the stage for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakup of the Warsaw Pact. In June 1983, General John A. Wicham became the Army Chief of Staff. In November, U.S. Armed Forces invaded the island of Grenada to rescue college students and to unseat the People's Revolutionary Government as Grenada's governing party. The High Technology Test Bed (HTTP) at Fort Lewis, Washington, a program whose mission was to acquire and test new and experimental equipment and materiel, was in its second year, and the Army was in the third year of implementing its new manning system-COHORT (Cohesion, Operational Readiness, and Training) and the U.S. Army Regimental System.