Individual Augmentee Process

Over the last several years, we have made many changes to the Individual Augmentation (IA) process.  We've added resources to each step in the process to better serve affected Sailors and their families.  Our pre-assignment training has been improved as well as our post-assignment follow-up.  We've been able to develop a "one-stop shopping" IA support website and have seen the Navy as a whole step-up to better support Sailor and their families in every phase of the IA experience.

All that said, I know there is more we can do to improve the IA process for both our Sailors and their families.  I'd like to get your thoughts and ideas (from both our AC and RC Sailors) on this subject.  All the best,  JCHjr

Topics For Discussion

First, thank you for your encouragement and your patience as I continue to learn the best way to run this Blog so that we can have an honest and robust dialogue.

I would now like to hear from you on some topics I choose and on ones that you would like to discuss on this Blog.  I’ve got the topics already mentioned by Heretic, AW1 Tim, Benjamin Walthrop and others, but I know that there are many more out there.

Sustaining Our Essential Warfighting Capabilities

I share AW1 Tim’s and Heretic’s concerns regarding our ability to sustain ASW capability; we are investing heavily in systems as well as tactics, training, and procedures to ensure our ASW capability keeps pace with the proliferating and improving threat, but ASW is just one very important piece of the broader warfighting picture facing us.

For the past 60 years, our Navy has been the most technologically advanced, well-trained, and most complete and capable naval force in the world.  Since the end of the Cold War, other nations have not been able to compete with us militarily or economically.  But as Bob Dylan said, “The times, they are a-changing.”

We are now in a time where a terrorist group like Hezbollah can not only acquire a cruise missile, but also train, launch and hit an Israeli Sa’ar 5 corvette – a capability once possessed by only a handful of militaries.  This type of capability (once the purview of the nation-state, now within the reach of many non-state extremist and criminal organizations) requires us to take a hard look at all of our warfighting capabilities and how we man, train, and equip. It is no longer just about ensuring that we do not allow our traditional warfighting capabilities to atrophy - we must be able to deter and when necessary, fight and win against ALL those who seek to do us harm, including those that do not fight under a nation’s flag like terrorists, cyber-hackers, and pirates.

What are some of your ideas concerning how we ensure our warfighting capabilities like ASW / BMD / Strike, etc. keep pace with the threat, while we also ensure we are prepared to combat “irregular” threats like terrorism, cyber-hackers, and piracy?  And how do we best accomplish all this during a time when the great pressure on our budgets will not allow us to just “buy our way” out of the problem?