Considering a Cadre Augmented Army - RAND Corporation

-183- An Operational Analysis of Cadre
together in a unit for a three-year cycle and are then reassigned. Units in the Ready phase
would be fully manned with full-time personnel for three years. 68
In the Standby phase, a unit would be composed of a mix of full-time personnel and
prior-service personnel. Tillson et al describe two types of Standby units: Standby 1 and
Standby 2. Standby 1 units have just reached the end of the three-year Ready phase at which
time some personnel choose to end active service or retire and others choose to remain in
the army. Tillson et al state that “those that remained on active duty would become ‘doublehatted’
and would be assigned to advanced training or to jobs in the non-combat
organizations (e.g. recruiting).” 69 Those who had chosen to leave active service or retire
would remain on-call for one year (the Standby 1 phase) to mobilize with the same unit they
served with over the past three years. Tillson et al argue: “because of the high levels of
cohesion and expertise created while it was in Ready status, the Standby unit ought to be
able to restore its combat effectiveness fairly quickly in an emergency.” 70 After one year in
the Standby 1 phase, a unit would move on to the Standby 2 phase. During this phase, some
personnel would be assigned to AC units, while others would remain on-call to be mobilized
as part of the same unit, either in the IRR or on active service in a non-combat role. In the
event of mobilization, two Standby 2 units would be combined to form one deployable unit.
Figure 3.2 shows the cycle of a RSO unit through the Ready and Standby phases over an
eight-year period.
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68 ARFORGEN does not maintain 100 percent manning of a unit for the three-year period, it builds gradually
to 100 percent over the course of the cycle. Nonetheless, the personnel assigned at the beginning of the cycle
stay together throughout.
69 Tillson et al (1990), p. I-10. Some full time members of the Standby 1 unit might also be assigned to
equipment maintenance.
70 Tillson et al (1990), p. I-10