IA INFO

[Da-Chief]

Navy kicks in IA benefits
New message released outlining basic details

By Mark D. Faram
Staff writer







http://www.navytimes.com/content/editorial/editart/NavyIACTweb.JPGNavy individual augmentees undergo training at Fort Jackson, S.C. — Journalist 1st Class Jackey Bratt
Navy officials released Monday the first in a series of NavAdmins outlining the benefits and rewards that sailors will get for combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The message outlines the basic rules for how these new programs will be implemented, and will be augmented with at least four future messages that will give deeper guidance on selected topics.

Officials say these are not just temporary measures either, with many of these benefits to become codified Navy policy as they are incorporated into personnel manual updates in the future.

“We are expecting the global war on terrorism will be going on for some time,” said Rear Adm. Edward “Sonny” Masso, who heads up the IA task force on the staff of the Navy’s chief of personnel in Arlington, Va. “We want to have policies in place to benefit all IAs past, present and future — policies that send the signal to everyone that we value this duty and will reward those who answer the call to go.”

That sentiment is echoed in the message, which states the policies currently only apply to those on IA duty in the Central Command theater of operations.

But, the message continues on, “if future mission requirements demand Navy sailors to fight the Global War on Terror in other geographic areas, these initiatives will be applied to individuals serving in those combatant commands.”

The message contains the basic guidelines, or “business rules,” on how the benefits of IA duty will be implemented. Those benefits include awarding advancement points for enlisted sailors, giving follow-on duty station preferences to those returning from IA duty and setting new advancement exam rules for combat zones.

In addition, new skill identifiers for officers and enlisted members are now being created, as are new rules on how IA duty will impact sea-shore rotation.

Commanders are now also being told specifically just how to treat IA duty on evaluation and fitness report guidance.

In addition, the message says, selection board guidance has already been rewritten to ensure those on IA duty get the full consideration for that duty in the selection process.

One thing not included in this message that will take longer than the rest of the policy to finish is the IA service badge, Masso said. He did add, however, that it is being worked and will be decided on soon.

The message also spells out Navy policy on how IAs will be identified and put on orders by spelling out who can be tapped for this duty and who can’t, as well as setting limits on just how much a command can impacted by losing sailors to IA duty.

Masso says getting this policy in place and underway is a priority since some of the benefits will help the 46,000 sailors who have already deployed as IAs, as well as the nearly 10,000 currently on the ground overseas.

These benefits and incentives are meant to drive home the message that a sailor’s IA service is “valued” by the Navy, he said, and would not just be forgotten upon their return.

Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. John C. Harvey said in a message released Sept. 29 that he plans to release a NavAdmin each week for the next four weeks outlining in even greater detail these benefits.

More:

• Vice Adm. John C. Harvey's personal message to fleet commanders (http://navytimes.com/content/editorial/pdf/100206p4.pdf)



• NavAdmin 273/06 (http://www.navytimes.com/content/editorial/pdf/NavAdmin27306.pdf)

[0311_DoC]

So whats your take on this everybody????





All NECC sailors to get combat training
(NAVYTIMES.COM 5 OCT. 2006)…Andrew Scutro
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Starting next spring, all sailors assigned to expeditionary combat command units will go through a two-month ground warfare skills course, according to Capt. Robert McKenna, assistant chief of staff for training at the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command.

“We need to take sailors and instill in them a warrior mentality, a boots-on-the-ground warrior mentality, not a gray-hull-at-sea warrior mentality, which they already have,” McKenna said at a U.S. Naval Institute conference Thursday.

Although the Expeditionary Combat Skills Course is still being honed, McKenna said the course will last up to two months and teach incoming sailors how to move, shoot, communicate and provide first aid in a combat situation. Very soon, all sailors assigned to NECC units — riverine, Seabee, explosive ordnance disposal, mobile dive and salvage, coastal warfare, expeditionary logistics and other new units now being formed — will go through a course directly after boot camp. After the combat skills course, sailors will go to their A-school, then report to their NECC unit, McKenna told Navy Times.

A location has not yet been determined, but McKenna said Army, Marine and other combat training courses are being examined for methods and techniques. As it is now, sailors assigned to individual augmentee duty in the Central Command area are being trained by the Army. Riverine Squadron 1, an NECC unit, is being trained by Marine instructors.

Eventually, the Expeditionary Combat Skills Course will be run by Navy instructors with PCS billets, McKenna said.

The first unit to go through the course will likely be the 240 sailors of the yet to be formed Riverine Squadron 3. Squadron 1 is halfway through training in preparation for a spring deployment to Iraq. Squadron 2 is being manned and will begin training in January, he said.

Once it gets rolling, McKenna expects 4,000 sailors a year to take the combat skills course.

McKenna was asked during the conference why the NECC, the Navy’s newestcommand, was formed. He said the chief of naval operations wanted it to happen, adding, “If there’s a war on, the Navy is going to be there.”

[DocHoop]

IA'sare finally getting there due. I'll let you in on my augment story. I did 3 long years in 1MARDIV.2 deployments and years off my young life. First to Afghanistan, thenIraq for my second deployment.After a lil wearand tear I decideonGreat Lakes as my shore duty to rest up.But, low and behold,Corpsman are needed, taskers are put out. Iam mapped (augmented)out and deployed once again to Iraq. Now hereis where it almost hurt me. I spent 11 months out of myprimary shore command.When I returned I was 3 months from PCSing...... Thats right back to sea duty.My solution was to extend my PRD 1 year. Yet not everyone is lucky like me. If that were not approved I'd probably be back now. Bottom line, IA's needthose bennies. We drop our lives in little time to serve our country at its calling.Lets be realSailors, how many of you have a seabag ready? How many of you are ready to go in less than72 hours, 48 hours, or 24 hours?