WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Oct. 22, 2013) -- Army leaders Monday announced a new directorate would be established in the Pentagon under the Army's G-1.
The Resiliency Directorate will be stood up Nov. 4, said Lt. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, deputy chief of staff, G-1, speaking during a panel at the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition.
The panel discussed the service's Ready and Resilient Campaign, and Bromberg said the new directorate will be responsible for leading a cultural change Army-wide.
Bromberg said one of the challenges the Army faces in the upcoming years is force readiness in the face of downsizing and budget constraints.
"So, how do you maximize your readiness? Well, you maximize equipment by maintaining your equipment, or you can maximize your people also, by keeping them in resiliency training," he said.
The G-1's goal is to take resiliency concepts and translate them into something commanders can do and touch, he explained, emphasizing the long-term effort that will be involved in a cultural shift toward resiliency.
The G-1 has already reorganized, Bromberg said, adding that the new Resiliency Directorate is being established with no overall growth in personnel.
"The responsibility of the directorate will be to be the synchronizer and the driver and energy at the department level for making resiliency the cultural change across the Army."
The Army is now in phase one of that change, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John F. Campbell said, asking non-commissioned officers to lead the change at the ground level.
"After more than a decade of fighting both in Iraq and Afghanistan -- really it's the longest conflict our nation has been involved in -- we have to have the ability to rehabilitate, reset and reshape the force," Campbell said.
Campbell said he wants to take the lessons learned about resiliency over the past few years and apply them to help Soldiers, families and civilians.
Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho, the Army's surgeon general, discussed key points for bringing resiliency to Soldiers. The first is to ensure support systems are delivered to where Soldiers are, and to do that, the medical community is nesting their support within the larger Army community, so everyone is working together to improve the readiness and resilience of Soldiers and family members.
"The second point that I'd like to make is that it really is meeting people where they need to be met. So, it's the synchronization of those programs and capabilities, and it's making sure that we don't wait for them to come to us, that we try to do that outreach," she said. Horoho added that it's important to make sure the programs being presented to Soldiers are the right programs, the ones that will do the most good.
Campbell acknowledged that as the Army entered the fiscal year, new budgetary challenges would appear, limiting resources for resiliency training. He said that senior leaders will be faced with tough decisions, and will need to assess risk and prioritize programs, but he hopes non-commissioned officers and leaders out in the field will provide candid feedback so those decisions are the right ones.
"We can't afford to be redundant. We have to take the right resources and make sure we get the biggest bang for our buck on all of our posts, camps or stations to take care of our Soldiers and our families and our civilians," Campbell said.
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