Rhine Ordnance Barracks, Germany -- Soldiers from the personnel offices of the 10th Army Air and Missile Command, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, and the 16th Sustainment Brigade met 25 August 2016 to receive training on the Deployed Theater Accountability System.
The operational landscape of the European Theater has changed drastically over the last 2 years. As a result of this dramatic change United States Army Europe is having to look at some of its current practices and assess if changes need to be made. One such area of assessment is theater personnel accountability. In an environment where theater assets are quickly supplemented by National Guard units, and then asked to conduct a rapid deployment readiness exercise across several national borders all while interoperating with multinational partners, keeping accountability of personnel quickly becomes a monumental task.
In order to help stream line and improve the personnel tracking process the great minds in the United States Army Europe personnel office have elected to switch from a two system process, where one system is designed for garrison operations and the second for deployment operations, to a single system process utilizing only the system designed for deployment operations. This system is called the Deployed Theater Accountability System or DTAS for short.
"Utilizing DTAS allows for more fluid operations as we conduct more dynamic operations throughout the European theater." explained Cpt. Matteson Smith, the 10th AAMDC's G1 Planner, "It really streamlines the whole process."
Switching to the DTAS will be a relatively painless process because most senior members in each unit's personnel office should have used or at least received prior training on this system previously in their career. The classes hosted at Rhine Ordnance Barracks were designed to train the newer members of the Army Personnel Team to ensure that throughout the organization there were no gaps in knowledge when it came to utilizing the DTAS.
"It really is an incredible system and it was a great course." explained Spc. Trevor Ross, a 42A Human Resource Specialist, "It really is the accountability system of the future, especially here in Europe."
The end result was a wider distribution of technical ability throughout the European Theater that will allow for a more fluid transition to a single system theater accountability method. This will undoubtedly better enable units in theater to track personnel in an environment full of rapid response exercises.
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