JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- (March 30, 2017) The Mission and Installation Contracting Command has a directorate that shapes the organization for efficiency and ensures the command's workforce is positioned with the right people to demonstrate its capabilities and ability to succeed.
The Army chief of staff's top priority is readiness, and to meet the Army's contracting needs, the MICC Operations Directorate ensures the command is resourced and trained to execute its mission.
"We are adapting our force generation process to the needs of a contingency force that is globally responsive and regionally engaged," said Lt. Col. Gwen Devera-Waden, deputy chief of staff for MICC operations and security. "Our mission is to build and preserve the highest possible unit and service-level readiness while minimizing risk to meeting operational demands."
On a daily basis, the MICC's G-2/3/5/7 staff enables the MICC to accomplish a full range of military operations. The operations staff's priority is to prepare the organization, enabling the command to deploy rapidly to conduct operations when called upon.
The staff works through its processes of continuous analysis of current operations, mission support, training, readiness, exercises, protection, personnel security, future operations and plans and events to effect mission readiness.
"All of our work is geared to enable the MICC to meet operational demands while remaining optimally postured to rapidly deploy to meet unforeseen contingencies anywhere in the world," Devera-Waden said. "We are expected to sustain our readiness after deployments, not start over."
As a subordinate unit to the Army Materiel Command, MICC Soldiers and civilians aid in the development and delivery of materiel readiness, synchronizing and integrating their total capabilities. Devera-Waden and Sgt. Maj. Luzmila George lead a staff that provides the MICC commanding general situational awareness across the command and serves as the entry point for all actions involving AMC, the Army Contracting Command, Joint Base San Antonio, Army North, and other external sources as needed. The office is further broken down into three branches -- Operations Division, Plans and Future Operations Division, and the Training, Readiness and Exercises Division.
The MICC G-3/3 Operations Division consists of the Current Operations Branch, the Mission Support Operations Branch, the Anti-Terrorism and Protection Branch, and the Personnel Security Branch. Through these branches, G-3/3 manages more than 500 taskings and orders a year as well as the Commander's Critical Information Requirements.
The MICC G-3/3 Mission Support Operations Branch works multiple facets of deployment and redeployment requirements to include support to U.S. Central Command and U.S. European Command warfighting and deterrence operations in addition to support to ARNORTH missions as required. During the past two years, the Mission Support Operations Branch, in coordination with ACC, has deployed two contracting support brigades, three contracting battalions, and 13 contracting teams in support of operations around the globe to include the Global Response Force and other regionally aligned forces. The Global Response Force is an element designated during certain periods to support any unforeseen contingency worldwide. The Army has a designated element to respond to such contingencies, and the MICC designates a team to accompany this element to provide operational contracting support.
The MICC G-3/3 protection officer works daily with the brigades and MICC offices to ensure office protection standards are met in the areas of operations security, force protection, physical security, emergency management and anti-terrorism. The MICC G-2 Personnel Security Branch manages personnel security clearances for the entire MICC workforce, consists of more than 1,400 records across the command.
MICC G-3/5 Plans and Future Operations Division directs and develops operational and deliberate planning activities for the command to facilitate problem-solving and performance improvement initiatives. The division develops command operation plans, operation orders, fragmentary orders, warning orders, as well as coordinated actions in support of the command inspection program and the continuity of operations program for the command.
The directorate staff has worked with MICC Army Reserve Integration Office to develop the role of reservists in everyday operations. The directorate supports the Total Army Force to meet global demands while remaining optimally postured for major contingencies that may require the ability to conduct the full range of military operations.
"In regard to readiness, the MICC USAR Integration Office is focused on the readiness of USAR 51Cs (contracting specialists)," said Lt. Col. Benjamin Grabski, a program manager with MICC G-3 Strategic Plans. "We integrate USAR 51Cs that are active Guard and Reserve, on Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Fund tours, or drilling reservists into MICC offices to train and maintain contracting readiness. This in turn generates additional 51Cs that are used to supplement the MICC and ACC in missions stateside."
The Plans/FUOPS division also facilitates collaborative planning teams with senior staff members regarding command planning initiatives, mission analysis, and course of action development through the use of the military decision making process. Bill Goforth and the Plans/FUOPS team ensure the MICC leadership is familiar with Army Regulation 1-201 (Army Inspection Policy) and the MICC Command Inspection Program. Multiple brigade command inspections are conducted each year, and they provide brigade leadership with an assessment of their organization's strengths and those areas requiring improvement and/or additional training. The Plans/FUOPS Division developed and gained approval for the MICC Headquarters Continuity of Operations Policy. The COOP manager in the G-3 directorate worked with the brigades, field directorate office and office directors to ensure that their organization is tied into their supported installation COOP plan. Office directors ensured organizational alert notification rosters are accurate and maintained regularly.
"The MICC Command Inspection Program is one program most don't get excited about until employees and teams find themselves lauded for their efforts and their best practices shared across the command," said Linda Killman, an operations and plans officer with the MICC G-5 FUOPS and Internal Controls. "The CIP is a collection of standards that keep us in check. They are managed as training events, supporting command priorities, goals and objectives. When managed correctly it is the one program that keeps us accountable in all functional areas. Maintaining a standard is almost an 'old school' term, but it is at the core of readiness."
To be ready for inspections, the command uses training to prepare for any real-world event or inspection.
The G-3/7 Training, Readiness and Exercise Branch manages the command training program. Diego Forero, the G-3/7 Training, Readiness and Exercise Branch chief, and the TREX branch provide oversight and management of all training through the Army training requirements and resources system, digital training management system, civilian human resource training application system, total employee development system, and the career acquisition personnel and position management information system. Furthermore, they are responsible for publishing the commands annual training guidance.
The TREX staff tracks the readiness of MICC officers and NCOs as well as civilians to ensure they are trained and ready to support the warfighter. They manage this through the quarterly training briefs, semi-annual training briefs, unit status reports, commanders' portal and other programs.
The TREX branch also provides oversight of military exercises. MICC units and personnel currently support the National Training Center and Joint Readiness Training Center rotations, and are involved in warfighter exercises, Operational Contract Support Joint Exercises and other training events to ensure we stand ready to support the warfighter in the field.
In the end, when it comes to readiness in the MICC, the operations directorate Soldiers and civilians keep the command resourced and ready to execute its mission.
The MICC is made up of about 1,500 military and civilian members who are responsible for contracting good and services in support of Soldiers as well as readying trained contracting units for the operating force and contingency environment when called upon. Headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, MICC contracts are vital in feeding Soldiers every day, providing many of the daily base operations support services at installations, preparing conventional force members, training almost a half million students each year, and maintaining government lands and structures across the United States and Puerto Rico.
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