Almost three years ago, the Army released the Integrated Personnel and Pay System–Army (IPPS-A) across all components. IPPS-A promised to streamline personnel and pay actions by consolidating the many cumbersome systems into a single web-based platform. Soldiers were promised a system where they would be able to monitor their personnel actions, which would keep human resources (HR) professionals and Army leaders accountable and reduce processing delays. HR professionals were promised a system that would ease the processing burden and increase the visibility of submitted actions. Army leaders were promised a system that would improve readiness, simplify their role in personnel actions, and offer seamless processing of actions across units and components.
These lofty promises were offered to a somewhat cynical group of Soldiers who rightfully had their doubts. IPPS-A can deliver on these promises. However, IPPS-A has been stifled by bureaucratic roadblocks to access. Only by acknowledging those roadblocks and removing them, or carving a path around them, will IPPS-A reach its full potential to streamline personnel actions Army-wide.
We write from the perspective of our recent experience as a mobilized battalion S-1 team. For context, we mobilized as part of a Reserve battalion staff that provided support to 10 multi-component downtrace companies across two continents. While in theater, we supported two downtrace Reserve companies, an active component company, and a handful of Reserve units in the rear, and we were a direct report unit to an active component higher. Of the forward companies we supported, one fell under a different battalion in the rear; one fell under a different brigade in the rear; and one was from a different component entirely. Situations like this are not unusual when Reserve units mobilize. Our situation was the exact type of situation in which IPPS-A was designed to shine, but that was not our initial experience. In this article, we briefly share our experience and offer our suggested solution based on our view from the field.
When we arrived in theater, IPPS-A was not being used to action any actions that required processing by our higher command or to support forward downtrace companies. The S-1 team from the National Guard unit we replaced said they could not align IPPS-A to process actions through the forward chain of command. They had to process all awards, leave, flags, and other personnel actions on paper through legacy processes by leaning on support from the rear to update IPPS-A. We were disappointed that our fate would likely be the same.
We set out to research how to make IPPS-A alignment possible, and we tried several leads. Our forward G-1 suggested that command and control (C2) alignment in IPPS-A might work. C2 is meant to allow a unit to pull other units under them for processing of actions. With C2, the host unit (in our case, the battalion) has C2 of downtrace units (in our case, the companies). Under C2 alignment, all submitted downtrace actions go directly to the battalion (or higher) S-1 pool for action. While this was a promising lead, it did not work. Our forward Reserve battalion could not align our active component downtrace because we could not see their Soldiers. Additionally, the active component higher could not hold C2 of us because our personnel actions for rear units would automatically go to the G-1 pool and overwhelm them with actions they would need to route back to our S-1 team for action. The multi-component nature of our mobilized unit rendered C2 an ineffective solution.
Our rear brigade S-1 team suggested using S-1 pool configuration in IPPS-A to build routing lists that would allow us to support our downtraces and submit actions to both forward and rear higher as needed. We set out to carefully create user-defined lists (UDLs), which would enable us to process actions. However, our downtrace units could not find our lists, and we could not find their Soldiers. Although the UDLs were present and aligned in the system correctly, we could not process actions through them, making this another dead end.
Although our forward G-1 and rear S-1 teams were actively trying to support us in aligning IPPS-A, we had made little progress halfway through our nine-month mobilization. We struggled to fully support our downtrace units and were forced to send them to their rear S-1 team for many actions. Furthermore, we prepared to submit DA Form 638, Recommendation for Award via email to process nearly 500 end-of-tour awards.
As we started to consider defeat in the battle for IPPS-A alignment, research led us to realize that we required IPPS-A World Access. World Access allows HR professionals to see Soldiers from all components and units. If a person is in the Army, an HR professional with World Access can view and action requests for them. If we had had World Access, we would have been able to support our forward downtrace units, and our forward higher would have been able to support us. An initial challenge was finding an individual who had the ability to grant us World Access and then convincing that person that we required it to effectively do our job.
Once we convinced a hesitant individual to provide our S-1 team with World Access, everything changed. We were able to process all actions for our downtraces through IPPS-A. Most notably, we were able to route awards seamlessly across components just the way IPPS-A was designed to do. We could support our forward downtraces and our forward higher could support us, all while allowing us to continue supporting our companies in the rear as needed. The roadblocks that had prevented us from leveraging IPPS-A to its full potential were removed.
We understand why the Army hesitates to give HR professionals World Access, even those who require it to effectively do their job. Indeed, the ability to look up, process actions, and modify records for any Soldier across the Army is a great responsibility, and such power must be granted with care. However, there are many situations that units will encounter in which granting World Access is the only effective solution at present. Sending HR professionals forward to support multi-component units without World Access is like sending Soldiers into battle without bullets. IPPS-A is an extremely effective weapon, but without ammunition it tends to be useless.
Given our experience in the field, we encourage the Army to grant World Access more freely when a Soldier’s role requires it. Alternatively, we encourage the Army to change the design of IPPS-A so that World Access is not the only solution to supporting multi-component units. Of course, if that solution already exists, we strongly advocate for the Army to share it widely with the field. Furthermore, we aim to arm our fellow HR professionals with what they need to request to support multi-component Soldiers. Had we known what to request and whom to ask, we likely would have been granted access more quickly and been able to better support our Soldiers.
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LTC Thomas M. Gilligan is a 19-year military police officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He currently serves as the executive officer of the 317th Military Police (MP) Battalion (BN) as a reservist. He served as the executive officer for the 317th MP BN in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. Prior to this mobilization, he was the commander of the 346th MP Detachment. He deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as a military police company commander and as a platoon leader with the Multinational Force and Observers in support of continued peace between Israel and Egypt. He holds a Master of Arts degree in business from Webster University.
CPT Meghan Huntoon is an adjutant general officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. She currently serves as a human resources officer for the 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). Previously, she served as the forward battalion S-1 mobilized to Poland in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. Prior to mobilizing, she served as commander of the Alpha Company, 3-378th Regiment Battalion, out of New Century, Kansas. In her civilian career, she serves as a research psychologist for the Military Civilian Transition Office. She holds a doctorate degree in industrial-organization and social psychology from Northern Illinois University.
SFC David Leonard is a military police officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He currently serves as the operations and training NCOIC for the 800th Military Police Company as Active Guard Reserve. Previously, he served as the forward battalion S-1 NCOIC mobilized to Poland in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve. Prior to mobilizing, he served as the human resources NCO and operations NCOIC while mobilized to Cuba in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in science from Bethel University.
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This article was published in the winter 2026 issue of Army Sustainment.
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