Reservist

ISS2 2013

Reservist Magazine is the award-winning official publication of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. Bi-monthly issues include news and feature articles about the men and women who comprise America's premier national maritime safety and security

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Is it an Area-1? A District (dxr)? No... It's DOL-31! By Cmdr. Jennifer Grzelak-Ledoux, DOL-31 T he original Reserve Force Readiness System (RFRS) construct tasked the District (dxr) shops with the responsibility for oversight of all Reserve management responsibilities for their respective geographic areas of responsibility. Sector RFRS staffs were expected to provide oversight for co-located Deputy Commandant for Mission Support (DCMS) units. Lessons learned from RFRS stand-up identified challenges the District and Sector staffs had with managing reservists outside their respective chains of command. To address those challenges, Director of Operational Logistics was established on 01 June 2011 as the Reserve Force Readiness Division (staff symbol DOL-31) to support approximately 1,000 selected reservists (SELRES) assigned within the Mission Support Organization, Deputy Commandant for Operations (DCO), and Headquarters (HQ) programs. DOL-31 serves as the Reserve touch-point within DCMS, addressing Reserve-specific readiness concerns and general administrative issues. DOL-31 focuses on streamlining SELRES training and competency issues, optimal employment of all SELRES billets in their portfolio, and assumes the responsibilities of readiness monitoring. DOL-31 shares a collaborative partnership with the district (dxr) staffs as they continue to provide Inactive Duty for Training (IDT) berthing, Direct Access orders generation, and AFC-90 funds management for all reservists assigned within their AOR. Complexity of DOL-31 AOR DOL-31's staff of five provides full-time support to nearly 12% of the Reserve workforce spanning a vast AOR that crosses numerous time-zones. Most of our SELRES personnel are stationed at one of our 13 bases located in each district and spread out amoungst various Mission Support units. What makes managing SELRES assigned to one of these units even more challenging is the ratio of full-time support (FTS) billets to SELRES. Unlike the areas, districts (dxr), and sectors RFRS, there are no FTS based locally at these units in direct support of the Reserve Component. DOL-31 relies heavily on our DCMS Senior Reserve Officer (SRO), Base SROs, CMCs, executive officers, district (dxr), and active duty supervisors to disseminate information, provide guidance, and deliver support to our reservists. The Faces and Responsibilities of DOL-31 Chief, DOL-31: Cmdr. Grzelak Ledoux, (757) 628-4849. Directs Reserve program execution across: Bases, DCMS, DCO, and CGHQ Directorates. "I am proud of the direction we are moving to support our reservists and ensure they are proficient in the mission support skills and competencies vital to support contingency response operations. During recent Hurricane Irene and Super Storm Sandy responses, DCMS reservists filled critical roles in the ICS construct and in our DCMS Deployable Support Elements (DSEs) (e.g. Emergency Response Teams (ERTs), Mobile Support Unit, Logistics Support Element (LSE), etc.) Our reservists are force multipliers and it is essential that we encourage participation in exercises and look for other opportunities to hone these skills and competencies so our Reserve forces are ready to support any mission when called upon." ~ RDML R. T. Gromlich, Director of Operational Logistics 32 RESERVIST � Issue 2 • 2013 The Staff of DOL-31, (l. to r.) SK3 Stephen Williams, CWO Chris Cooper, Cmdr. Jennifer Grzelak-Ledoux, Lt. Kayla Furman, YNCS Melissa Sharer Deputy, DOL-31: Lt. Kayla Furman, (757) 628-4867. Provides policy guidance to: 13 bases, CG Investigative Service, and CGHQ Reserve personnel regarding participation, readiness, training and competencies. DCMS Title 10 Cap Manager: CWO Chris Cooper, (757) 6284870. Manages over 1,000 Reserve months in support of overseas contingency operations (OCO). RFRS Staff: YNCS Melissa Sharer, (757) 628-4868. Creates monthly Reserve personnel performance reports. RFRS Staff: SK3 Steven Williams, (757) 628-4845. Assigns Reserve personnel competencies in Training Management Tool. DOL-31's Initiatives and Future Outlook At the start of FY13, DOL-31 launched a plan to "Improve Mission Support Reserve Readiness/Effectiveness." The plan consists of different parts with short and long-term goals. Starting with the bases, the first part (short-term goal) was to "take a fix" to establish a performance baseline, measure, monitor and make improvements. Base Reserve performance reports are updated and posted monthly on DOL-31's SharePoint site. The next part (short and long term goal), which is still in progress, is to assign competencies to all DCMS SELRES, in alignment with guidance from Program Managers, Rating Force Master Chiefs, and already published CORE ALCOASTs. DOL-31 is using criteria established by the Areas to ensure consistency across the Reserve workforce. It is DOL's goal that every reservist knows what he/she should be training toward and develop their individual training plans (ITP) that lead to certification and proficiency of that competency. As with the areas and districts, DOL is heavily involved with the ITP collection process and has engaged units on the Office of Reserve Affairs' PAL optimization efforts. DOL-31 is working with all of their units to complete an analysis of every SELRES position for the next Reserve Workforce Structure Board. On the horizon, DOL is looking forward to the transfer of the Joint Transportation Reserve Unit of US Transportation Command (JTRU TRANSCOM) from Atlantic Area, expansion of our Logistics Support Element with increased SELRES billets and opportunities, and assignment of Senior Enlisted Reserve Advisors (SERA) to select bases. �

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