SHOWING THE WAY AAC officers can coordinate com- mercial support and capabilities with military equipment and require- ments to attain mission success. Here, a merchant moves plastic wares Nov. 7, 2012, from the Shur Andam Industrial Park in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, by motor- ized tricycle on an unpaved road, underscoring the need for a paved road to serve the industrial park. (Photo by Jasmine Chopra-Delgadil- lo, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)


Tis article and its recommendations, based on my experience serving in Iraq, are intended to provide a blueprint and lessons learned for the acquisition com- munity to posture itself better in support of future conflicts.


I deployed to Iraq from July 2011 to January 2012 as the Assistant Secretary of


the Army for Acquisition, Logistics


and Technology (ASA(ALT)) Director for Iraq, with the mission to support the drawdown of U.S. Forces – Iraq. During the time I coordinated the drawdown of product- and program-managed (PM) equipment and personnel, I learned numerous valuable lessons that boil down to two important capabilities we can bring to the battlefield.


Te first is coordinating commercial


support and capabilities with military equipment, and translating them into requirements. Te second is communicat- ing with the government and commercial


headquarters in the continental United States (CONUS) and the contracting officer’s representatives (CORs) with legal authority. I also observed a major capability gap within our policy and/or doctrine that I believe the Army can fix.


CRITICAL CAPABILITIES Te first capability that the AAC officer can bring is coordinating commercial support and capabilities with military equipment and requirements to attain mission success. During the past 10 years, the Army has procured an enormous amount of commercial-off-the-shelf equipment, and fielded rapid acquisition capabilities, as a result of Joint Opera- tional Needs Statements and Operational Needs Statements. Tis equipment requires government civilians or support contractors to operate and sustain.


As the overall visibility of contractors on the battlefield became apparent August 2011, there was a requirement


in


to identify critical equipment quickly, as well as the civilian contractor work- force necessary to support the equipment. Tere was also the challenge of com- municating and translating contractor support to military requirements based on the total amount of non-standard equipment in Iraq necessary to support overall corps-level operations.


Te second capability that the AAC offi- cer can bring is communicating with the CONUS government and commercial headquarters and the CORs. Tere is a common misconception among military officers in the operations field that the field service representative or contractor lead for a company is the program or prod- uct manager for a particular company. In other words, most military operators do not know with whom they should com- municate to obtain the desired results. Te answer is: the acquisition officer, who has the reachback capability to get results. Acquisition officers understand


ASC.ARMY.MIL 135


COMMENTARY


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