SPOTLIGHT
WHEN I GOT THERE, THE R2TF WAS FULLY FUNCTIONAL. THEY WERE IN A MIDDLE OF A RAPID RESPONSE DIRECTIVE FROM THE PRESIDENT TO HAVE ALL THE FORCES OUT [OF IRAQ] BY DECEMBER 2011.
I EXPECTED THAT MY INVOLVEMENT AND CHAL- LENGE WOULD REVOLVE AROUND SUSTAINING AND IMPROVING THE OPERATION, AND IT DID.
W
hen Emmitt Rodriguez arrived at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, from Redstone Arsenal, AL, in December
2010, he immediately recognized the daunting task of bridging the gap between the tactical operations of U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) and its stra- tegic mission of resetting and reposturing the Army. As then-Deputy G-3 (Opera- tions) for Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation, Rodriguez tackled this challenge head-on during his six-month tour as Chief of Staff of the Responsible Reset Task Force (R2TF).
Rodriguez was anxious to step up to the task after being asked by then-AMC Dep- uty Commanding General, LTG James H. Pillsbury, now retired, to support the R2TF effort.
“From a personal aspect, I have always been self-motivated to support the war- fighter. I come from a military family and have a son serving in the U.S. Coast Guard. I consider it my patriotic duty to ensure that our national treasure is fully supported,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez is no stranger to deployments, having served in Operation Provide Com- fort in Iraq in 1991, and in operations in Bosnia and Kosovo in the late 1990s. He
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found that this effort was consistent with other obstacles he had dealt with in previ- ous missions overseas: There was a high operational tempo and an intense sense of urgency.
“When I got there, the R2TF was fully functional. They were in a middle of a rapid response directive from the Presi- dent to have all the forces out [of Iraq] by December 2011. I expected that my involvement and challenge would revolve around sustaining and improving the operation, and it did,” he said.
Rodriguez, along with a staff of field- grade officers, senior Army civilians, and contractors, continued the complex R2TF mission. The moving equipment under Rodriguez’s supervision included 60,000 to 80,000 containers, 50,000 vehicles, and upward of 3 million different pieces of equipment.
“We were a 7-day-a-week operation, work- ing about 14 hours a day and 10 hours on Sundays—a typical deployed operation, where you do whatever it takes to accom- plish the mission,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez found that the task force was focusing only on the AMC element of resetting the force and needed help from the Materiel Enterprise to supplement
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AMC’s efforts. He quickly reorganized the task force by incorporating elements of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acqui- sition, Logistics, and Technology, while establishing and maintaining the R2TF Theater Battle Rhythm, which expedited the communication of commanders’ critical information requirements to the appropriate Materiel Enterprise leaders for resolution.
In addition, Rodriguez identified and corrected a major contractual oversight: The metric that the contractors used for being paid was the number of containers they were able to process, not the num- ber of items that needed to be processed. As the items flowed out of Iraq and into different lanes for removal, some items in the containers were missed. Some parts that were serviceable were thrown away or demilitarized.
“We found discrepancies on how the con- tractor was executing that mission. We adjusted the process and accountability requirements and were able to ensure that Army equipment slated for reutilization did not fall through the cracks. We were able to retrograde that equipment into reset programs or back into the supply system, and redistribute it to other requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan or to Foreign Mili- tary Sales customers,” Rodriguez said.
Army AL&T Magazine
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