Maintenance: People Readiness

While growing up in armored-cavalry units, maintenance was always at the forefront of my mind. A good maintenance program generates combat power, gives the commander options and provides units the tools to win. As a young officer, I viewed maintenance as a function of applying people, parts, petroleum, tools and time (also known as P3T2) to bring equipment up to 10/20 standards. As I matured in the Army, I learned that successful units and maintenance programs depend on a culture of maintenance – a pervasive attitude and focus on building and maintaining readiness by setting priorities, exercising leadership and ruthless execution. It has been a winning formula. It is this culture, or way of doing business, we must now employ to turn on a persis tent challenge regarding our No. 1 pacing item – our Soldiers. We need to apply the culture of maintenance to our people to build our overall readi ness and the health of the force. At any given time, 6 percent of our force is non-deployable. Of these, most are unavailable due to medical reasons. This number does not include Soldiers who are also not mission capable (NMC) due to their failing Army Body Composition Program or Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) standards. This personnel NMC rate also does not include Soldiers unable to perform to their full potential due to temporary injuries and profiles. While we can accept the bare minimum of 90 percent operational readiness for most of our fleets, this is not something we can tolerate for our people. We cannot accept a loss of combat power of 6 percent or more before we even cross the line of departure. This is leader business. Leaders need to focus on building “people readiness,” and it starts by changing the culture of fitness. We must adopt Why do we need H2F?

• 70 percent of people between the age of 17-24 are unqualified for military service (about 31 percent due to obesity);

• 17 percent of Active Component Soldiers and 25 percent of Reserve / National Guard Soldiers are obese by Body Mass Index; they are statistically more likely to experience injury and be medically non-available;

• Musculoskeletal injuries affect 55 percent of Soldiers annually;

• Equates to 10 million limited duty days

• Some $577 million spent annually on patient care

• 12 percent of Active Component Soldiers (56,000) are nondeployable, equivalent to loss of 13 brigade combat teams (BCTs); of this number, 66 percent (37,000 or nine BCTs) are nondeployable for medical reasons;

• A 1 percent reduction of non-available rates will save more than $40 million. “The capacity and capability of the Soldier on today’s battlefield is threatened by poor health and lack of physical readiness.” -GEN Mark Milley, 39th Chief of Staff of the Army.

a culture of holistic health and fitness (H2F). Changing culture is hard but neces sary. Many will argue that we have al ways valued fitness, but our pursuit of physical fitness has been unevenly ap plied and has not incorporated all components of fitness. In our current and future fights, every part of our force, every occupational specialty and every unit must value and adopt a culture of fitness. We will win on the battlefield by embracing a culture of comprehensive fitness. We are starting this change by replacing the APFT with the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). For the first time in our history, we have developed a scientifically validated fitness assessment based on the physical demands of combat. Critically, the ACFT also drives balanced and appropriate physical training that will reduce overuse injuries and unplanned attrition and, like combat, the test standards are age and gender neutral. We will measure all Soldiers against common Soldier and military-occupation specialty tasks, using the physical demands we expect Soldiers to face in combat. But physical fitness is just the beginning. The U. S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), through the Center for Initial Military Training, is leading the effort to implement the H2F System. H2F is the foundation of the entire fitness enterprise. H2F provides the commander all the tools re quired to maximize the physical and non-physical components of health and fitness. H2F is the Army’s primary investment in increased Soldier readi ness and lethality, optimized physical and non-physical performance, reduced injury rates, improved rehabili tation after injury and increased over all effectives of the Total Army. In the H2F system, dietitians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, athletic trainers and strength and con ditioning coaches will provide relevant and ready subject-matter expertise. Just as important are resilience, mental readiness and spiritual health to address the interrelationship between physical and mental well-being. Commanders and leaders take heed – H2F is not designed to be the “valet ser vice” option. Do not expect to hand them the keys when they show up to your unit and stand back and watch them do their thing. H2F provides the mechanism, but your engaged leader ship will make it happen. Leaders must do three things:

• Understand the system;

• Trust the system; and

• Dedicate the time to make it work. Creating a shared understanding is the basis for successful mission command. It starts with my headquarters and team. As we move to broader adop tion of the program and resourcing across the force, we will use every available means to expose leaders to the concepts and techniques. While we are pushing, you need to pull; educate and arm yourselves with the knowledge, skills and proven science our teams have used to get us this far. Only you can take us to the next level. Figure 1. SSG Sharonica White, assigned to U. S. Army Garrison Japan, com pletes a deadlift repetition during the U. S. Army Japan 2020 Army Week’s ACFT Fitness Warrior Competition at Camp Zama, Japan, June 8. (U. S. Army photo by Winifred Brown) Figure 2. A U. S. Army Soldier receives instruction on proper form for the ACFT during the ACFT Trainer’s Course at 7th Army Noncommissioned Officers Academy, Grafenwoehr, Germany, July 14, 2020. The ACFT Trainer’s Course is designed to train leaders to be subject-matter experts on the fitness test. The ACFT is scheduled to be implemented in 2022. (U. S. Army photo by SPC Zachary Stahlberg)

When you see the results with your own eyes, I have no doubt you will trust the system. Results will not come fast or easy. We will see some short-term positive results, but the ultimate prize is increased readiness and reduced musculoskeletal injuries over the long term. True success will only come through along-term commit ment to regularity and progression. You will see results. Finally, units will embrace what the commander values and resources. The most precious of these resources is time. Make H2F a priority. Nothing demonstrates a commander’s priority like dedicated time on the training schedule; to optimize use of the H2F system, you will have to commit train ing time throughout the day. H2F is an example of the Army’s commitment to its people. Commanders’ successful H2F administration makes that commitment real. Our obligation to our Soldiers is to provide them with an immersive, inte grative and comprehensive training system to ensure their success on the ACFT, reduce injuries and build individual and unit readiness. Most impor tantly, Soldiers watch what the commander does and where the commander chooses to spend his or her time, so my advice is to lead by exam ple. We lead the way. Generating combat power or building readiness does not just “happen.” Just like returning a tank to the fight, pre serving the health and physical fitness of a Soldier to withstand the rigor of combat is the product of planning, hard work and leadership. We will need generous quantities of all three if we truly want to change the culture of fitness. It all starts with leadership. This is a priority. Our Army is in the midst of building a multi-domain operations enabled force and modernizing equipment across all warfighting functions to meet the ever present requirement to fight and win in large scale combat. Our efforts to improve the most essential component – the individual Soldier – is not a separate endeavor but the true cornerstone of building a more capable Army. As GEN George Patton observed, “Wars may by fought with weapons, but they are won by men.” Today’s men and women in our great Army will win our wars of today and tomorrow. It is up to us to prepare them to win. Victory starts here! GEN Paul Funk II commands TRADOC, based at Fort Eustis, VA. As TRADOC commander, GEN Funk is responsible for 32 Army schools organized under eight centers of excellence that recruit, train and educate more than 500,000 Soldiers and service members annual ly. Commissioned as an Armor officer, GEN Funk has commanded at every level, company through corps, including Company A, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 3rd Armored Division, Kirchgoens, Germany; Head quarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Armored Division, Kirch goens; 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, TX; 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood; 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, KS; and III Armored Corps, Fort Hood. GEN Funk’s combat and operational experience includes six deployments in sup port of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve. Operational assignments include observ er-controller with the Live-Fire Team (Dragons), National Training Center, Fort Irwin, CA; squadron operations officer, 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored-Cavalry Regiment (ACR), Fort Carson, CO; regimental operations officer, 3rd ACR, Fort Carson; division operations officer, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood; chief of staff, III Corps, Fort Hood; deputy commanding general, Combined-Arms Center for Training, Fort Leavenworth, KS; deputy commanding general (maneuver), 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley; and assistant deputy chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, U. S. Army, Washing ton, DC. Joint assignments include chief, Joint Exercise Section J-37, North American Aerospace Defense Command, U. S. Space Command, Peterson AFB, CO; deputy commanding general (maneuver), Combined Joint Task Force-1, Afghanistan; commander, Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command-Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq; and commander, Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve, Baghdad. GEN Funk holds a bachelor’s of arts degree in speech communications from Montana State University and a master’s of science degree in ad ministration from Central Michigan University. He is a graduate of the Armor Basic Officer Leader’sand Advanced Courses, and the Command and General Staff College and he com pleted his Senior Service College as a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Texas at Austin. Acronym Quick-Scan ACFT – Army Combat Fitness Test ACR – armored-cavalry regiment APFT – Army Physical Fitness Test BCT – brigade combat team H2F – holistic health and fitness NMC – not mission capable TRADOC – (U. S. Army) Training and Doctrine Command