OPTEMPO: Effects on Soldier and Unit Readiness

Abstract

The effect of operations tempo (OPTEMPO) on soldier and unit readiness is an important issue for military and civilian leaders.[1] The reason for this concern is that while the size of the US military has decreased, the frequency of military operations has greatly intensified. The situation in Europe is a case in point. Within the past ten years, the US Army in Europe (USAREUR) has shrunk by nearly 70 percent--from 213,000 Army personnel in 1990 to approximately 62,000 in 1999. Yet, the number of military deployments has dramatically increased. From 1945 to 1989, USAREUR participated in only 29 peacekeeping or humanitarian missions; however, from 1991 (marking the end of the Gulf War) to the present, USAREUR has participated in over 100 such missions. This change represents more than a threefold increase in the number of military deployments, with less than one-third of the original number of personnel available to perform them. In addition to supporting these primarily peacekeeping and humanitarian military operations, USAREUR units must still maintain their combat readiness, which usually involves field training exercises. Thus, upon returning from a military deployment, many soldiers immediately begin preparing for a field training event. Garrison support must still be provided, and yet there are fewer units available for this duty because of the marked increase in the number of contingency operations. Often these "normal" garrison duties are just as stressful on soldiers and units as military deployments. This stress is even more pronounced for low-density units, such as military police and signal units, because such units are usually required to support both the deployed task forces and the garrison forces that remain behind.[2] Compounding the situation, the number of contingency operations has increased so rapidly that some USAREUR units are tasked to support more than one military operation at a time. Other units must deploy multiple times within a relatively brief period. The most recent example of this is the US deployment in support of the NATO mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia to implement the Dayton Peace Accords. Nearly 50 percent of the soldiers who deployed on the mission during its first year deployed on the same mission a second time.[3] This proportion probably would have been even higher if not for the fact that many soldiers rotated to different units as part of the normal changes in duty station that occur about every three years. For all these reasons, USAREUR is a useful case to begin exploring the relationship between operations tempo and soldier and unit readiness. The present article reports the interim results of a continuing investigation of this subject by personnel of the US Army Medical Research Unit in Europe.