October/November 2007

Reserve JAG Corps Team:

As you know, one of our priorities is to increase communication across our Corps. To effectuate that priority and enhance our outreach capabilities, we have established these quarterly emails to the RC JAG Corps Team.

In our last communication, we provided information on our Public Affairs plan, including such items as the JAG Magazine (which has a new issue that can be found at http://www.jag.navy.mil/JAGMAG/JAGmagazine.htm) and the communications messages located on NKO, as well as an update on IAs. I am continually impressed by the RC JAG Corps Team’s commitment to supporting our IA requirements. The quality and number of volunteers is outstanding and most appreciated by your leadership team and the Commanders whom you support.

You will also recall from the last email that we intend to use these updates to focus on the RC’s significant role in our JAG Corps 2020 transformation efforts. Our goal is greater effectiveness, and integrated efforts are a key to our success. As you will see in this email, we are making great strides toward Active/Reserve Integration (ARI), together.

Before I get to some of the details, I have a very exciting initiative to announce. Although it is not, strictly speaking, a product of the JAG Corps 2020 process, it is certainly in the same spirit of transformation, and it speaks to how important and real our Active-Reserve Integration is right now, today.

As you know, we are experiencing an unprecedented operational tempo, which, together with the constant demand for mobilizations, IAs, ADSWs, and other forms of long-term duty "out-of-hide" on the part of both the RC and the AC, has left us stretched in many areas. In addition, we have experienced shortfalls in certain pay grades and areas of expertise.

In response, I have authorized the convening of an accessions board this fiscal year to consider candidates from among RC officers in selected control grades – generally O-4 and, possibly, O-5 – for permanent recall to active duty. We are now in the process of establishing our needs by grade and background, the technical requirements and process, and the precept. Our goal is to make an announcement shortly, with the board to take place in the spring. Going forward, we anticipate holding such a board in future years, depending on our needs as we assess them annually. In other words, we will soon have a very useful tool "on the shelf" to assist us in meeting our force shaping and development needs, even as we ever more tightly bind our RC and AC communities together in our common enterprise and mission.

Please stand by -- there will be much more information about this exciting development soon.

Turning back to our transformation efforts, RADM Houck, RADM Joerg and I want everyone to remain familiar with the Strategic Transformation Execution Plan (STEP) as it is regularly updated to reflect progress and adjustments. The STEP can be found on the JAG NKO page under the JAG Corps 2020 transformation link. In it, you will find details regarding the milestones we are using to implement our JAG Corps 2020 plan, and it allows you to follow the progress we are making in each area – including ARI.

To date, we have successfully completed a comprehensive unit/billet rationalization study to scrub our billets and ensure they best support the ARI; established and run through one annual cycle the Reserve LN Tiger Team pilot to effectively allocate our RC LN resources; begun an Active-Reserve mentoring pilot program in the Southwest to "beta test" how best to utilize the valuable experience the RC offers to the AC, particularly to our first and second tour LTs; and undertaken key steps to assess, develop and more effectively access the subject matter expertise resident in the RC.

We have already accomplished quite a bit since we kicked this off at the beginning of FY-07. However, as with any plan, we have a significant amount of work to do. To continue our forward progress will require sustained diligence.

For example, with respect to specialized knowledge, we know that we have a significant amount of talent resident in our RC team, but we need to better understand who has that talent, where it resides, how it can be tapped, how to push out that information to our AC teammates, and how to build it for the future. To that end, our ultimate goal is to create a RC JAGPERS database to be populated with information regarding our reservists on such topics as subject matter expertise, civilian experience, former billets, and location. Once up and running, the RC JAGPERS database will be accessible to our AC to enhance the AC-RC integration and allow us to better allocate our RC resources. As you have heard me say, it’s about putting the right person in the right place at the right time. This will enhance our capabilities and act as a force multiplier, which is essential to our overall success.

Other key ARI initiatives include analyzing our RC training requirements, our RC promotion system and culture in light of specialty needs, and the possibility of reviving direct accessions into the RC JAG Corps community to meet those needs. The list of tasks is ambitious, but we are confident that it is within reach with hard and effective work at every level of our RC/AC team.

This is a great time to be part of our JAG Corps Team. We are moving forward with ideas that are designed to integrate our resources in order to better accomplish our mission – which is to provide solutions to legal issues involving military operations, organization, and personnel wherever and whenever such solutions are required.

I thank you for your continued service to our country, our Navy, and our JAG Corps. We continue to have much to do together, and more exciting times are ahead. I couldn’t be prouder to be working with you.

Warm regards,

/s/ BRUCE MacDONALD RADM, JAGC, USN, Judge Advocate General